Melton Mowbray is a small market town nestling on the edge of Leicestershire. Famous for its racehorses, pork pies and stilton cheese, and certain buildings being part of the divorce settlement of Anne of Cleves when she managed to pick her way out of her marriage to Henry VIII with her head intact, Melton Mowbray […]
Tag: Aviation
The Pacoima Mid-Air Collision
On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC-7B collided with a United States Air Force Northrop F-89 Scorpion. The DC-7B which was earmarked for delivery to Continental Airlines, took off from the Santa Monica Airport at 10:15 a.m. on its first functional test flight, with a crew of four. Meanwhile, in Palmdale to the north, a […]
Ramstein
We’ve all heard of the German Heavy Metal band Rammstein, I’m sure. Their famous offerings including ‘Ich Will’, ‘Feuer Frei’ and ‘Sonne’. But there’s a story behind their name, and that story is the Ramstein Airshow Disaster. The band initially named Rammstein-Flugschau (Ramstein Airshow- the extra ‘m’ was a spelling mistake which they kept) have […]
The Night Witches
It was 1941 and the Third Reich seemed unstoppable in its roll across Europe. Hitler and Stalin had a non-aggression pact, but Hitler threw that in the trash and turned his eyes east and invaded the Soviet Union. By November, the German Army was 19 miles from Moscow and the city of Leningrad was under […]
Albert Ball, VC, DSO and 2 Bars, MC – Britain’s Ace Fighter Pilot
Born in Nottingham on the 14th August 1896, Albert Ball was one of three children, two sons and a daughter, of plumber Albert Sr and his wife Harriet (nee Page). Albert Sr was later to elevate his status to that of Lord Mayor of Nottingham and received a knighthood. Young Albert was educated at a […]