Boeing P-8 Poseidon - Walkaround at Le Bourget - Academy 1:144

recent builds of the Academy Poseidon in 1:144 by Thomas, Steve and Stu. US Navy  P-8 "759" photographed by this blogger at Le Bourget, Paris in June 2025 where it was on static display.

text based on Des Brennan's "Poseidon - both hunter and hunted" in SAM Vol 45/4

The Boeing P-8 is a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft developed and produced by Boeing Defence, Space and Security, and derived from the civilian Boeing 737-800. Developed for the United States Navy the type flies anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,and search and rescue missions. On 20 July 2007, the Australian Minister for Defence announced that the P-8A was the preferred aircraft to replace the Royal Australian Air Force fleet of Lockheed AP-3C Orions, followed by the United Kingdom in 2012, Norway in 2014, then New Zealand, South Korea, and Germany. 

Poseidon MRA.1 ZP805/05/Fulmar (the Naval Air Station name for Lossiemouth prior to it becoming an RAF base) operated by a crew from No.120 Squadron based at RAF Lossiemouth drops a torpedo (recoverable exercise variant of the Mk 54) over the Moray Firth in July 2021. The rear fuselage weapons bay doors are still open, the forward fuselage FLIR ball is lowered, and no wing pylons are fitted. (Cpl. Adam Fletcher Open Government Licence) 

Poseidon P-8A YD/755 (168755) of Patrol Squadron VP-4 ‘The Skinny Dragons’ overhead Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, in February 2020 during Exercise Dynamic Mantra 2020. This gives a good view of the various aerials and sensors under the aircraft, the inboard wing mounted weapons pylon, and the mounting plinth for the outer as well as the location of the weapons bay aft of the wing. (US Navy photo)

The US Navy has 133 P-8s in service. With a six-screen glass cockpit the P-8 is operated by two pilots on the flight deck with another seven members of the crew operating the mission systems from consoles in the cabin, of which originally five but later upgraded to seven can be installed. The P-8’s maximum speed is 490 knots/564mph (908 kph), it has a service ceiling of 41,000 ft (12,500m), and an unrefuelled range of 4,500 miles (7250 km). Endurance is around ten hours but this can be doubled with air-to-air refuelling (AAR) although unusually for a US Navy aircraft (and for some of those current users who practice that art) only the flying boom method is provided for, as opposed to their long-standard use of the probe-and-drogue method.

The UK ordered 9 examples of the P-8 in 2019 with deliveries beginning in early 2020 and completed two years later although in the past year RAF sources have commented on the need for a further three aircraft to meet changed threat levels. Aircraft are operated on a pooled basis from RAF Lossiemouth by Nos.120 and 201 Squadrons with training conducted by No.54 Squadron’s Poseidon Flight

Note Steve's build of RAF Poseidon  ZP 804 "04" (below) has Harpoons installed on the wing pylons.

Model build below by Stu Davies

a tour around the RAF Museum Hendon, James Holland and Al Murray

 

James Holland and Al Murray take a tour around the RAF Museum Hendon in north London. Certainly one of the world's great aviation collections, but somewhat diminished in the view of this blogger since the move of key airframes both to Cosford and abroad. The twin-seat Fw 190 is in Germany, the Me 262 and 'black 6' are in Cosford. However since I was last there the Me 163 Komet has come down to London from Cosford at least. This video is well worth watching as the guys climb inside, inspect, and analyze with contemporary footage some of WW II's most legendary fighters and bombers. Subtitled 'beyond the ropes', the nice thing about Hendon is that there are so few ropes - as you can see from my photos below - and certainly no staff around to keep visitors the 'right' side of them! So many types  in the museum at Hendon that were not mentioned - eg, Bf 110 G, Ju 87 Stuka, He 111- lets hope there's another video soon.

A single click inside the red box to view here


00:00 - Intro: Behind the ropes at RAF Hendon
00:19 - The Avro Lancaster: Inside the heavy bomber
08:48 - Bristol Beaufighter: The Twin engined bruiser
14:30 - The Wooden Wonder: De Havilland Mosquito
20:10 - The Rocket: Me 163 Komet
31:06 - Spitfire Vs Hurricane
33:40 - Hawker Hurricane: The unsung hero
43:33 - Supermarine Spitfire
53:45 - The Bf 109

Some photos taken by this blog on our last visit of the types looked at in the video . Click on the image to get a bigger view.

  

Duxford Battle of Britain airshow September 2025 - Hurricane!

some nice images of just some of the Spitfires and Hurricanes at the show courtesy of Jarek Rozanski. Now a lot of people had a wonderful time at the show and saw a number of rare visitors from Europe despite the cancellations. But an entry ticket cost £54 per person with added parking. The public days at Paris Le Bourget were just 18 euros by way of comparison. So I am grateful to Jarek and others who have posted some marvellous images from the show. And I wish that I had been there, despite the price of admission!

Building the new Airfix 48th Sepecat Jaguar GR. 1 (3)

 

Airfix 1:48 Jaguar GR.1 build continues. No issues. Concentrating on sticking the 'large' parts so we can get some paint on soon. Slats, flaps and ailerons just clip in. (edit:  the Jaguar wing does not feature ailerons but has spoilers on the upper surfaces) I notice some builders have left these parts off to paint and weather separately - no idea why you might need to do that. Care needs to be exercised when removing these parts from the sprue though - some youtubers have inadvertently cut off the extension tracks, which otherwise allows you to clip these parts into position easily. A smear of PPP in the upper wing join, wiped off with acetone to avoid any sanding. The intakes are fitted and just slide into position - Airfix supply a 'jig' to get them 'square' but I didn't feel the need to use it. There's also a jig to drill the options for the intake-mounted VHF aerial(s). There's also two tailfins - an 'early' and 'late' with the RWR.

In the rain at Fairford in 1995 (IIRC) and, below, standing under the wing of the Manston machine XZ 106. XZ 106 is a Gulf War veteran and at one time displayed 35 mission symbols in desert pink. In 2002 it received 'winter' camo and went to Bardufoss with 41 Sqd. It came to Manston via Bentwaters in 2010. Engines and other prominent features are missing from this airframe.

Building the new Airfix 48th Sepecat Jaguar GR. 1 (2)

 

Above; general view of the Jaguar forward fuselage showing the curved intake and the starboard 30mm cannon fairing. Note the cover in the intake. There were a number of different intake covers fitted to Jaguars, both in- and outside the aperture. This is the machine on display at the RAF Manston history museum, XZ 106, latterly of 41 Sqd. 

The new Airfix Jaguar GR. 1 build continues serenely. This is as close as Airfix will ever get to a Tamiya-style 'shake n' bake' kit  - yet still a 'Skill Level 4'. Must be something to do with the number of parts, because its not a difficult build at all. Everything just 'clips' into place. Gear and airbrake bays build up easily into each fuselage half before the cockpit pushes into the fuselage. While the 'fit' is mostly very good, there are a couple of seams that I'm not too thrilled with, especially just aft of the cockpit.

Next steps involve some detail painting of the gear bays and constructing the intakes, the tail and the other moveable surfaces - slats and flaps can all be fitted in extended mode. 

Below, a few more reference shots. Note Airfix recommend '27' for the gear legs  - which seems far too dark a grey. There are no colour call-outs for the interior of the airbrake doors - they seem to be in the same colour as the fuselage/lower surfaces..

Blenheim I at Duxford

 

400th post and just passed 993,000 page views. Here's something you don't see too often, some nice cockpit views of the Blenheim I at Duxford, courtesy of Ian Carvell.