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No. 486 Squadron pilots at Volkel, Holland
Left to right: Flying Officer OD Eagleson, Flying Officer DJ Thomson, Squadron Leader KG Taylor-Cannon, Flying Officer RJ Danzey, Flight Lieutenant WJ Shaw, Flight Lieutenant JH Stafford, Flying Officer KA Smith, Flying Officer RD Bremner, Flight Lieutenant CJ McDonald and Flight Lieutenant AR Evans.
 
 
"Reaching Newchurch airfield at 480 mph I held "RB" down to 20 ft from the runway and then pulled her up to a 60 ° climb holding it as the speed dropped slowly off and the altimeter needle spun round the dial as if it were mad. At 7000 ft the speed was dropping below 180 mph and I rolled the Tempest lazily inverted, then allowed the nose to drop until the horizon, at first above my head, disappeared below (or rather above) the now inverted nose, the fields and woods steadied into the centre of the windscreen and then whirled around as I put the stick hard over and rolled around the vertical dive. Steadying again I pulled out over the tree tops at 500 mph, throttled back and pulled hard over towards the airfield in an over-the-vertical climbing turn, lowering the wheels and flaps in a roll as the speed dropped. What a magnificent aeroplane! They could have all their Spitfires and Mustangs!"
("My part of the sky", Roland Beamont)

"The Messerschmitt Me 262's most dangerous opponent was the British Hawker Tempest - extremely fast at low altitudes, highly-manoeuvrable and heavily-armed."
(Hubert Lange, Me262 pilot)



Latest updates:

Tempest Mk.II MW758

28 Feb 2023
MW758 has moved to a new location, the South Wales Aviation Museum at St Athan.

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Eagles of Destiny

13 Nov 2022
The Eagles of Destiny mini-series covers the early years of Royal Pakistan Air Force, initially while still being ...

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Latest Releases

6 Nov 2022
Tempest II - An illustrated history of the Tempest Mk. II and FlyPast December 2022 added.

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Tempest Mk.II MW376

31 Aug 2022
On 31 August was the roll-out of MW376 which is available for viewing at the KF Centre for Excellence.

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