Aircraft Trivia Quiz

Most people know the Vulcan that bombed Port Stanley, in 1982, and cheered on the crews bravery.  However, a fellow aircrew had an experience possibly as traumatic, if not worse, during the same 'Blackbuck' mission.  What was the aircraft, what was the almost fatal decision they made, what saved them.  For 2 more related questions (just for fun):

What vital lack of equipment meant that the possibly superior American aircraft not be used (i.e. what was missing), for the mission of the second aircraft?

What was the ditty the American pilots had about the airport they used?

Excellent answer Bondoman! The crew of the last Victor tanker took a decision to follow the Vulcan to the Falklands, as per the plan, even though they has short fuelled, meaning that they were likely to run out of fuel and dive into the sea.  At least the bestseller Vulcan 607 rectified the situation.  17 aircraft to enable one Vulcan to drop some bombs on Port Stanley.

The KC-135 did not (does not?) have the ability to refuel itself, so, whilst it's range was longer, it couldn't make to from Ascension Island to the Falkland Islands, and back...

Thankfully someone had the foresight to send up a Victor tanker to look for the last Victor, just in case...

Anyway, all yours Bondoman!

osher wrote:

What was the ditty the American pilots had about the airport they used?

???

Don't keep us in suspenders any longer, please!

I'm guessing that the plane would be the Tornado.

Shame on me for forgetting the name of the ship. Sir Galahad, was it? or Atlantic Conveyor?

no, and no.

It is interesting how the Argentine Regime was on a weapons buying spree for years and years. They even had a Sheffield class destroyer on order, and paid for, which Britain quietly laid claim to following the loss of her namesake.

The ship would have been the Argentine navy light cruiser General Belgrano, which was hit by two Mk.8 torpedos from the British SSN HMS Conqueror, in the only known instance of a SSN firing a torpedo in anger. She started life as CL-46 USS Phoenix, launched at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in March 1938.

When the ship went down, she took 321 crew and two civilian contractors with her.

Other ships to be sunk in the Falklands war were:

ARA Santa Fe (one casualty)

HMS Sheffield (20 casualties)

HMS Coventry (19 casualties)

HMS Antelope (2 casualties)

HMS Ardent (22 casualties)

RFA Sir Galahad (48 casualties, mosty members of the Welsh Guards)

MV Atlantic Conveyor (12 casualties, including her captain).

As to British warplane sales to Argentina scuppered by the Falklands conflict - well, there weren't that many British (as opposed to Multi-national with British involvement) multi-engined combat aircraft programmes in the late 1970s/ early 1980s. We actaully did sell them some Lynx helos, for use on their Type 42 destroyers - were we planning to sell them Nimrods?

Cheers,

Chris.

Chris, you are correct about the Phoenix. She and a sister the Boise, CL-47 6" gun cruisers, were sold to Argentina in 1951, the Boise being scrapped prior to the Falklands War.

Like the soldiers who died on the Galahad, and the Tristam, I find the sinking of the Belgrano particularly sad insofar as a cruiser with a complement of 1000 or so has of course all kinds of ratings who lost their lives in every kind of circumstance, cook to captain.

Not the Nimrod, but I'll add this: I'll accept any answer so long as you have a creditable reference, then give you mine.

Bill

Again - and this is another guess, more by a process of elimination than anything else - the SEPECAT Jaguar?

Cheers,

Chris.

Oh geeze...

Bondoman, what was the question?

trexx wrote:

Oh geeze... Bondoman, what was the question?

Question:

So, what major multi-engined attack warplane had Britain negotiated to sell to Argentina prior to the conflict, and the Canberra doesn't count.

No to Victor, but you are getting closer.

Hint no. 2 and this'll make it easy- it was outdated in 1982.

The Shackelton?

Great question, I'm stumped!

bondoman wrote:

trexx wrote: Oh geeze... Bondoman, what was the question? Question: So, what major multi-engined attack warplane had Britain negotiated to sell to Argentina prior to the conflict, and the Canberra doesn't count. No to Victor, but you are getting closer. Hint no. 2 and this'll make it easy- it was outdated in 1982.

Thanks. But I haven't a clue!

Hmmm... Four engined jet 'attack' aircraft?  I don't have anything but wild guesses!

The Shackleton is not a jet... had Griffons...

Brews wrote:

If none of the above, Vulcans?

"The final irony that caps the events in the South Atlantic was that a delegation from the Fuerza Aerea Argentina had visited the UK early in 1982 to discuss purchase of a quantity of redundant Vulcans plus a substantial spares package. In light of the invasion of the Falklands, the possible sale of redundant members of the Vulcan fleet to Argentina was hastily dropped."

I'm still curious about the song though?

Nicely done, Brews, and on to you. I'd like to see a Falklands/ Malvinas GB. There's a couple of active forum members from Argentina who have interesting projects, it'd be nice to do a "both sides" GB, I think (?).

trexx wrote:

The Shackleton is not a jet... had Griffons...

 Technically no, but some marks did have booster engines attached to improve takeoff and climb performance. Didn't work to well, though, they wore out the airframes. 

Unfortunately it only had two jet engines and the Argies weren't interested in purchasing it.

With the recent passing of Sir Edmund Hillary, it is appropriate to ask this easy question:

What was the first plane to fly over Mt Everest, who was the pilot, and who makes the best 1:72 kit of the machine?

That would be a modified Westland Wallace prototype, G-ACBR, flown by Flight Lieutenant D.F. McIntyre, 75 years ago yesteday. The only 1/72 kit of this aircraft of which I'm aware is the FROG/ FROGspawn kit, which I recall building in the early 1960s. It came with six FROG free gift Gold Tokens....

Cheers,

Chris.

The penalty for answering so rapidly and correctly, with additional information regarding the anniversary, is that you must now build one within a month.

All yours, maestro.

Brews wrote:

The penalty for answering so rapidly and correctly, with additional information regarding the anniversary, is that you must now build one within a month.

Well, there's on on eBay at the moment with just over a day to go, no bids at $US5.99 (plus $US13.00 p&p)....am I tempted? Nah - it's Heller Victory time of year again!

Anyway - what's special about this Tupolev Bear:

and in what important, and safety-critical, way did it differ from its US equivalent?

Cheers,

Chris.

Quite so. Apparently, some of their early SSNs and SSGNs suffered from similar problems. Or rather, their crews did.

Your turn, Matt!

Cheers,

Chris.

:)

 For everyone that didn't know, the airplane in question is a TU-119, also known as the "Nuclear Bear." It was built in response to the NB-36 program in the U.S., only the Russians didn't invest in radiactive shielding like we did so the crews that flew this plane ended up getting blasted with lethal amounts of radiation. Few survived into the 1990's.

Hmm....my turn, eh? This should be an easy one.

What WWII U.S. unit of the C.A.P. successfully sank a U-boat in the Atlantic during WWII, what type of airplane were they flying, and why was it unusual?

Na, sorry.

 I made a slight mistake in the question, as the CAP sunk two U-boats during the war. The question applies to the first. Please don't use Google to directly search that, though.