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28th February, 2019 in Aviation
The flight lasted just 27 minutes, but it flew Concorde into history as surely the most iconic airliner of all time – as beloved by the fortunate travellers on board as by the masses who regularly gathered below, casting eyes upwards hoping for a glimpse of that famous profile. These stunning photographs from the Mirrorpix archives look back over the career of a marvellous aircraft:
19th September, 2024 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military In 1934, aged just 16, Louis Hagen was sent to Lichtenberg concentration camp after being betrayed for an off-hand joke by a Nazi-sympathising family maid. Mercifully, his time there was cut short thanks to the intervention of a school friend’s father, and he escaped to the UK so… 7th November, 2023 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir Concorde was conceived in the 1950s, first flew in the 1960s and then took over 2.5million people to ‘the edge of space’ at twice the speed of sound for the rest of the 20th century. And into the 21st. Designed and developed by a team of far sighted British and French engineers,… 17th August, 2022 in Aviation The history of aviation is full of excitement, drama and derring-do. These can all be found in the following tale, when two pilots battled for glory. In 1906 a UK newspaper offered £10,000 to the first aviator to fly from London to Manchester. Pilots rubbed their chins: if this w… 21st July, 2022 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Women in History Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower was born on 22 July 1910 at Sandown Court in Tunbridge Wells, the younger daughter of Robert and Dorothy Gower. It was an auspicious year for aviation pioneers: on 23 April Claude Grahame-White, who trained at Louis Bleriot’s flying school, had made t… 15th September, 2020 in Aviation, Military For most people, the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 was all fighters whooshing over the sunlit blue skies of southern England. It was in many ways a very public battle eagerly watched by thousands of anxious spectators far below and even captured on film to be seen by mi… 23rd January, 2020 in Aviation, Women in History Born at Waterlooville in Hampshire to master butcher Henry Shilling and his wife Annie, Tilly and her three sisters attended the high school for girls in Dorking. Already unorthodox, by the age of 15 she knew she wanted to be an engineer and already owned a second hand motorcycle… 17th May, 2019 in Aviation, History, Trivia & Gift It has been over 50 years since the space race and NASA’s sprint for the moon with the Apollo Missions. Here author Norman Ferguson reveals ten facts you may not know about this giant leap for mankind… 1. The first astronauts to fly in a Saturn V went to the Moon Apollo 8 was i… 25th March, 2019 in Aviation, Local & Family History 2019 marked the 80th anniversary of the declaration of war on 3 September 1939 and, just a few hours into the conflict, the Bennachie hill-range in Aberdeenshire was witness to an accident resulting in the deaths of two RAF airmen. Bennachie is of course a magnet for wa… 14th February, 2019 in Aviation Seven-year-old Harry Sullivan was in bed with measles in Clifden, on the west coast of Ireland, on the damp morning of 15 June 1919. He recalls hearing a terrible noise coming from the sky: “I rushed outside to investigate. I was just in time to see this greyish-coloured machine… 10th September, 2018 in Aviation, Military As the high summer cloud cleared to reveal a fine and sunny morning, nobody knew that Sunday, 15 September 1940 would be a pivotal day in the Battle of Britain. The two main Luftwaffe attacks of the day, one in late morning and the other in early afternoon, for once met with over… 9th July, 2018 in Aviation, Military White vapour trails twisting and turning in an azure sky, Spitfires and Hurricanes roaring through the thin air, bright sunlight glinting off their wings, machine guns spitting out destruction and defiance, grateful crowds far below gazing in awe at the gallant modern-day knights… 16th May, 2018 in Aviation, Military On 16 May 1943, 19 RAF Lancaster aircraft set off to make history in Operation Chastise. The events of the Dams Raid is legendary – from the technical creation of ‘bouncing bombs’ to the top secret strategy of flying at only 60 feet above enemy territory. But what about the… 28th March, 2018 in Aviation, History, Military As the centenary of the First World War came to an end in 2018, it was also the centenary of the RAF. Founded in 1918, the Royal Air Force has a remarkable place within the collections and history of Imperial War Museums (IWM). IWM Duxford, formerly RAF Duxford, was an early RAF… 13th March, 2018 in Aviation In 1931 Britain had a unique opportunity to win the Schneider Trophy outright and bring much added prestige for British achievements with aircraft and their engines. However, this seemed impossible at a time of worldwide depression due to outright opposition from the then Chancel… 8th March, 2018 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History Stella Rutter was the only female