G'day and welcome to another amazing blog by Mercedes and I, as we travel around Southern England (in an elliptical orbit around London) in an attempt to see interesting and tourist-y things!
This blog is about our visit to the Duxford Imperial War Museum, which is a historical airfield and museum just south of Cambridge. . We arrived here on a windy day, with plenty of cloud cover. Very British!
Duxford airfield was originally used by the RAF (Royal Air Force) in World War 1, and remained in use until 1961. Duxford has some of the best preserved buildings and hangars dating back to 1918.
The airfield is still in use for civilian flying companies, and also hosts regular airshows. While we were there, they were preparing for an airshow for the following week, so various show sponsors and hardware was arriving and was being set up at various places.
As we left the car park for the visitor center/entry area, this is what we saw. Not very exciting I know... But what's inside those big hangars is exciting!
The visitor center was nice, tickets were cheap, there were lots of cool souvenirs you could get with corny British sayings on aprons etc. The most interesting souvenir I saw was a coffee mug with some plans and diagrams of the SR-71 Blackbird plane which was initially basically impossible to see but when the cup warms up, it changes colour and reveals the plans!
On the runway was a great condition Lancaster Bomber, with some pretty ladies painted on the sides. One of them didn't leave much to the imagination.
In the first hangar, which is the kind of new fancy modern one compared to some of the smaller older WW2 relics, we were confronted immediately with a Lockheed Polaris A3 Nuclear Missile! This was Britain's choice of intercontinental ballistic missile, launched by submarine, which was in "use" from late 1960s to mid 1990s.
After a squiz at the nuke, we moved on into the big hangar proper.
Here we provide a dual-selfie of us in the upper mezzanine level aim backing into the hangar - you can see two majorly awesome things - to the left is the sided of the famous Concorde and to the right of my head is the classic British WW2 Lancaster bomber. More on both of those later!
Me looking jolly pleased with myself, toting more equipment than the average tourist and getting excited seeing so many explosive objects in one place.
Avro Lancaster Bomber
First thing in this hangar i'll cover is the Lancaster Bomber which you've already seen a few times by now, in the pictures. It's a pretty unique(ly identifiable) aircraft, designed by Avro for the British RAF and first saw use in 1942. The Lancaster bomber was the most successful bomber used by the RAF in WW2, and dropped the most bombs on the poor Germans than any other British aircraft.
The Lancaster was able to fly higher than the other two British heavy bombers, and could carry a bomb payload of 6.3 tons. There was a specially modified version which could carry the ~10 ton "Grand Slam" bomb.
The Lancaster has 4 turrets for defensive armament, where each turret is hydraulically operated and the rear turret has 4 machineguns, where the other turrets only have 2 machineguns. This is pretty common for the large, long-range bombers designed in WW2 or just before WW2, such as the B-17 "Flying Fortress" which was the American heavy bomber at the time. The tail turret was the most important defensive position and always had the heaviest armaments. I cover why in the air-to-air combat tactics part of this blog post.
TSR-2 - Post WW2 Prototype Jet Fighter
We saw a pretty cool looking prototype jet fighter that was developed in the late 50s and early 60s as a Cold War "strike and reconnaissance" aircraft. It was the British Aircraft Corporation's TSR-2. The intention was for it to fly so fast and so low (to avoid RADAR) that it could penetrate any anti-air defences and strike at the high value targets in the rear with tactical nukes or other weapons. Unfortunately the costs of R&D and the ridiculous specifications/requirements for the design caused it to be cancelled. The British eventually went for the modified F-111, and then later the Buccaneer and the F-4 Phantom. We got a rear picture of one of the only TSR-2 ever built, the XR222. Our picture is crap, so I found a better one from Duxford when it was out on display and easier to get a good view of. See below, by Andrew Belding.
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| By Andrew Belding - Flickr: BAC TSR-2 at Duxford, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12462977 |
The Concorde
We saw a pretty famous plane at Duxford - one of the amazing supersonic passenger jets called the Concorde. The Concorde first flew in 1969 and was the most successful supersonic airliner in the world, until it was retired in 2003.
