Xtended

Oct 27 2024 83 ep. 56 mins 514

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Ep.216 - Flying Through the Ranks, from Cold War to the Gulf

Oct 27 2024 51 mins

Air Marshal ‘Black’ Robertson CBE BA FRAeS FRSA flew all the RAF’s front-line fast jets and also qualified as a helicopter pilot. Now retired, he also completed five tours in Whitehall, which he describes as his time as a ‘Whitehall Warrior’. He is a well published author, including ’Fighters in the Blood’, ‘A Spitfire Named Connie’ and ‘From Spitfires to Vampi

Ep.215 - Bomber Command OTUs

Oct 13 2024 49 mins

Garth Barnard joins us to talk about his work cataloguing Bomber Command OTUs during WWII around central England. Aerodromes such as RAF Barford St John, RAF Bicester, RAF Chipping Warden, RAF Croughton, RAF Finmere, RAF Hinton-in-the-Hedges, RAF Silverstone, RAF Turweston and RAF Upper Heyford. Training crews flew aircraft such as the Hampden, Blenheim, Wellington, Mosquito an

Ep.214 - Claude Grahame-White

Sep 29 2024 51 mins

A new biography is being written on Claude Grahame-White. One that this will give more depth to the story behind the man who was a British aviation legend in his time and one who was sadly downtrodden and outcast by the government of the day. Joining us is Alison White who has taken on the task of correcting the historical record and resetting our perception of the man Recorded

Ep.213 - Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 16: Buying a Nimrod

Sep 22 2024 49 mins

Although we finished the main content of the Cold War Coastal Command series in the last chapter, a story emerged that we just couldn’t resist. Stephen Bridgewater, Deputy Editor for Aerospace Magazine and good friend of the show mentioned that he had in fact purchased an RAF Nimrod directly from the RAF back in 2010. After Steve’s story, Gareth joins the feature as he was the

Ep.212 - Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 15: Flying the Nimrod

Sep 15 2024 48 mins

In our final Chapter of the Cold War Coastal Command series, we are honoured to speak to Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, KCB, CBE, ADC, FCMI, FRAeS. Sir Brian takes us not only through flying the Nimrod and Nimrod operations in the Cold War period, but also explains how the Nimrod was used strategically in theatres such as the Falklands War, Operation Telic and the Iraq War

Ep.211 – Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 14: Nimrod XV250 The Maid of Moray

Sep 08 2024 50 mins

Nimrod XV250 is based at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington near York. She was dedicated by the Archbishop of York to stand as a permanent tribute to the 14 British servicemen killed in Afghanistan when Nimrod XV230 crashed near Kandahar in September 2006. Her team of volunteers keep her in a ground running condition to remember all Aircrew and Groundcrew who served on "Th

Ep.210 - Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 13: Nimrod's Genesis

Sep 01 2024 38 mins

The Shackleton replacement now started to become more urgent. For years the Air Staff and Ministries had argued over what type should replace the Shackleton, including variants of the Vulcan, Britannia, VC10 and Trident, before settling for the Nimrod in 1964 We return to Chris Gibson, author of the brilliant book 'Nimrod’s Genesis' to learn how the process unfolded. R

Ep.209 - Cold War Coastal Command Avro Shakleton MR2 WR693

Aug 25 2024 52 mins

There is a Shackleton that still ‘Growls’ and this chapter features Shackleton MR2 WR963, currently based at Coventry but with a major project underway to move her to Elvington and the Yorkshire Air Museum. We speak to Richard Woods the driving force behind the project all about the aircraft and how to engineer the airframe when very few original engineers are still with us. R

Ep.208 – Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 11: The Old Grey Lady

Aug 18 2024 48 mins

In this feature we talk to Ian Chisolm, Secretary of the Coastal Command and Maritime Air Association, about the RAF’s Avro Shackleton. Ian logged over 3,000 hours as an Air Electronics Officer (AEO) in charge of a team of five SNCO Air Electronics Operators who manned the Radio, Radar and Underwater Acoustics systems as well as the 20mm Hispano cannons fitted in the nose turret

Ep.207 - Cold War Coastal Command Chapter 10 - The Threat

Aug 11 2024 47 mins

At the end of World War Two RAF Coastal Command faced the same challenges of all the British military services, one of reduction, cutbacks and a return to a peaceful world. The threat from the axis powers had been effectively squashed but there was a new threat emerging, in the form of the Soviet Union. Coastal Command had to start learning about new adversaries once again, adap