Here's a thread of Stirling bombers being manufactured in factories.

18 photos, so perhaps put the coffee on first. ☕️

Here are photos of crazy aviation-themed American diners from days gone by.

William Penn Diner.
Hares Corner, Delaware. The "Dugout" in the 1920s.
Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, June 1930.

Here's a thread of Messerschmitt Me-262s, captured on German airfields by the Allies.

13 photos in the thread (unlucky for some).

The last tweet in the thread has a link to even more.

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Here's a stunning gallery of photos taken by George Rodger, an English war correspondent for LIFE magazine.

This gallery contains photos of the "Flying Tigers" in and around Mingladon Airfield, outside of Rangoon.
Burma, 1942

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Here's a thread of colour photos from the Second World War, showing various pieces of nose art by the USAAF across a range of aircraft and airfields.

Incredible art.

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Here's a (rather niche and short) thread of aircraft that crash landed in Switzerland during the Second World War.

P-51 Mustang.
Buchs, St Gallen, February 1945

🧵 A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, known as the Lonesome Polecat. Seen here being fished out of Lake Zug in 1952.

Here's a selection of crashed and trashed Luftwaffe aircraft, all of which have been colourised by RJM.

13 photos, unlucky for some🐈‍⬛

First up, looks like this Messerschmitt 109 is off to the scrapyard. It was shot down at Penshurst Aerodrome, Kent Oct 1940.

🧵1/13 Messerschmitt Bf 109E1 7.JG53 White 15.
Force landed in France, 1940

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Who doesn't like an aircraft graveyard?

Here's a short selection of WW2 aircraft junkyards.

Makes you wonder how much these aircraft would be worth today if they had not been trashed or recycled.

First up, B17 Flying Fortresses as far as the eye can see in Arizona.

🧵1/13 Unserviceable Supermarine Spitfire fuselages lined up on trestles at No. 156 Maintenance Unit, Blida, Algeria. © IWM (CNA 3301)

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15 September 1940.
Today is Battle of Britain day.

Here's a thread of Battle of Britain photos that originally appeared in LIFE magazine during WW2, accompanied with some original captions describing the airfield scenes.

🧵1/8 "England’s most important young men today are the several thousand youth who fly Hurricane and Spitfire fighters. They undoubtedly saved England from Nazi invasion. Hitler must knock them all out of the air over Britain before he dares invade England this spring."

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Not posted many dogs on WW2 airfields recently, so here's some new ones to brighten your day. 🐶

Commanding Officer, Desmond J. Scott in the cockpit of a Spitfire with his wire haired fox terrier 'Kim', RAF Hawkinge, Kent, 1943.

Colour by Colourised PIECE of JAKE

🧵1/10 RAF Pilot Officer with a dog - Mid 1940. Location is possibly RAF North Weald or RAF Martlesham Heath.

LIFE Magazine Archives - William Vandivert

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Here's another WW2-era air crash site you can see on Google maps.

The co-ords are in the last tweet in the thread 📌

In January 1943, B-23 "Dragon Bomber" went down at Loon Lake, USA, with eight men aboard...

They were attempting to land the B-23 on the frozen lake.

🧵1/6 The B-23 was returning to Tacoma, Washington from a training mission in Nevada when it flew into a heavy snow storm.

Unable to maintain altitude, the pilot decided to attempt a landing in Boise.

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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.

🧵1/7 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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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.

🧵1/8 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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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.

🧵1/3 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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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...

🧵1/9 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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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... 🧵 The hut is said to have once housed RAF and American service men near the former RAF station Great Dunmow in Essex.

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 🧵

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.

🧵1/6 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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German airfield photos from the Second World War, from the LIFE magazine archives.

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A thread of colourised WW2 airfield photos to start the day.

(Credits on the watermarks, otherwise unknown).

☕️

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In 1947, Art Lacey purchased a B-17 bomber for $13,750 and flew it from Oklahoma to Troutdale.

He disassembled it, transported it covertly, and placed it atop his 48-pump gas station.

🧵1/4 Lacey also opened the Bomber Restaurant and motel. The gas station was closed in 1991, Lacey died in 2000.

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