Author: Xtended

Few aircraft encompass as many contradictions as the Fairey Swordfish – the legendary ‘Stringbag’ naval torpedo bomber which was approaching antiquation at the start of the second world war yet struck mortal blows against some of the most powerful battleships in the Axis fleets.

Mike Bannister joins us to talk about Concorde and his career flying the supersonic airliner. He became the youngest pilot on the Concorde fleet in 1977, was appointed the airline’s Chief Concorde Pilot in 1995 and regularly flew as Captain on all of the aircraft’s routes worldwide. 

Our latest roundtable discussion focusses on aviation journalism and to better help us understand the challenges and ups and downs of writing a good article are the journalistic legends that are Tim Robinson, Steve Bridgewater and Rich Cooper.

Consider for a moment repairing and loading aircraft at -30 degrees with no cover, flying in thick cloud through heavy flak and snow with no idea if you might get through or even deliver your precious cargo. Robert Forsyth talks us through the Luftwaffe’s Stalingrad Airlift, a less well-known event in the tragic Stalingrad story.

We are joined by Brian Harvey and Gurbir Singh authors of the book The Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites. The book is the first of its kind; an atlas of all major sites where space rockets have been launched since the World’s first Sputnik in 1958.