Alastair Donald Mackintosh "Sandy" Gunn (27 September 1919 – 6 April 1944), was a British photo reconnaissance pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War, who flew which British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries?
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Sandy Gunn Alastair Donald Mackintosh "Sandy" Gunn (27 September 1919 – 6 April 1944), was a British Supermarine Spitfire photo reconnaissance pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. Gunn took part in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, and was one of the men re-captured and subsequently executed by the "Gestapo".
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Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries before, during and after World War II. The Spitfire was built in many variants, using several wing configurations, and was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft. It was also the only British fighter to be in continuous production throughout the war. The Spitfire continues to be popular among enthusiasts; about 54 remain airworthy, while many more are static exhibits in aviation museums throughout the world.
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List of aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps This is a list of aircraft used by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from 13 April 1912, when it was formed from the Air Battalion Royal Engineers, until 1 April 1918 when it was merged with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF). The RFC operated in parallel with the RNAS, whose aircraft are listed at List of aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service. For a list of Royal Air Force aircraft see List of aircraft of the Royal Air Force.
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Armstrong Whitworth Starling The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.14 Starling was a British single-engine biplane fighter developed for the Royal Air Force in the 1920s. The plane was an unsuccessful model, with the Bristol Bulldog being selected instead.
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Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the earlier Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters. However the Battle was weighed down with a three-man crew and a bomb load. Despite being a great improvement on the aircraft that preceded it, by the time it saw action the Battle was relatively slow, limited in terms of range and was quickly found to be highly vulnerable to both anti-aircraft fire and hostile fighters, possessing only two defensive .303 in machine guns.
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Fairey Hendon The Fairey Hendon was a British monoplane heavy bomber of the Royal Air Force designed by Fairey Aviation in the late 1920s, which served in small numbers with one Squadron of the RAF between 1936 and 1939. It was the first all-metal low-wing monoplane to enter service with the RAF.
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H.D. Harvey-Kelly Hubert Dunsterville Harvey-Kelly (1891–1917) was a British First World War pilot who was credited with being the first Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilot to land in France in the war, and of being the first RFC pilot to down an enemy aircraft. He was eventually shot down during Bloody April and died of head wounds in a German hospital.
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John Salmond Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Maitland Salmond, {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (17 July 1881 – 16 April 1968) was a British military officer who rose to high rank in the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served as a squadron commander, a wing commander and then as General Officer Commanding the RAF on the Western Front towards the end of the war. He went on to be Air Officer Commanding British Forces in Iraq in the early 1920s when he halted a Turkish invasion and sought to put down a Kurdish uprising against King Faisal, the British-sponsored ruler of Iraq. He was Chief of the Air Staff in the early 1930s and bitterly opposed the position taken by British politicians at the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, which would have led to the UK's complete aerial disarmament. In the event the talks broke down when Adolf Hitler withdrew from the Conference in October 1933.
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Sopwith Snipe The Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed and built by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War, and came into squadron service a few weeks before the end of the conflict, in late 1918.
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Brian Lane (RAF officer) Brian John Edward "Sandy" Lane, DFC (18 June 1917 – 13 December 1942) was a fighter pilot and flying ace of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and an author.
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Cyril Stanley Bamberger Cyril Stanley "Bam" Bamberger, (4 May 1919 – 3 February 2008) was a Royal Air Force pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain, the defence of Malta and the Korean War.
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Blackburn Firebrand The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the allocation of its Napier Sabre piston engine by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the Hawker Typhoon caused it to be redesigned as a strike fighter to take advantage of its load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953.
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Sopwith B.1 The Sopwith B.1 was an experimental British bomber aircraft of the First World War. A single-seat, single-engined biplane, the B.1 was built by the Sopwith Aviation Company for the Royal Navy. Although only two were built, one was used for bombing raids over France.
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Blackburn Dart The Blackburn Dart was a British carrier-based torpedo bomber biplane, manufactured by Blackburn Aircraft, which first flew in 1921. The Dart was the standard single-seat torpedo bomber used by the Fleet Air Arm from 1923 until 1933. A modified variant was also sold to Greece, where they served with the Greek Navy.
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Robert Saundby Air Marshal Sir Robert Henry Magnus Spencer Saundby {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (26 April 1896 – 25 September 1971) was an RAF officer whose career spanned both World War I and World War II. He distinguished himself gaining five victories during World War I, and was present during the air battle when Lanoe Hawker was shot down and killed by Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron". He is chiefly remembered for his role as Deputy AOC in C Bomber Command under Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris during the latter part of World War II.
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Fiat G.50 The Fiat G.50 "Freccia" ("Arrow") was a World War II Italian fighter aircraft. First flown in February 1937, the G.50 was Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage to go into production. In early 1938, the "Freccias" served in the "Regia Aeronautica" (the Italian Air Force), and with its expeditionary arm, the "Aviazione Legionaria", in Spain, where they proved to be fast and, as with most Italian designs, very manoeuvrable. However, it had inadequate weaponry (two Breda-SAFAT 12.7-mm machine guns). The Fiat G.50 was also used in small numbers by the Croatian Air Force and 35 were shipped to Finland, where they served with distinction, with an unprecedented kill/loss ratio of 33/1.
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Guy Griffiths Guy Beresford Kerr "Griff" Griffiths (6 June 1915 – 12 July 1999) was a Royal Marine pilot. He served as a pilot during the Second World War and gained notoriety as a prisoner of war for using his artistic skills to forge documents and provide misinformation by feeding Nazi intelligence with fake sketches of British aircraft. After the war he continued to fly various types of aircraft as a test pilot and has the distinction of being the first Royal Marines officer to fly a helicopter.
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Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk is a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the company's first jet aircraft.
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No. 74 Squadron RAF No. 74 Squadron RAF, also known as "Tiger Squadron" from its tiger head motif, was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It operated fighter aircraft from 1917 to the 1990s.
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James Harry Lacey James Harry "Ginger" Lacey, (1 February 1917 – 30 May 1989) was one of the top scoring Royal Air Force fighter pilots of the Second World War and was the second highest scoring RAF fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain, behind Pilot Officer Eric Lock of No. 41 Squadron RAF. Lacey was credited with 28 enemy aircraft destroyed, five probables and nine damaged.
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Alexander Appleford Flight Lieutenant Alexander N Robin L Appleford was one of the youngest fighter pilots who flew with the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, and was one of the aircrew known as "The Few".
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Walter Morison Flight Lieutenant Walter McDonald Morison (26 November 1919 – 26 March 2009) was a Royal Air Force pilot who became a prisoner of war and was sent to Colditz for attempting to steal an enemy aircraft during the Second World War.