Had to share this story

[Togo]

Been re-reading a book bought about 10 years ago.
In an appendix to "Above All Unseen" by Edward Leaf are operational notes handed to all new pilots in 680 Squadron, (Recon.), circa 1943.
One section headed "Cameras" reads,--

"There is the famous incident which occurred in No.1 PRU of a pilot who went to "dice" in the Ruhr in an aircraft fitted with an oblique camera. When he arrived at the target he did not know which side of the aircraft the oblique was fitted. He turned back and landed at the first aerodrome he came to in England and astonished the groundcrew there by leaping out of his aircraft as soon as it stopped rolling, running round it, leaping back in and disappearing again.
When you approach your aircraft you wiil be met by the ground AND the CAMERA personnel. They are not there to comfort you, but to give you information.-----"

Well, it made me chuckle!

 

[hewman100]

He wasn't flying a Mustang then, must have been a Spit as the obliques on some of those could be mounted either way.:costumes:

 

[sandar]

There is a famous story about using Spitfires for photo reconnaissance. It concerns Sidney Cotton, who pioneered aerial photo reconnaissance.

I can't remember the details, but the gist is this. When Cotton asked for Spitfires for P.R. he was told there was no way that the heavy cameras could be fitted because they would move the C. of G. to far aft,thereby rendering the aircraft dangerous to fly. Cotton wasn't convinced this was the case and persevered in his quest for Spitfires. Eventually the powers that be at Farnborough agreed to test a Spitfire with a camera installed if only to prove they were right and Cotton wrong.
Now this is where my memory dims. The tests were done which proved that the Spitfire was tail heavy, but just about flyable. Cotton then suggested that the ground crew might like to remove the large lump of lead ballast from the tail section of the fuselage that Cotton himself had put there. When that was done the Spitfire proved not to be at all tail heavy with the camera installed. Cotton got his Spitfires.

Sidney Cotton was a remarkable character, apart from 'inventing the Sidcot flying suit, used by many pilots and air forces for years, he also used a privately owned Lockheed Electra, secretly installed with cameras and photographed much of Germany before the war. The RAF's attempts at high altitude failed because the camera lenses suffered from condensation. Cotton's solution was simple, he ducted exhaust heat to the camera bay, problem solved.

 

[Willy]

Interesting thread with interesting timing. My next HWS Spotlight article that I'm currently working on covers the Spitfire PR.XIX

 

[Togo]

Sandar,
Yes, Cotton didn't have the same problem as the RAF as his Lockheed was a civil aircraft and therefore had cabin heating. It was only when he had to use military planes that the problems started