This Concorde (aircraft number 101) was a pre-production model, and was only used for test flights and was outfitted with 12 tons of extra equipment for in-flight testing and instrumentation. During test flights this plane reached speeds of 2,320 km/h which makes it the fastest ever Concorde.
The cockpit. Bit cramped lookin!
In-flight test equipment, special workstations for flight engineers to monitor the instrumentation and extra sensors that monitor the plane during flights. Some of these displays and dials are duplicates of the pilot's instrumentation.
In the diagram below you can see the various layouts used in the test versions and the proper passenger transport version. The passenger variant had 40 seats in the front cabin, and in the rear cabin was 60 seats. The test versions only have a few rows of seats in the back to "give the impression of a passenger cabin".
As you can see in the plan drawings above, the Concorde had a pretty unique shape to it, and the front nose even has hydraulic controls to make it tilt downwards. It was called a "droop nose" and allowed the pilots to see the ground properly during taxi, takeoff, and landing, and when they were done they can make the nose come back up straight for the aerodynamics they needed for supersonic flight. The overall shape of the plane is referred to as a "Slender Delta". Below are some pictures of the crazy afterburning turbojets (Olympus 593) that enabled the plane's speed.
And here's a cute little model of the plane, showing a cut-away section with the passenger seats. That's the last of the Concorde stuff!
After our Concorde adventures, we walked straight into another nuclear bomb, this time a "tactical" one. This was sitting under the TSR-2 XR222 I mentioned earlier, as an example of what payload it might have had. These tactical nukes could also be used as anti-submarine bombs. I'm pretty sure they could be used as anti-anything bombs.
Surface-to-air Weapons
We found some chronological descriptions of surface-to-air weapons and tactics used over the years, and later some more info about air-to-air warfare. I'll talk about the surface-to-air now. Most of this is paraphrased from the plaques in the museum, but i'll add my thoughts as I go.
Surface to air weapons are fired from the land or sea, against enemy aircraft, and are vital to prevent the enemy gaining control of the skies. If the enemy has air superiority, your ground/naval forces cannot hope to go un-molested or unnoticed, especially in the modern era of war.
At the beginning of the First World War, soldiers fired at enemy aircraft with their rifles and machineguns. The first anti-aircraft (AA) guns were artillery guns and machine guns mounted on various contraptions to allow for high angle aiming and for faster rotation to track the targets. It was difficult to judge the height and speed of the target though, and these early AA guns were basically useless. That being said, aircraft in the first world war were very basic, very slow, and not very dangerous. They were most effective as reconnaissance planes to keep an eye on the enemy.
Soon there were proper AA guns being designed and produced which had optical sights to help with aiming and distance estimation, but the speed estimation was still an issue and AA guns were still basically useless.
The design of the AA guns also evolved between the first and second world wars, where they started being mounted on trucks to provide mobility, and they started mounting them on war ships to help out at sea.
Major advances in WW2 anti-aircraft gun and ammunition helped ground forces defend themselves, the new guns and ammo and targeting techniques allowed the guns to aim faster, fire faster, added timed fuses to the cannon shells allowing them to detonate at a set distance, and finally RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging).
After WW2, in the 50s, "Surface to Air Missiles" also known as SAMs were developed. These solved the accuracy issues with regular ground-based anti-aircraft equipment. SAMs can home in on targets identified by a RADAR system, where the missile follows RADAR waves that reflect off the target. Other forms of SAMs are based on heat-seeking behaviour, homing in on the heat produced by the engine of the target aircraft. There is a picture here of the Rapier mobile AA missile system, and a picture of the sort of launching platform they are usually used on (picture from Duxford).
As these sophisticated weapons were developed, so did the aircraft's ability to avoid them or reduce the effectiveness. "Electronic Countermeasures" (ECMs) were developed to divert, disrupt, or produce 'fake' RADAR waves to prevent a successful missile impact.
Most modern anti-aircraft defence systems use a mix of missiles and machineguns/cannons. One notable example (picture from the web) is the Phalanx, which as a 20mm vulcan cannon (a big machinegun!) that can shoot 75 shots per second (4,500/minute) and is used on US Navy ships to automatically detect and shoot down incoming anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft. It uses a dual RADAR system and is a pretty mean beast. This wasn't at Duxford, but it's cool to see how technology has advanced, and the fact that it's basically a robot. I love robots! It's unfortunate that this one happens to be really good at shooting stuff.
