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Aug 2 7 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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This isn't a real town.

It's "Boeing Wonderland", a fake town built on top of the roof of Boeing Plant 2, a factory building B-17 Flying Fortress in the USA.

As far as wartime decoys and deception goes, I think this has to be the most inventive I've seen.

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If you were on the ground, it might not be obvious. It looks like an aircraft factory.

But spot what's painted on the walls of the hangar... camouflage and houses.

It's from above things get really interesting.

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To hide the factory from possible aerial attack, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built houses of plywood and fabric and installed fake streets to camouflage the roof.

The idea was to blend the facility into the surrounding neighborhood across the river.

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The houses weren't quite the same size you might expect in a real town.

But that's ok, because from the air, it looks like a town, regardless of how big the houses are (or aren't).

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Here's a bird's eye view of the factory roof and fake town.

Cunning.

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Here's another view from the ground, showing factory workers beneath the fake town.

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All designed to help disguise this...

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More from @WW2Airfields

Jul 30
You might have seen this photo before.

It's an aircraft crash landing onto the roof of East Boldre post office in the New Forest, England, circa 1915.

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East Boldre was an airfield used for training pilots in WW1. This is what it looked like.

It's been scrubbed (almost) from the landscape.

But more on that in a moment...

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During these early days of aviation, crashing was incredibly common... inevitable I suppose.

Here's another from East Boldre.

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Read 8 tweets
Jul 28
Exposed to the elements in the Sahara Desert and subject to decay, lies the wreck of Avro Shackelton Pelican 16, miles from civilisation.

📌 She's clearly visible on Google maps... the link of which is further down the tweet thread.

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Approximately 2 hours from Zouérat, she crashed en route to IWM Duxford for preservation on July 13 1994.

Pelican 16's pilots successfully belly-landed the aircraft on flat sands where it slid to a stop at this location.

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She sustained moderate damage during the accident but remained intact, and has remained in place at the crash site to the present day. All 19 crew survived the incident.

Paste the following co-ords into Google to see the site on Google Maps

📌 22.630507, -13.237332

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Read 4 tweets
Jun 30
Today's Ghost WW2 Airfield #GhostWW2Airfields is RAF Silverstone 👻

Now better known as being the the home of British Motor Racing and the F1 Grand Prix 🏁🏎️

Then vs➡️now☑️ shown below...

Now let's take a closer look at Silverstone Airfield / Circuit in wartime...

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RAF Silverstone opened in 1943 as a base for training RAF flying Vickers Wellington bombers.

I don't have a photo of a Wellington at Silverstone, but here's an example...

Aircraft like this once sat on Silverstone Circuit, before thundering down a runway to take off.

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Speaking of which, here's a photo of Silverstone in 1983...

Despite being used for racing in the 1980s, you can still the runways and the sandy coloured aircraft dispersal pans where the bombers would be parked up.

In the 1980s it still looked like a WW2 airfield.

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Read 9 tweets
May 29
This wartime hut near Dunmow airfield in Essex was put up for sale for £1.45 million after being converted into a luxury 5 bedroom home.

Conversion photos in the thread... 🧵 Image
The hut is said to have once housed RAF and American service men near the former RAF station Great Dunmow in Essex. Image
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Read 9 tweets
May 28
A bunker on the site of RAF Ringstead, a former Royal Air Force radar station at Ringstead Bay, Dorset, has been converted into a holiday home.

Pics in the thread 🧵 Image
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Read 5 tweets
May 5
Ingenious ways the Japanese used decoys & visual illusions.

First, painting a B-29 to appear flying at several 1,000 ft. At altitude, gives illusion of B-29 w/ flames streaming from engine. Japanese hoped aircraft would drop to investigate and become targets for flak.

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Back on the airfield now, a dummy bomber made of wood and bamboo.

It's covered in plants and netting also, as if a real aircraft were being camouflaged - double bluff!

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More "camouflaged" dummy aircraft found on a Japanese airfield in Okinawa in April 16, 1945.

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Read 6 tweets

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