Tag Archives: RAF

Brothers Rolls-Royce

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The phenomenal Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is surely one of the reasons that Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers were eventually defeated, bringing World War 2 to its end. Fitted to a huge array of aircraft, including JuliusZ D.’s recently blogged P-51B Mustang, the 27-litre British V12 is perhaps most famous for one particular application; the beautiful Supermarine Spitfire fighter.

Joining his P-51B Mustang, Juliusz has updated his Supermarine Spitfire model, photographing the two Allied fighters together (as shown in the image above), and refining the design much like the British engineers did during the conflict, with this variant being a Mk.XVIe as operated by the Polish Air Force.

Juliusz’s stunning build quality and presentation are immediately evident, and you can see more of his spectacular Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVIe, plus the North American P-51B Mustang which shared the Spitfire’s iconic Merlin engine, at his photostream; click these words to take a look.

Shock of the Lightning

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This is an English Electric Lightning, and it is the coolest fighter aircraft ever made.

Firstly, because it’s called the English Electric Lightning and secondly, because it was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon axial-flow jet engines stacked vertically, one atop the other.

Such immense power a gave the Lightning a top speed in excess of Mach 2, making it the only fighter of the time able to catch Concorde, and it is to this day still the only U.K designed and built interceptor to achieve twice the speed of sound.

It was also capable of an exceptional rate of climb, reaching 33,000ft from take-off in under three minutes, with an operational ceiling well in excess of double that – an important ability given its brief to intercept Russian nuclear bombers during the Cold War.

This brilliant Lego recreation of the English Electric Lighting comes from previous bloggee Dread Pirate Wesley, who has constructed a 1:55 F.3 series aircraft as operated by RAF Squadron 56.

This particular Lightning is a preserved surviving example available to see on display, but if you can’t get to RAF Bruntingthorpe you can check out the next best thing via Wesley’s photostream. Click the link above to get to Mach 2 very quickly indeed.

*Today’s title song.

BAE EAP & LR

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Today’s acronym is the British Aerospace Experimental Aircraft Programme (or EAP for short), the prototype air-superiority fighter that would eventually, via a cross-European collaboration, become the amazing Eurofighter Typhoon. Recreated here in its natty testing livery, Ralph Savelsberg has captured the aircraft brilliantly in mini-figure scale. A 5-wide RAF Land Rover Defender is on hand to assist with the testing programme and there’s more to see of both at Ralph’s photostream via the link.

Stop! Hangar Time

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War isn’t won just with planes, tanks and ships. Behind the scenes a huge machine needs to operate to keep the frontline moving, from medical care to mechanics and cookery to construction.

With shifting territory and short aircraft ranges in both world wars, runway and hangar building was as important to the war effort as the aircraft that used them. Often overlooked by Lego builders we have two builds today that recognise the behind-the-scenes heroes of the Allied victory in both wars.

First above (above) is Dread Pirate Wesley‘s superb First World War diorama, set somewhere in Northern France and featuring wonderful SE5a and Sopwith Camel biplanes alongside a brilliantly recreated canvas and wood hangar. It’s a stunning scene and one that you can see more of via the link to Wesley’s photostream above, where you can also find a trio of German Fokkers ready to meet the British fighters in the skies over France.

Today’s second wartime hangar (below) jumps forward around twenty-five years to the Second World War, with the canvas and wood replaced by concrete and tin, and the biplanes by the far more sophisticated Supermarine Spitfire, very probably the greatest fighter of the conflict. Builder Didier Burtin has curved LEGO’s grey baseplates under tension to create the impressive hangar, equipping with everything required to keep the pair of Spitfires airworthy.

There’s more to see of Didier’s beautiful Second World War diorama at his photostream via the link above, where you can also see what happens when a part fails on a 1940s fighter plane, and therefore why the heroes behind the scenes were as vital as those in the cockpits.

Typhoon

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This is a Eurofighter ‘Typhoon’, a multirole fighter developed across several countries in Europe. The UK is the largest operator, and a key engineer of the aircraft, hence the ‘Typhoon’ bit added to the name, as UK military aircraft tend be named after violent weather.