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Air-to-Air Weapons and Tactics
When planes started out in WW1 (1914), they were just for scouting the enemies - soon they started bolting machineguns to the old bi-planes and the air was filled with bullets! Combat with aircraft is called dogfighting, and when it all started it was slow and inefficient - just like the surface-to-air weapons. The very first planes without machineguns actually just relied on the pilots hand-held weapons fired from the seat of the plane for defence.
The issue of just bolting lots of machineguns onto planes became apparent when the planes became heavy and slow for carrying all the ammunition required for all those machineguns. In the 1920s and 1930s with metal aircraft being made, even more damage (and bullets!) were needed to take out an enemy aircraft.
The advent of aircraft cannon:
The solution was to put less guns, but make them larger calibre shooting bigger (and explosive) shells instead of regular bullets. These allowed for a more devastating result on a successful hit than before, and less weight in ammunition was needed, allowing for faster planes and more effective dogfighting. These larger guns are referred to as aircraft cannon.
The advent of missiles:
When jet planes were invented, they were so fast that you had very little time to aim and fire the aircraft cannons, so air-to-air missiles were invented. The first air-to-air missiles in use were guided by the heat emitted from the enemy aircraft's engine/exhaust which was at the back of the plane, and the tactics of dogfighting changed where it was critical that you had to get behind them to fire your missiles, which were almost guaranteed victory. 
Because the tactics required them to get behind their targets, dogfighting slowed down and became an aerial acrobatics show, where pilots would try to outmaneuver one another and get behind for a killing blow with a missile or two. While everything slowed down, it actually made aircraft cannon and machineguns more relevant again!
Advanced missiles:
Soon, radar-guided, radar-seeking, and 'all-aspect' (any direction) heat-seeking missiles were developed. Most modern missiles are "fire and forget" now, with onboard tracking systems that do the job without needing the plane that fired it to remain nearby. A modern strike aircraft's mission may simply be to enter a combat zone, fire a multitude of missiles (air, ground) and leave. Radar would then be used to confirm kills without needing visuals. 
I'm not sure exactly what each of these missiles pictured are, but they are all feats of engineering for their times!
Harrier Jump Jet (Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3)
An anecdotal story by one of the pilots was written on the info board at the Harrier display in Duxford, where he said if you weren't really careful and follow the strict limits and methods while attempting a hovering landing, the plane could "involuntarily" turn upside down. Whoops! It's difficult to survive such a mistake, he mentioned.
To me, the Harrier is pretty damn cool, and visually unique and easy to identify. See lots of pics below!
Vought F4U Corsair
Developed as a carrier-based fighter for the US Navy, the Corsair was used mainly in WW2 and remained in use later into the Korean war. The original intent for use on aircraft carriers was not seen for a while at first, because of the difficulty it had with carrier-based landings. This landing issue was later resolved by the British (somehow...), and then it started seeing carrier-based action. Supposedly, some Japanese pilots regarded it as the most formidable American fighter of World War II with an 11:1 kill ratio. The Corsair with its wings folded is shown in a sexy black paint-job below:
De Havilland Dragon Rapide
A 1930s biplane passenger airliner, for 6-8 passengers and was perhaps the most successful British-built short-haul commercial passenger aircraft of the 1930s (according to wikiepedia!). The design looks cute, I thought you guys might like it. It has a plywood construction but was robust, economical, and reliable for short-haul work.
Fairey Gannet AS6
This crazy looking plane has a zig-zag wing-folding trick and a double nose-propeller! This was an anti-submarine aircraft, for carrier-based operations and later turned into an electronic-warfare (part of the airborne early warning system) plane. This plane was armed with depth-charges, torpedos, and rockets for anti-sub operations and for the ~45 acting as the electronic warfare mode, had a retractable radome (radar dome) in the belly.
"Quiz Time - a box of bunting (flags and other colorful festive decorations), can you guess what it's got to do with Duxford?"