draughtswoman working at the Vickers-Supermarine Aircraft Company during World War II. Her artistic and creative talents led to a very interesting career and some unique wartime experiences in what was a very male-dominated environment and line o… 5th March, 2018 in Aviation 5 March 2018 marked the 75th anniversary of the first flight of the first ever British and Allied jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, in 1943. It was the first British combat aircraft to be powered by Frank Whittle’s revolutionary invention, the jet engine. At the controls at RAF Cr… 10th October, 2017 in Aviation, Military Many of the objects included in The RAF in 100 Objects offer poignant reminders of extremely difficult times in remote places far away from home. One such object that shows courage under adversity is a standing metal cross that once belonged to The Venerable (Air Vice-Marshal) Al… 9th October, 2017 in Aviation, Military Dramatic images on news broadcasts of stealth jets striking targets in the world’s trouble spots with radar-guided bombs are the epitome of modern technological warfare. But such methods can be traced back to a far less sophisticated beginning on a spring day in 1916 when a 19-ye… 4th October, 2017 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military I was a 20-year old pilot when I arrived on No 16 Squadron, based at RAF Laarbruch in what was then West Germany. It was May 1964 and I was joining an operational RAF squadron whose primary role was to fly at low level, by day and night, to deliver tactical nuclear bombs to… 2nd October, 2017 in Aviation, Local & Family History Throughout Norfolk and Suffolk many landmarks still remain which point to the strategic importance of these counties in the First and Second World Wars and during the Cold War. These include airfields and traces of their buildings, remains of former radar stations, decoy airfield… 12th June, 2017 in Aviation, Military, Women in History No, they told me again and again, there was nothing special about them. They were just ‘doing their bit’ for their country. Modest to a fault, these women faced danger, sudden death, serious injury or bereavement on an almost daily basis. Yet there was nothing, they insisted, rem… 18th May, 2017 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Women in History What made Amelia Earhart push the boundaries of aviation? Her peripatetic early childhood took her from place to place and opened her eyes to new experiences. Due to her father’s job working for railroad companies, Amelia moved from house to house and school to school, which she… 8th May, 2017 in Aviation, Military For centuries, strange lights, objects and celestial wonders in the sky have warned of impending doom. This sense of unease at the sighting of extraordinary objects flying above rang especially true during the Cold War. In the early 20th Century mystery lights over Great Britain… 3rd May, 2017 in Aviation In 1936 and 1937, the Zeppelin Hindenburg was the quickest way to travel between the United States and Europe. LZ-129 Hindenburg dazzled the world as the latest in a series of advances in transoceanic transportation. A hundred years earlier, Brunel’s steamship Great Western, stea… 15th February, 2017 in Aviation In March 1936, after numerous construction delays, LZ-129 was finally ready to fly. The most advanced Zeppelin built up to that time, on paper it was everything its operators could have wanted in an airship. But how would it handle when they finally got it into the air? LZ-129 em… 1st February, 2017 in Aviation During the winter of 1981–82 Sir Freddie Laker, pioneer of the cheap ‘no-frills’ charter airline, attempted to diversify into the full-fare market by introducing a ‘regency class’ premium cabin on Skytrain services. Although that season proved very costly to the airline, with man… 20th January, 2017 in Aviation Concorde was an entirely new working environment. The familiar spacious cabins of the 747s were replaced with a narrow, low-ceilinged interior (the cabin height being 6ft 5 in (1.96m)) and grey leather seats that exuded exclusivity. This was more private jet than flying machine f… 7th December, 2016 in Aviation R.J. Mitchell’s magnificent Supermarine Spitfire is, without a doubt, one of the most instantly recognisable aircraft ever built and its reputation as a formidable, high-speed, dog-fighting interceptor was well-earned. Standing out both visually and in terms of performance amongs… 15th September, 2016 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military To the grateful population of post-war Britain those pilots who had fought against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain were true heroes. They were lauded in the media of the day and became the subjects of many a film. England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill was even qu… 24th August, 2016 in Aviation When the Marquis d’Arlandes and Pilatre de Rozier made the first manned free-balloon flight in 1783, the event was witnessed by thousands of people. Since time immemorial ordinary people have flocked to gaze upon daring feats – from the gladiators of ancient Rome t…
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