Wales-Swansea Bay Air Show 2024. Part-One.

 Fairy Swordfish-II.

A vintage visitor to Swansea this aircraft was conceived in 1933 and was much needed in 1939 on the out break of World War-II (1939-45), she was a bi-plane and stood her ground beside the famous Spitfires and Hurricanes on many an airfield.

Yet she was a torpedo bomber and came into her own right serving on the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal, Courageous, Eagle, Furious and Glorious, despite looking old of another era she was well capable for the task in hand and could armed with various machine guns and bomb pods, despite still carrying a 730 Kg torpedo.

Operational from 1936 with the RAF and Fleet Air Arm she claimed her first success in 1943 destroying Nazi-German U-boat U64 in the Atlantic ocean, despite an open cockpit and suffering weather the crews fought on with determination against a vile enemy!

Some aircraft were fitted with floats, others with a catapult and the first enclosed cabin came on the Canadian Mk4 

After the war the type continues to operate in Canada, China and Brazil and were eventually phased out for improved types.

Warships? Part-Two.

Aircraft Carriers, Helicopter cruisers and Other.

The world of war shipping is very extensive in the last one hundred years we have moved from big guns to missiles defence systems and the role to mine the seas and have torpedo tubes have all been incorporated into several designs large and small!

The aircraft carrier one would like to think came with the arrival of the aeroplane, but new data has revealed that ships fitted with hot air balloons though limited were prevalent in the 19th Century.

Today there has been a need to save money and to multitask war ships with helicopters, jump jets and now drones both aircraft and rotor and as we move on this is much cheaper and safer in the long term with the microchip and satellite communications?

The U.S. perhaps leads the world in nuclear powered vessels followed by Russia, the U.K., France, China, Japan, Australia, India, Thailand, Italy, Spain and Brazil?

Italian deployments for COVID-19.

IVECO .

At this time most of us across the globe cannot escape the serious requirement to stay indoors because of this virulent virus that is spreading and worsening as it has in both China and now Italy?

It is noted with the deployment of the army to maintain a lockdown some vehicles deployed came from the Iveco range, Trakker At190T, LMV (2) Light, the MUV utility M40.is Torpedo and the WNS Ambulance version.

These type are the basis of a paramilitary support to the Police and are the versatile end of a successful range of good quality military hardware!

We tend to only know Iveco for limited number of heavy goods vehicles in which they are employed in the building industry, but Italy has its own manufacturing base for many important types and their own equivalents the Jeep?