Spinners

Gloster P-74B Pioneer - United States Army Air Force, 1943 ​

P-74B Pioneer

Triceratops

Bristol Bulldog IIA - 'D' Flight, No.23 Squadron, RAF Air Defence of Great Britain, 1933 Little or no notice was taken when, in 1926, the restrictions on German airship construction were relaxed by the Locarno treaties. But the first flight of the huge dirigible 'Graf Zeppelin' in September 1928 came as a reminder of the potential military use of such airships and especially when it arrived at Lakehurst, New Jersey on it's 112-hour maiden long-range voyage just one month later. Whilst the United States welcomed the huge airship with confetti parades and an invitation to the White House, the UK Government were much more nervous due to the still vivid memories of the sporadic but devastating airship raids of the 1914-1918 war and watched the situation with suspicion. By 1931 the 'Graf Zepplin' had toured Europe, made an epic tour to Brazil and an impressive seven-day research trip to the Arctic leading to the production of more Zepplins and by 1933 the newly formed Nazi Party had an impressive propaganda tool with the Zepplins displaying the Nazi swastika on their fins whilst loudly playing march music and propaganda speeches to the people. In October 1933 the UK Government instructed the Air Ministry to come up with a solution to the potential military threat from German airships and whilst acknowledging that such airships would be sitting ducks for the RAF's fighters in daylight they would be a real threat at night. As an interim measure, Air Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham of the RAF's Air Defence of Great Britain instructed all existing day fighter squadrons to immediately create an additional flight within each squadron, all to be named 'D' Flight but universally known as 'Dark Flight'. Painted overall in a flat black paint scheme the 'Dark Flight' aircraft were remarkably unchanged from normal aircraft except for improved aircraft radios, powerful hand-held lamps and special 'green light' barium salt tracer ammunition (with the tracer ammunition ratio increased to three-to-one). 'Dark Flight' aircraft remained as part of the RAF's day fighter squadrons until July 1936 when Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, head of the newly formed Fighter Command, ordered the immediate disbandment and the creation of dedicated night-fighter squadrons.

Hawker Fury IIB - 'Dark Flight', No.41 Squadron, RAF Air Defence of Great Britain, 1936 ​

Grumman F-111B Bobcat - VF-1 'Wolfpack', USN, 1977 Bobcat is just a temporary name until I hear of something better (that matches Grumman's heritage).

Grumman P-65B Tigercat - 55th Fighter Squadron, United States Army Air Force, 1945

Great work. How about an 'All Black' commemorative scheme for when New Zealand win the Rugby World Cup!

Pioneer. Cor!

Hawker Fury - 'Dark Flight', No.41 Squadron, RAF, 1936

Cool!

Rocket Man

Hawker Fury II - No.87 Squadron, RAF

If you've already got a SF2 Firefly then I think that it will work in SF1 as long as you convert any 'ini' files from Unicode back to ANSI (they might already be ANSI).

Grumman Tigercat Mk.I - No.1 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1943* * Just a reminder that this is the 'what if' thread.

Grumman F8F-1B Bearcat - No.18 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1945

​ En patrulla sobre las Malvinas 1955

​ Where the sea meets the sky...

Grumman F7F-1 Tigercat - No.14 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1945 ​

Not forgetting 'Black Mike'.

Top notch. Hooray for the Grey! (My favourite)

Bristol Bulldog IIA's - 'D' Flight, 23 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1936

Bristol Bulldog llB - Irish Army Air Corps, 1934 Becoming Ireland's first independent air force the National Army Air Service was established in July 1922 and was initially equipped with various obsolete aircraft types acquired from the RAF including six Bristol F2B fighters and four Martinsyde F4 Fighters. Following the reorganisation of the National Army at the end of the Irish Civil War the Irish Army Air Corps was established in 1924 as part of Defence Forces. During the late 1920's the Irish Air Corps began a modest re-equipment programme with the Vickers Vespa entering service in the army co-operation role but a modern interceptor fighter was required and Irish Army Air Corps officials cast envious eyes on the Bristol Bulldog after the prototype's first flight in May 1927 and the subsequent successful initial flight testing which demonstrated the type's superb strength and manoeuvrability. By early 1928 Bristol had progressed onto the production standard Bulldog llA but were poorly rewarded by the RAF by an initial production order for just 25 aircraft although this would eventually rise to 360 aircraft. This pitiful initial production order forced Bristol to urgently seek export orders and by April 1928 Irish Army Air Corps officials were approached by Bristol and offered a Bulldog variant powered by the same 490 hp Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar VIC radial engine that powered their Vickers Vespa aircraft. With immediate interest an enthusiastic Bristol set about creating a prototype using their company demonstrator mated to the Jaguar VlC engine and with design and installation largely completed by the Autumn of 1928 the prototype Bulldog MkllB was first flown by Cyril Uwins on Ocober 29th 1928 and, in following month, Ireland ordered eight Bulldog llB's for delivery before the end of 1929. Entering service in 1930 the Bulldog served the Irish Army Air Corps well and enjoyed a long service life with seven aircraft still in service in 1937 when the Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter was ordered as a replacement. After the first four Gladiators was delivered in 1938 the Bulldogs began to be phased out of service but this decision had to be reversed when the remaining Gladiators were embargoed by the outbreak of the Second World War and at least four Irish Bulldog's were still in service during 1940.

Bristol Bulldog IIB - Irish Army Air Corps, 1936

Bristol Bulldog IIB - Irish Army Air Corps, 1936