"Did you think this was about street parties? - Actually, this represents a daredevil flying stunt carried out regularly by Duxford's pilots, let by Harry Broadhurst in the 1930s. To amaze the crowds at air displays, they would fly with the wings of their aircraft tied together! The little flags and streamers on the cords looked like bunting from the ground"
So yeah, that's pretty neat. Flying around with wings attached by a rope with flag thingies hanging off it? Sounds like a Red Bull stunt, but back in the 1930s!
The Bristol Bloodhound
This is an early SAM (Surface to Air Missile) launcher used by the RAF for high-altitude long-range defence against soviet bombers in the late 1950s. Target aircraft were tracked by ground-based radars, and the nose-mounted tracker allowed the missile to home in to the target at long ranges. The missile travelled at twice the speed of sound, and despite never being used in action, it proved very accurate in tests. 
Some more random anti-aircraft weapons:
A standard artillery cannon mounted to the back of a flatbed truck, to help respond quickly to incoming aircraft and move the guns into position.
A machinegun on a rotating mechanism to allow for tracking targets and to give a high firing angle.
3.7inch anti-aircraft cannon: From 1938 onwards, these were usually deployed in groups of 4, along with equipment that allowed the gun crews to estimate the altitude and speed (and heading) of enemy aircraft.
These guns fired explosive shells at enemy bombers in the 1940-41 Blitz, but they were not very effective. On average, only one in 18,500 shells fired shot down an enemy aircraft.
By 1944 with radar-assisted targeting, it only took on average 150 shells to take down a V1 Flying Bomb ICBM.
Swedish Bofors 40/70 Anti-Aircraft Gun
This 40mm automatic gun was the most used AA gun in WW2. It fired so fast that 4 out of the 6 gun crew were just to keep feeding it ammo.
Some random things in some random hangars:
To be honest, it doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Imagine being the poor sod who had guard duty in one of these? Only 185 were put to service though so that's good.
A classic german WW2 fighter - Messerschmitt Bf 109E
This captured German fighter was sent on a fund-raising tour of North America after it crash landed in Britain in 1940, as some kind of propaganda stunt. The intention was to get people to donate towards clothing for Britain, and in return they could see the plane up close and later on, they could scratch their names into the paint.
Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is the current UK airforce main choice of fighter. Originally designed as a super-sonic interceptor (anti-aircraft roles), it can now do other roles including bombing. Work began on this fighter way back in the 1980s and took a very long time to come to fruition, with the first Typhoons entering RAF service in 2006.
McDonnel Douglas F4 Phantom (Phantom FGR2 F4M)
This plane is known to me from various Vietnam war-era computer games and books/movies I've played/read/watched. It's most known to me as a close support/napalm strike bomber. It's one of the rare types of planes that do not include an integrated aircraft cannon/machine-gun.
The Phantom used this huge six-barreled M61 "Vulcan" rotary cannon seen below up close, normally housed in a 'gun pod' and attached to the belly of the aircraft facing forwards. This massive machine-gun fires 6000 shots per minute and each bullet is 20mm in diameter! Another pretty amazing piece of engineering.
The F4 Phantom was designed as a fighter to defend the US Navy fleet, and could travel at high supersonic speeds, had large fuel tanks for long-range operations, and powerful onboard radars and radar-guided missile capabilities.
WW2 German "V1 Flying Bomb"
In 1944-1945, the Germans employed over 10,000 "flying bomb" jet-powered bombs, which were the world's first cruise missile. The bombs were aimed at south-eastern England, in an attempt to terrorize the population and destroy infrastructure. Some were aimed at various targets in Belgium after the launch sites in range of Britain were neutralized as the war progressed.
The flying bombs were launched using stream-driven ramps, and then the pulsed-jet motor takes over. The image below is a full scale steam ramp used to launch the bombs (with one there at the end).
Conclusions - Part 1
So a major part of the time spent in Duxford has been covered now, the exhibits and information panels for each display were of great quality, and we really enjoyed our time at Duxford. The remaining parts of the displays we saw were the Airborne Museum, American Air Museum, and the Land Warfare Museum sections of Duxford. What we covered in this part, was the major aircraft hangers and assorted side hangars with smaller exhibits in them. I'm sure not many people got to this point of the blog, so congrats for those who made it this far!
Keep an eye out for the other parts, coming soon (tm)!
- Kyran
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