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Mortal F-4 Phantom Remains in Essex Scrapyard
(All images by Alan Allen, reproduced with permission) Many of RAF Wattisham’s retired F-4 Phantoms were purchased by Hanningfield Metals and moved to their scrapyard at Stock near Chelmsford, Essex –...
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The Abandoned Island of Inchkeith: From Military Fort to Plague Refuge
(Image: treefell (website: treefell.com), cc-nc-sa-3.0) The Island of Inchkeith lies in the Firth of Forth, Scotland. According to sources it had been inhabited, intermittently, for 1800 years before...
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Midget Submarine Wrecks in Aberlady Bay (Photos)
(All images by Urban Ghosts) Aberlady Bay, about a half hour drive from the Scottish capital Edinburgh, is a beauty spot teeming with wildlife and popular with walkers, golfers and birdwatchers. But...
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Fiery Fate for Avro Vulcan XL427 at Machrihanish
(All images by J.E.T. 603, reproduced with permission) This series of photographs documents the fiery fate of an Avro Vulcan bomber used for crash rescue training until the mid 1990s. Vulcan B2 XL427...
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Historical Photo Reveals the Damage to Vulcan XH556 due to Undercarriage...
(Image: Allan Dowdeswell, reproduced with permission) The loss of Avro Vulcan B2 XH556 on April 18, 1966 was one of the more unusual incidents to befall the type throughout its service history. During...
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Clydeside Carnage: Battered Remains of RAF Leuchars’ Phantom FG.1 Fleet
(Image: Hugh McMillan, reproduced with permission) Piled high in a similar manner to the notorious train pyramids at Vic Berry’s scrapyard, these battered Phantom FG.1 interceptors once formed the...
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Reduced to Produce: The End of the RAF’s Tornado F3 Interceptor Force
(Image: Steven Gray, reproduced with permission) It’s hard to imagine these gaunt, gutted shells were once part of the UK’s most advanced interceptor aircraft of the 20th and early 21st centuries....
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Mothballed RAF Tornados Await Scrapping at RAF Shawbury
(All images by Jerry Gunner, cc-3.0) Following on from our Monday article featuring the sorry remains of a pile of ex-RAF Tornado F3 interceptors after being ‘reduced to produce’ (aka stripped for...
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Tornado ZA466: Final Flight of a Gulf War Warrior
(Image: Pinkfin1, reproduced with permission) The photograph below, taken on September 16, 2002 at RAF St Athan in Wales, shows the mid section of a Panavia Tornado GR1 strike jet, its ‘desert pink’...
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ZA404: Another Tornado GR4 ‘Reduced to Produce’
(Image: Ryan Douglas, reproduced with permission) The above image by photographer Ryan Douglas perfectly illustrates the Panavia Tornado GR4, afterburners blazing, roaring down the runway at RAF...
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Tornado ZA407, Marham’s Gate Guard, in the Snow
(Image: Paul Johnson, reproduced with permission) The shiny appearance of this Panavia Tornado GR1, dramatically mounted atop a plinth on the main gate at RAF Marham in Norfolk, has led some to suggest...
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Urban Street Art Tells the Remarkable Story of Sgt Dennis Copping & His Lost...
(Image by streamer020nl, reproduced with permission) Drawn on the pavement of a city in Holland, this 3D street art tells the remarkable story of Sergeant Dennis Copping, aged 24, who went missing over...
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Scrapping a Vulcan: The Destruction of XL445
(All images by Alan Allen, reproduced with permission) Poised to send a shudder down the spine of military aviation enthusiasts, this series of photos by Alan Allen captures the final days of Avro...
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Tornado GR4 ZA452 Saved for Preservation
(Image: MUSTANG_P51, reproduced with permission) This stripped-out fuselage, lying on wood blocks outside a small hangar, may not look like much at first glance. But behind the blue tarpaulin is...
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The Reason Tornado ZA404 was Withdrawn from Service
(Image: Brian Hodgson, reproduced with permission) Readers with an interest in aviation may have noticed that over the past few months we’ve been loosely following the ongoing wind-down of the RAF’s...
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Did the United States have a Top Secret Fighter Prototype called the YF-24?
(Image: Boeing via YouTube; F/A-XX concept) Rumours of the existence of a top secret proof-of-concept aircraft called the YF-24 have persisted since the mystery designation appeared in the bio of...
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Aircraft Cockpits are Collectible, but Some are too Mangled to be Saved (like...
(Image: Alan Allen, reproduced with permission) Cockpit sections from out-of-use military aircraft have a tendency to be rather collectible, and the Avro Vulcan bomber is a good example. While some...
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Sunken Pacific War Plane Wreck in Kavieng Harbour
(All image by Seppo Enarvi, reproduced with permission) While the War in the Pacific raged between late 1941 and September 1945, the waters around East Asia and Oceania became a graveyard of sunken...
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Save Phantom XV582 ‘Black Mike’ from Scrapping
(Image: Urban Ghosts) We’ve featured the iconic F-4 Phantom on Urban Ghosts before, but the news thus far hasn’t been good. From the battered remains of RAF Leuchars’ FG1 fleet on Clydeside to the...
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Scrapping a Panavia Tornado – Luftwaffe Style
(All images (unless stated) by Jerry Gunner (website: Air Forces Monthly), cc-4.0) As the UK Tornado GR4 force winds down pending the eventual arrival of the F-35, the German air force is also reducing...
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