THE EMPIRES TWILIGHT

[Captain Canada]

Oh my Dog it's absolutely beautiful !

[thedarkmaster]

The Navio da Republica Portuguesa, Infante D. Henrique's. airwing . South of Goa 1961

the Navio da Republica Portuguesa, Infante D. Henrique or the Portuguese Republic Ship Prince Henry the Navigator if you prefere started life as HMS Mars , but after her sevice life with the Royal Navy she escaped being scrapped and was instead sold to Portugal where she operated a disparate list of aircraft until her eventual withdrawl and replacement with the Almirante Gago Coutinho in 1984.

during the Goa crisis in 1961 the Infante D. Henrique was dispatched to the area with a two ship escort to show Portugals commitment to hold onto another of it's colonies.

Luckily for all concerned cooler heads prevailed and the incident blew over after a few months but during this time the airwing had deployed on land and exersised with the US and New Commonwealth navies ( Portugal being one of the few countries to manage to be freindly with both power blocks ).






























































A big thank you to Luis Almeida for all his generous and fantastic help with the details for this and some upcoming builds     


A/c 111 and 112

[chrisonord]

I am liking the Tigercat Tim, even if it is missing turbo props
Chris.

[Luis Almeida]

Awesome!!!!!!

Keep them coming

[sideshowbob9]

Nice colour scheme on those two.

[NARSES2]

Really nice 

[royabulgaf]

What I find interesting is the Tigercat is the day fighter and the Corsair is the night fighter. 

[Taiidantomcat]

Those look great together, I like the markings and the paint scheme 

[thedarkmaster]

Got two more to post over the weekend.  Just waiting a break in the rain so i can get out to photograph them.

[Captain Canada]

Those colours look perfect on that Tigercat....well done !

[thedarkmaster]

DH Hornet PR6, Royal New Zealand Auxilary Air Force 1956

a/c 113

[thedarkmaster]

BAC Jaguar P/3 Centro de Aviação Naval de Macau,1991

Centro de Aviação Naval de Macau was the original naval airbase at Macau, however it was closed in 1942 leaving Portugal without any presance in the area until 1974 when the base was reopened after the signing of the Macua pact with the United Kingdom ( this basicly commited the UK and Portugal to jointly defend Hong kong and Macau if either was threatened by the Red Chinease.)and upgraded initially to operate helicopters and finally the upgradeed Jaguar P's supplied by the UK in 1986

The Jaguar P was intended as a maritime strike upgrade, developed especially for Portugal with a weapons system completly compatable with the latest equipment the new Commonwealth was fielding at the time and represented some of Portugals finest military equipment , piloted by the finest pilots available.

War service in the 91 disaster was brief, in cooperation with UK and other allied New Commonwealth contries, and limited to stikes against the PLAN forces operating in and around the chinease coast. Macau itself suffered no damage but as Hong Kong had come under ataack Portugal was honour bound to help the UK defend it's territories.

Post war the Jaguars remained in service in Macau until 2006 when they wher withdrawn to the Azores where they fly to this day.










































Once again i have to thank Luis Almeida for his fantastic help with my very poor Portugese military knowledge and his inspiration with his Portugese profiles.





the inspiration for this aircraft.


Thanks Mate      


a/c 114

[GTX]

Ooohh, I like the Hornet!

Regards,

Greg

[Slerski]

Very nice Hornet, a very beautiful plane !!

[lancer]

that hornet is beautiful, and the Jaguar looks really smart in those colours.