'Miss Shilling's Orifice' is kinda funny as a nickname, but using it in the 2020s is bullshit (as well as tiresome). Tying the brilliant achievement of a female engineer to a fanny reference is not cool. I've used this term before myself and regret it.
Could not agree more. Time to ditch it.
Good series on the Dornier Do 24 et al by James. I'd add that the Dornier patent sponsons gave exceptional seaworthiness to these 'boats, and the Do 24 was a remarkable aircraft by any measure, as I explored in my Database for Aeroplane magazine in July 2024.
The cover of the Vickers Wellesley Database by James Kightly (your host here, too, and the cover of the full magazine 'Aeroplane' from October 2025, still available from Key Publishing.
The Vickers Wellesley's story is remarkable, inc 3 elements: A con Vickers pulled to try out what proved to be Barnes Wallis' surprisingly exceptional geodetic design; a world record that survived a world war; and being a remarkably good bomber in a left-over 1930s war. Cough: Aeroplane Oct 2025.
I really do begin to wonder what happens to flying display activity in this situation.
I could not agree more - though the problem, arguably, isn’t down to a lack of support from the enthusiastic public.
Thank goodness Newark found space for this under cover, given how other Varsities have been neglected by far bigger museums.
A brilliant, devastating response to Grammarly et al by @moryan.bsky.social that you really should read.
I love reading all the words that come from this "underpaid, deeply creative heart".
I would agree, though “alighting” is also in common usage.
It is impossible to imagine Eisenhower saying he would fight “without mercy” even against the Nazis; nor would he have reveled in the thought of death and destruction.
He would have regarded it not only as deeply un-American but also beneath his dignity as a serious career soldier.
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
The RAF Museum’s Vickers Vimy replica has gone to the National Aviation Museum of Korea. An announcement was made this morning: www.youtube.com/live/4ztXJx6...
The British Museum posted Al slop and quietly deleted it. Here's what it was and why it matters.
#archaeology🏺#musuem #culture #heritage #history
Photos taken after a reflective moment in #NAMHangar2 whilst trying to process yesterday’s shameful & uninformed comments by a supposed ally!
#LestWeForget
I’ve got a bridge to sell you if you believe this is going to happen.
If you are a non US citizen and operating an N reg aircraft this is an issue
www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa...
I can think of a few a/c this will effect
A shameful, deeply concerning development. And one that could happen under a far-right government in the UK, without a doubt.
Still using X? Or even worse, paying for it? If the hate speech wasn’t a good enough reason for you to leave, I wonder if Musk’s AI stripping clothes off your daughters and wives at the request of other users is? Those with big followers in mil hist should check themselves @almurray.bsky.social etc
It’s increasingly depressing that (a) so many online outlets in the aviation world think they can get away with running the most blatantly AI-generated or ‘enhanced’ written material, and that (b) a lot of people don’t seem to mind.
Now the only example of the type under cover in a UK museum, of course, which tells a very sad story.
Black American soldiers literally dug these WWII graves. Traumatic. To acknowledge that fact at a cemetery they helped construct is something the Heritage Foundation cannot accept. As Veterans Day approaches, never forget that this country both compels and disrespects Black military service. Always.
Aged like roadkill in RFK’s trunk.
What fun that was.
When genuine one-of-a-kind airframes are being increasingly either put outside or rendered incomplete, I think ‘one of several Vulcans but with a slightly different facility around it’ ranks low on the priority list.
There does come a point where one is forced to conclude there are more important aviation heritage causes than this, really. One of them is even in the same ownership.
I should imagine the BAe 146 isn’t deemed to count because it has American engines, which strikes me as, to put it mildly, semantics.
A cartoon of the Vickers Wellesley, ink line drawing, eggagerating the aircraft's distinctive features. Caption 'THE UNKIND UNTRUTH (With appologies in all directions) No 11: The Vickers Wesley or Sky-pilot.'
Cover of the Database feature and the Aeroplane magazine cover inset.
Aeroplane Monthly magazine is out in the UK, with my latest Database (No 21!) on the Vickers Wellesley, a remarkable, under represented aircraft. Here's a lovely cartoon of it which wasn't going to be used, and a (hint) link to the website if you'd like a copy! shop.keypublishing.com/products/aer...
We could have won the Vietnam War had we not been so woke.
Good to know that Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower are now to be considered "woke".
I can only second this. I have used it for an article for work and for private purposes, and to restrict this important facility would be a terrible limitation on all sorts of research.