This incredible recreation of an RAF Typhoon is the work of crash_cramer of Flickr, who has recreated the Eurofighter in 1:15 scale with stunning attention to detail. A vacuum-formed canopy and 3D-printed nosecone join the LEGO bricks that make up this metre long replica, which is complete with two Meteor and two Asraam air-to-air missiles plus six slightly terrifying Paveway IV laser guided bombs.

There’s much more of this spectacular (and huge) replica of one of the world’s most agile fighter jets at crash_cramer’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump.

B is for Bomber

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It’s the 3rd of January and we still haven’t posted a car. No matter though, because just look at today’s find! This jaw-droppingly beautiful creation is a near-perfect replica of the Avro Lancaster B heavy bomber in Mk.1 specification, as built by Plane Bricks of Flickr.

The Lancaster was the RAF’s primary bomber during the Second World War, with over 7,000 built from 1941 to ’46. The aircraft was powered by four Rolls Royce Merlin liquid-cooled V12 engines, each making well over 1,200bhp, and was capable of carrying the largest payload of any bomber during the war, including the 10,000kg ‘Grand Slam Earthquake’ bombs and the amazing ‘bouncing bombs‘ used to take out German dams.

Lancaster bombers completed around 156,000 sorties during the Second World War, dropping bombs totalling over 600,000 tons, destroying dams, ships, bridges, railways, and armaments. The aircraft were also deployed to drop food aid over occupied Holland, preventing the starvation of thousands of people (a fine hour indeed), but also to indiscriminately fire-bomb the cities Hamburg and Dresden, resulting in their complete destruction and the deaths over 65,000 civilians (a less fine hour…).

Almost half of all the Lancasters built were lost during the war, with only thirty-five completing more than a hundred missions. Today seventeen Avro Lancasters survive of which two are airworthy, flying in Canada and the UK. For readers further afield Plane Brick’s stunning recreation of the Mk.1 Avro Lancaster offers a chance to see this war-defining bomber in incredible detail. With custom decals, superb brick-built camouflage, working land-gear, and a fully detailed interior, Plane Bricks’ mini-figure scale Avro Lancaster B is definitely worth a closer look. Join the fight on Flickr by clicking here.

The Most Beautiful Model…

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…of the most beautiful aircraft ever built. This is of course the thunderous Supermarine Spitfire, recreated in astonishing realism in Mk. 1a form by Lennart C of Flickr. There really aren’t words to do the photos justice, so we’ll get straight to the link. Click here to see more of this incredible creation.

Remembrance Sunday

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Today is Remembrance Sunday in The Lego Car Blog’s home nation, and never has a Lego image seemed more beautifully suited.

Henrik Jensen‘s wonderful dogfight between a German Fokker Eindecker EIII and his previously featured British Airco DH2 reminds us that the First World War claimed an enormous amount of life on both sides, and was the first war where conflict rather than disease caused the majority of the loss.

The war itself was pretty pointless, yet around 6 million Allied and 4 million Axis Powers servicemen lost their lives, along with an estimated 2 million civilians. We remember them all, including those our forebears fought against.

The Spinning Incinerator

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This odd contraption is an Airco DH.2, an early First World War fighter aircraft designed by legendary aeronautical pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.

The early years of flight were dangerous ones, with poor pilot training and machines pushing the boundaries of aeronautics almost continuously. This meant a huge incident rate (and the Airco DH.2 gaining the nickname in today’s title), but once the Royal Flying Corps were familiar with the design the DH.2 proved to be more than a match for its German counterparts, being highly manoeuvrable and relatively easy to fly.

The single Lewis machine gun mounted up front originally swung from side to side, but as pilots found it easier to aim with their aircraft than the gun it became fixed to the cockpit. Behind the pilot was a French 100bhp Gnome Monosoupape nine-cylinder radial engine, mounted there in ‘pusher’ configuration as unlike the Germans the British hadn’t yet developed a synchronisation system to allow a gun to fire between spinning propeller blades.

The Airco DH.2 had a ridiculously short yet successful career, destroying 44 enemy aircraft in The Battle of the Somme. Such was the pace of development in the First World War that just a year later the arrival of new German fighters meant DH.2 was outclassed and replaced by the DH.5, which itself only lasted a single year in combat operation before the S.E.5 arrived to see out the conflict, by this time looking far more like a plane we would recognise today.

