IMPORTANT MESSAGE. IT IS WITH REGRET THAT I MAY NOT UPLOAD ANY NEW VIDEOS FOLLOWING A DECISION BY THE BBC TO BLOCK MY SPITFIRE DOCUMENTARY THAT I UPLOADED SOME TIME AGO. THIS VIDEO WAS 40 YEARS OLD AND UPLOADED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. I MAKE NO MONEY FROM MY VIDEOS. IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT TO TRANSFER THEM FROM VHS TO DVD THEN CONVERT THE FORMAT FOR RU-vid THEN UPLOAD ETC ONLY FOR THE RISK OF IT BEING BLOCKED SO IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT ANY MORE. MEANWHILE I SEE WHOLE ALBUMS OF MUSIC UPLOADED UNCONTESTED. IT'S A GREAT SHAME. ANYWAY PLEASE ENJOY WHAT IS LEFT. THANK YOU.
I started my channel uploading 80's music that I liked but will also be uploading old television programmes I recorded during the 80's and 90's.
My videos are intended for your enjoyment and not as a forum for abuse or political opinion and all comments are monitored and moderated. Thanks.
A simply stunning machine of huge complexity that as enthusiasts we should be rightly proud of. It's rare that something so new is so beautiful in its design unless design takes precedent.
Absolutely gutting that nothing of it is left standing just large open disused fields! Imagine if it had been kept preserved as it were in its glory days. 😢
This fellow was certainly an excellent engineer and innovator but he was also a gentleman. Very well spoken, measured, humble and quite entertaining to listen too. It's a shame we humans must get old and die. I think he might be one of the ones we would like to keep around for a bit longer.
I bought a record player just so I could listen to their music. It never made its way onto CD or over to America, so I just had to do the damn thing myself!
Having watched this wonderful documentary many times but especially now in this time of 2023 - I do wonder what all those brave young men would have thought today? By that I mean an invasion by any other name has commenced of people at odds with us,our culture traditions and all those things our young men fought for! I'm glad they're not here to see the demise of our country as we knew it. R.I.P to all those Brave fighter boys. R.I.P to our country..
Amazing that this is the only upload on the entire internet. I've tried to get hold of the record several times, but because it's a B-side each time I've ordered it on Amazon the B-side has a different song on it, usually Love Cascade.
Interviewer Raymond Baxter was a Spitfire pilot in WW2 so knew what Sopwith had achieved and the debt of gratitude we owed him. A remarkable and modest man. One of the chief designers of the Camel and other Sopwith models was Herbert Smith from Skipton, Yorkshire, and his legacy has only recently been acknowledged with a blue plaque outside Skipton Town Hall. Soon after WW1, and the liquidation of the Sopwith company, Smith went to Japan to help establish the Mitsubishi aviation company.
In old military libraries exist quite a number of historical accounts of the aerial war. What was interesting in Tom Sopwith's account was the 30 mph crashes that preceded the "there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots" era. A great uncle was one in that war, who had too much fun flying, barnstorming later. One made gas and lodging by selling rides in countrysides. I was sent old newspaper accounts of his buzzing competing university sport events by a man who was a child enamored of these. . Unfortunately, the great uncle ran into a rather obstinate mountain while beginning the second of his airmail businesses. The first, coeval with the barnstorming and pranks, was flying Northwest, becoming Northwest Orient Airlines. Another story is that of barrage/kite balloons. High value targets were protected by these long cable lifts, and these effective defenses had to be shot and deflated to approach. It may have been that the average lifespan of fighter pilots late in the war being a few weeks, led to a greater insouciance among pilots surviving.
An absolute legend, god bless the man. I was posted to IV(AC) Squadron and Loved every minute of it. The Harrier was the best plane ever built. The again I did spend seven years on Hawk T1's, great fun and a lovely piece of kit. After all that looking at it from my point of view, Hawker built the best planes in the world.
A brilliant interview with an absolutely brilliant gentleman; Sir Thomas Sopwith was to fledgeling aviation what Henry Ford was to automotive development. Here, at age 96, he recalls details of his endeavors going back to pre WWI, and including the development of fighter planes such as illustrious Sopwith Camel and the Hawker Hurricane, among other famous aircraft which were instrumental in the winning of both world wars. Bravo! and thanks for posting this fantastic piece of history!
These pioneers created an era that will never be seen again. Man was flying for the first time and in 1914 he was fighting in the sky for the first time.
Wonderful man! Just incredible that he lived from the dawn of flight right through to the jet age and then the space age! I would *love* to know what he thought of aircraft like the F-15 and the Blackbird! I'd also love to know what he thought of the Apollo program too! Sadly, we'll never know.
The interviewer/commentator was Raymond Baxter (1922-2006) who worked for the BBC on various shows from the late 1940;s into the late 1980's. He had fought in WW2 in the RAF reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Baxter
Its too bad that the bird wasn't preserved in a museum. I love older aircraft and the history around them. If you're ever in the PNW, make your way to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon. Edit: The reason being is that the Spruce Goose is in the building along with other aircraft of the day.
25000 working people mid war. Who fought the Germans?!? (the Russians is the answer) These people were taking care of their colonial interests, competing against "spruce goose". They waged war against Howard Hughes.
