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This year is the 75th anniversary of my father flying Halifax aircraft in 1943. He was in 161 (Special Operations) squadron which flew solo missions dropping arms and resistance workers over occupied Europe.
The Halifax was a 4 engine heavy bomber, and like the Hurricane with the Spitfire is overlooked because of its more glamourous counterpart, the Lancaster.
There is only one complete Halifax in existence, and that is in the Yorkshire Air Museum. But rather like a kit car it has been made out of bits from several aircraft and some parts that have been remanufactured.
Yorkshire Air Museum offer a guided tour of the Halifax, but York is a long way from the Dorset/Somerset border so I decided to expand the trip into a three day event and also visit the aircraft museums at RAF Cosford and IWM at Duxford, with the aim of photographing as may different types of aircraft my father flew.
So last Tuesday I set off from Wincanton to Telford and a Travelodge for the night making the trip with the roof down under grey skies and a small amount of rain. On Wednesday I visited RAF Cosford, and managed to wangle tour of the interior of an Avro York and an Avro Anson before heading to another Travelodge at Tadcaster. This time it was sunny motoring all the way.
Thursday saw a quick trip to the National Railway Museum and then on to my guided tour of the Halifax at Elvington. After the tour it was a trip down south the Cambridge and another Travelodge. It was the second hottest day recorded for April and approaching Cambridge on the A14 the traffic came to a standstill. Despite being stationary for 10 minutes the engine temperature never went about 95C.
Friday was a quick trip to Duxford, which has many of the planes I wanted to photograph, then the long drag Down the M11, M25, M3 and A303. As usual the A303 did its Friday special and everything became stationary at Stonehenge.
So a total round trip of 680 miles
The Halifax was a 4 engine heavy bomber, and like the Hurricane with the Spitfire is overlooked because of its more glamourous counterpart, the Lancaster.
There is only one complete Halifax in existence, and that is in the Yorkshire Air Museum. But rather like a kit car it has been made out of bits from several aircraft and some parts that have been remanufactured.
Yorkshire Air Museum offer a guided tour of the Halifax, but York is a long way from the Dorset/Somerset border so I decided to expand the trip into a three day event and also visit the aircraft museums at RAF Cosford and IWM at Duxford, with the aim of photographing as may different types of aircraft my father flew.
So last Tuesday I set off from Wincanton to Telford and a Travelodge for the night making the trip with the roof down under grey skies and a small amount of rain. On Wednesday I visited RAF Cosford, and managed to wangle tour of the interior of an Avro York and an Avro Anson before heading to another Travelodge at Tadcaster. This time it was sunny motoring all the way.
Thursday saw a quick trip to the National Railway Museum and then on to my guided tour of the Halifax at Elvington. After the tour it was a trip down south the Cambridge and another Travelodge. It was the second hottest day recorded for April and approaching Cambridge on the A14 the traffic came to a standstill. Despite being stationary for 10 minutes the engine temperature never went about 95C.
Friday was a quick trip to Duxford, which has many of the planes I wanted to photograph, then the long drag Down the M11, M25, M3 and A303. As usual the A303 did its Friday special and everything became stationary at Stonehenge.
So a total round trip of 680 miles