Lost but not forgotten

A Stirling (publicity photo of manufacturer Short)

The evening of March 29th, 1943. A young crew of 7 board their Short Stirling bomber with serial BK716 for their third mission. Target is Berlin. A feared destination, because of the heavy defence. And indeed BK716 disappears. For decades nobody knows what happened to them, until last year.

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Germany and Israel write aviation history together

In July 2020, for the first time in history, Israeli fighter aircraft landed on German soil. Six F-16 ‘Barak’ jets took part in the exercise Blue Wings 2020, together with two KC-707 tankers and two Gulfstream aircraft. Hosting them was fighter wing TLG31 ‘Boelcke’ of the German Luftwaffe, who operate the Eurofighter EF.2000 from Nörvenich air base.

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Market Garden 75th anniversary

Image courtesy Royal Netherlands Air Force

On September 17th  1944, the Allied Forces launched the largest ever airborne assault under the code name operation Market Garden. Aim was to take strategic bridges in the southern part of The Netherlands. Paratroopers would land deep in enemy territory and take the bridges. Ground forces simultaneously launched an offence to relieve the paratroopers and push forward into Germany.

Image: courtesy Royal Netherlands Air Force

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A new lease of life

Many airliner aircraft that are withdrawn from use, sadly end their lives anonymously in a scrapyard awaiting their turn to be recycled into soda cans.
B737 PK-LII not did end in a scrapyard. Instead, after a life full of flights all over the world, it found itself a new job on the Indonesian island of Bali.

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