This neat mini-figure scale recreation of the Airco DH.2 comes from Henrik Jensen, and it captures the aircraft’s weirdness rather well. With such a short life-span there are no surviving original DH.2s today, so this may be as close as we’ll get to seeing one – take a look at Henrik’s photostream via the link above, or at MOCpages here.

Not a Car

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But, in this writer’s opinion, the most beautiful aircraft of the Second World War. This gorgeous Supermarine Spitfire comes from Mike Fifer of MOCpages, and it contains some of the most brilliantly-built colouring of any model we’ve found. It’s not just the superb camouflage you can see in these pictures either, as the underside is rather special too. Click the link above to find out why.

Tornado

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British warplanes have the best names. Names such as Vampire, Hurricane, Typhoon, Lightning, and this, the awesome Panavia Tornado. Still a mainstay of the RAF and Luftwaffe, the Tornado has been in service since the late ’70s with nearly 1,000 produced during a twenty year production run. This outstanding Lego version of the iconic variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft has been built by Flickr’s Kenneth Vaessen, and is resplendent in German Naval strike specification, complete with Kormoran anti-ship missiles. There’s lots more to see at Kenneth’s photostream and it’s well worth your click – Go supersonic via the link above.

Three Little Birds

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It’s been a while since we posted a historic warplane here at The Lego Car Blog, so in rectification today we’ve got three! First up (above) is JBIronWorks’ beautiful blue Grumman F4F Wildcat and accompanying diorama. There’s more to see on Flickr by clicking here.

The second of today’s trio of Word War 2 fighters comes from Daniel Siskind, who has constructed a brilliant mini-figure scale replica of the legendary Supermarine Spitfire. Daniel’s version pictured here is a Mark V in desert camouflage and there’s lots more too see at his photostream – click the link above to make the trip.

The final creation in today’s threesome, representing the Axis Powers – and the nemesis of the Spitfire above, is the formidable Messerschmitt BF-109. This stunning recreation of the famous fighter has been built by Flickr’s Lennart C, and you can see more of his model by clicking here.

888,246

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Enough of vegetable carving and creepy kids, it’s time for a creation with a bit more meaning. This beautiful mini-figure scale World War 1 Sopwith Camel has been created by Flickr’s Daniel Siskind, and it has a special importance at the moment.

It’s 100 years since Great Britain joined the Great War, with a sacrifice of 888,246 military lives. Of course many more died on both sides of what was a pretty pointless conflict, and even more from disease and starvation. Mankind may have invented fairly sophisticated instruments of death during the war (the Sopwith Camel included), but instruments of preserving life were a long way behind.

You can see more of Daniel’s build here, and you can see the incredible memorial to the 888,264 that the UK is currently undertaking here.

Typhoon

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The RAF like aircraft named after tropical storms and their current BAE Systems Eurofighter Typhoon is one of the world’s finest fighter planes. 70 years earlier the Eurofighter’s grandfather was too. The Hawker Typhoon evolved from the Hurricane as a high altitude fighter, but teething problems meant it never fulfilled this role quite as was intended.

However, the monstrous 2000bhp engine meant that the Typhoon found a new role as a ground attack aircraft (in addition to its job shooting down the BMW-engined Focke-Wulf Fw 190), and it could carry a payload close to that of a dedicated light bomber.

Sadly only one Hawker Typhoon survives today, but K Wigboldy aka Thirdwigg has recreated the legendary World War 2 aircraft so well there might as well be two. His 1:13 Lego replica features the huge 24 cylinder engine that made the Typhoon such an effective weapon, plus an electrically powered variable pitch propellor, working landing gear, flaps, ailerons, elevator and rudder.

More photos can be found on MOCpages via the link above, and you can see all the details plus a video of the working functions by visiting Thirdwigg’s excellent website – find it in the Directory in the main menu.

Supermarine Spitfire

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We’ve not posted a plane for a while, so here’s one of our favourites; the beautiful Supermarine Spitfire, built here in Mk. IX form by Henrik Jensen on MOCpages. See all the photos at Henrik’s MOCpage.

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