B-58, Convair ‘Hustler’ - amazing when you consider it was conceived and designed in the early 1950s.
A few of a B-36J’s ten engines behind it too.
Duxford’s Victor, undergoing a strip down restoration…
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Bet the washing dries dead quick
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My fave of the 3 V bombers, not only the more advanced design, but it had that"fuck you" look.
Prior to the OR being satisfied, the air ministry looked at this as a stop gap
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Saab Draken.
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A cracking shape. I liked that the Austrian Air Force painted a few of theirs up in a national flag livery for an airshow and- on realising they didn’t really have any wars planned- kept them like that until they got rid of them a few years later;
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Last night, I was elbow deep in the internet and learned about The Swoose.
The Swoose is a B-17. It is also a charming statistical improbability. It is the only surviving example of a ‘pre-E’ B-17 (ie, with the original tail and no tail, top, or ball turret). You might think this is because it sat around being a test bed or similar. Not so. It was based in the Philippines in December 1941, survived the surprise attacks on US airbases and participated (and survived) that disastrous campaign. As spare parts were unobtainable, it began to have bits from other B-17s added to it to keep it going. When it escaped to Australia in 1942, the rear fuselage was found to be in terrible condition so it had the tail from another B-17 grafted on (and picked up the Swoose name; 'half swan, half goose). The repairs were a botch job to cater for a desperate need for planes and as soon as some new B-17s were delivered, it was parked and left…
…Except that when General Brett, the commander of Allied forces in Australia needed a transport, The Swoose was deemed to be the ‘best’ (re; ‘least shit’) thing available so it started flying again. When Brett was transferred to the Caribbean, he took The Swoose with him. By 1944, it was a heap and was grounded before it fell apart in the sky… but then its regular pilot discovered most of a crated, unused B-17D in the Panama Canal zone. New wing spars and other key components were grafted onto The Swoose along with bits of equipment from later E , F and G models. It continued to be the General’s personal hack until December 1945 where it was handed over to be recycled…
… only for the pilot who had selected The Swoose back in 1942 (and now a Colonel) persuaded the powers that be to keep it as a war memorial. It was donated to Los Angeles, flew there under its own power in 1946, only for LA to realise they had nowhere to put it. It then had a 24 hour refurb three years later and flew to the National Air Museum in 1949 only for them to decide that as they had Memphis Belle they didn’t need The Swoose. It was flown to Texas for storage in 1950 but that facility was closed a few years later. In December 1953, the same pilot flew the borderline lethal Swoose to Maryland on three engines. It sat decaying outside until 1961 and then was moved to barely more weatherproof indoor accommodation in the early seventies. It was only in the late seventies that it was taken apart and put in correct, long term storage.
After lots of arguing over which museum gets what, restoration of The Swoose finally began in 2008. Because it is a polygot collection of many other B-17s, the restoration has taken an age and keeps being delayed by other, simpler projects. Nevertheless, progress is being made and- hopefully- it’ll be on display soon.
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Wow! Great story. So, basically, it’s (or was) a flying Trigger’s broom
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There was a quote I read last night (that I can’t find now annoyingly) where one of the people restoring it basically said, that “it isn’t really a B-17D any more, it’s The Swoose” and that it’s the story of how it came to be that makes it so remarkable and which has made restoring it (and keeping that story) so tricky.
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You don’t need to be on an ‘incognito’ browser for everything!
Sometimes your search history is handy, not just embarrassing 
Brilliant !
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Amazingly long service history as well. RAF retired last one in 2006 and Indian Air Force a year later.
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Lovely thing