THE EMPIRES TWILIGHT

[Steel Penguin]

the 91 disaster..

the world runs short of the Twiglit atom, leading to panic, riots and the collapse of civalisation!

no?  ok then ill wait with every one else,

is it here yet?

[thedarkmaster]

LANCASTER MK III ( POLICE )

Before the Nigerian govenment had fully intergrated it's armed forces into The New Commonwealth after the Biafran sucessionist war in 1967 it first of all formed a fully national police force.

This police force was granted a royal warrant by Her Majesty the Queen on October the 4th 1967, included in this new national police was the an air wing and a maritine wing, and on strength of this air wing was a Lancaster, a gift from thr Republic of France. In fact this was belived to be the last operational Lancaster in the world.

The " Blue Whale " as she was know served thr Royal Nigerian Air Police in the anti smugling and search and rescue role until 1976 when she was sold to a collector in Arizona , where she was resored though her wereabouts today are unknown following the collapse of much of the USA after the 91 disaster.
























The pictures haven't come out so well and i seem to have lost some detail, i will try again with the 10 megapixle cmera another time to see if it comes out any better.

[Vulcan7]

WOW fantastic looking Lanc tdm 

[thedarkmaster]

Ilyushin Il28 Beagle B1

During the early 1970's the face of traditional Irish polotics was thrown into disaray with the massive growth of the new, Irish People's Party. Fueled by their all inclusive reteric and their willingness to stand up to their powerful UK neighbour.

In 1974 the Party won 33% of the vote in the local elections in Dublin and 23% nationwide, next year they cashed in on this result and managed to split both traditional parties, taking enough votes from either to form a Minority govenment. Several key polotitions of both parties where tempted to the new National Govenment with promises of positions and ministries, though none of the major portfolios such as defence and foreign affairs.

The new govenment pursued a set of policies more close to traditional eastern european govenments than the more pedestrian Irish norm, including an increased support to the Terrorists north of the border. This support materialised in increased weapon deliveries and the formation of training camps in the south of the country, safe from the eyes of the SAS, or so they thought.

The situation in Ireland carried on along these lines with the country slowly moving into the Eastern Block. The UK kept a strong watchful eye on all that was happening in the Republic and increaed it's border security accordingly, as well as increasing SAS and Commonwealth special forces involvement in the south.

On March 5th 1977 the Irish minister of defence annonced to the world at a press conferance that the republic would take delivery in the name of the Peoples Irish Republican Army of 5 Ilyushin 28 mediumm bombers as a means of "taking the struggle to the Brits". The ministry of defence in the UK responded with the Statement that " not one of these aircraft will become operational and they will never be a threat to any part of the UK2.

For the rest of the world that was more or less the end of the matter, but the UK again increaded it's rediness and deployed even more SAS patrols into Ireland, where they recieved help not only of much of the population at large but also from the Garda and the Defence Force itself.

On july th 12th a Bulgerian Freighter was spotted with a suspisious deck cargo and followed by Nimrods and French Atlantics through the Med and into the atlantic where it was shadowed all the way to Ireland by a RN submarine. The deck cargo was unloaded at the port of Dublin and then road freighted to the Air Corps base at Baldonnal where they disapered into a hanger.

Intelligance gathered from very reliable sources told the UK that the aircraft would be rolled out on the 7th of september. It was decided that on the night of the 6th the SAS would storm the airfield, hold it and fly the aircraft out to the UK under cover provided by the RAF and RCN carriers in the irish sea.

Contacts within the Defence force where made aware of the operation and where able to assure the UK govenment that no defence to the mission would be mounted for as one Irish colonel told his contact  " no decent Irish man will stand up and fight for these scum " , a sentiment echoed by all the British could contact.

The night of the 6th came and all that can be told is that the operation to take and hold Baldonnal airfield was a sucsess, with British , Australian , Canadian and for the first time Nigerian Special forces involved in the Capture , ( All details of the operation are and will remain secret for many years to protect all those invoved in this action, whatever their nationallity) and subsequent holding of the airfield.

Early the next moring 5 RAF hercules transports covered by Arrrow's and lightning's arrived and unloaded the crews whom would fly the Beagles to the UK. Later on that day in the full glare of much of the worlds press the Beagles, now resplendant in RAF roundels taxied from their hanger and took to the sky...........

The rest as they say is history, the Garde inspired coup, the return to full democracy, the new more freindly attitude to the UK and the Peace accords are all to well known for me to cover here, but as for the Beagles, well they entered RAF service as disimilar combat trainers and flew until 1986.


















The aircraft is portrayed as it was in 1980 whilst in the training role.

[Sisko]

I relly like that beagle!

[Fulcrum]

Very cool!!!

[Mossie]

The Beagle looks lovely with those dayglo stripes, great work!

[sideshowbob9]

Intriguing backstory & a great model. I too love the dayglo. 

[thedarkmaster]

Owen Glyndwr III

[/font]


During the late 1950's and early 1960's the RAF newly equiped many of it's aircraft with Guided missiles both infa-red and radar guided. A need was therefore self evident for a cheap target aircraft rather than the ex service surplus stocks currently used.

The air Ministry opened up the tender for such an aircraft mainly smaller manufacturers. and many smaller such concerns put forward brouchers of intent. The succesful tender came from Welsh Aviation based in the Swansea area.

The design was entirly pedestrian with a low wing and a small but efficient Rolls Royce turbojet and with a cockpit for when the aircraft needed to be piloted. The remote control equipment was housed in the front of the Aircraft.

The aircraft named Glyndwr was the third design of the company but the first to enter production, replaced the Meteor's that the RAF had used so far and with the special frangable warheads of many missiles was an integral part of RAF " live " weapons training for many years.






















The kit is a vacform brought back to the UK by a friend after a trip to Poland, he thought that it was the funniest aircraft kit he had ever seen and didn't believe it could be made, so thanks Mick    . apart fron that no real idea what it is, though i think it may be a Yak 30 or 32

[Tophe]

Wonderful topic I discover just now, sorry (the title made me think this was science-fiction not aircraft).
Belated congratulations for this impressive collection!

[Brian da Basher]

I always enjoy an update to your thread, dm, and today's was very nice. I think my most recent favorite is your Police Lancaster.

Brian da Basher

[pyro-manic]

True, the blue Lanc is beautiful. This new drone is cool as well. Nice work!

[sotoolslinger]

Excellent stuff DM

[sudzonic]

Superb work yet again.

[sideshowbob9]

Kinda feel sorry for the poor little Glyndwr. Target drones have it rough!

Soooooo.....this '91 Disaster.......?