Bruce Dickinson Warplane Diaries:Hawker Tempest 

Bruce “The air raid siren” Dickinson. Vocalist for possibly Britain’s most successful modern band, Accomplished fencer and airliner pilot.

Saw him driving a T-34!!!

Yeah sure

@@vermillion.__-_. Well thats what he told me, I also met Edgar Pickles DFC who flew Lancaster's, Mustangs and Spitfires, He owned a P51 that he bought after the war are few privately, he also owned a beach bonanza and when I saw this plane it had bean sitting outside for so long that the paint was gone and the plane was just dull silver aluminum, but it was white underneath. that was back in the nineties he has passed away since, RIP, he was quite a character and loved talking about his experiences. the guy that flew the Tempests first name Clyde, can't remember his last name was a large man probably 6'3" or more and he told me he flew out over Germany on search and destroy missions, he told me he had an English buddy who was similar in appearance to myself at the time who flew with him on most occasions but on one sorty his buddy just never returned, I always remembered the story as it was a sad story and it has stayed in my mind,I found out recently the Typhoon and Tempest had an issue with flutter in the elevator and wonder if Clyde survived the plane because of his bulk, His large arms may have dampened the vibration in the push rods and linkages and his buddy being a smaller person may not have had this advantage, but who knows.

@@vermillion.__-_. But I got the impression from talking to him that the Tempest was virtually untouchable other than AA but he said they never flew in a straight line, He seemed very confident that no other plane was a match and he would have been a very young inexperienced pilot and was probably fighting the Germans best and most experienced pilots.