Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer
@aviationarchive • 43,255 subscribers
USAF Veteran — curator, colorizer, and HD/4k restorer of unique and rare military, aviation, WWI and WWII videos.🫡
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Complete with a fake town and Ice Cream Parlor, in 1944 the Allies secretly laid flexible pipelines in the English Channel under the code name Operation Pluto to keep fuel flowing after the Normandy landings. These lines, based on adapted submarine cable technology and spooled out from special ships and giant floating reels called Conundrums, ran from England to ports like Cherbourg and later Boulogne. Pumping stations on the English coast were hidden in plain sight, disguised as ordinary seaside bungalows, cottages, and even Brown’s Ice Cream Parlor so German reconnaissance would see nothing but a quiet holiday town. By early 1945 the network was pumping nearly a million gallons of gasoline a day, and by VE Day it had carried well over 170 million gallons across the water, helping keep Allied tanks and trucks moving all the way into Germany.
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer2,144,732 views • 1 month ago
In April 1945 American forces seized the German V-2 engine test stands at the Lehesten slate quarry in Thuringia and restarted static firings of the captured motors on the existing benches. They measured thrust output, combustion stability, and overall reliability under controlled conditions. The tests also let ordnance teams document the hardware and procedures before the site passed into Soviet hands later that summer. From the Mittelwerk plant the United States shipped out components sufficient for about 100 complete rockets, later assembling and launching 67 of them at White Sands. Britain received the remaining parts after the American haul and assembled eight rockets for its own tests, while Soviet forces took what was left in their zone and assembled roughly 30 for launches at Kapustin Yar.
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer1,114,269 views • 1 month ago
In February 1969, U.S. forces sprayed weed killer from riverboats along the Saigon River in South Vietnam, stripping heavy vegetation that hid VC ambush sites for miles. The defoliant cleared cover used for attacks on shipping and patrols, improving visibility and reducing threats in the dense riverbanks. Operations like this targeted areas where thick jungle provided perfect concealment for enemy fighters.👀
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer1,354,190 views • 1 month ago
Britain’s most expensive research aircraft costing 20 million pounds(£1bn to build today), the Bristol Type 188 first flew on April 14, 1962 from Filton, built to study kinetic heating in sustained supersonic flight—directly contributing towards the development of the Concorde. Two flying prototypes and one static airframe were completed. Twin Gyron Junior afterburning turbojets took XF926 to Mach 1.88, about 1,240 mph, at 36,000 feet. Fuel burn was so high that typical flights lasted around 25 minutes, with most of the tank used just climbing to altitude. The program ended in 1964 and the XF926 is still on display at the RAF Museum Cosford.
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer74,199 views • 3 days ago
On February 21, 1968, U.S. Marines brought the M50 Ontos into action along the Perfume River during the Battle of Huế in Hue City, Vietnam. The 9-ton tracked vehicle, nicknamed the Thing, mounted six 106mm recoilless rifles and could thread the city’s narrow streets and alleys where the heavier 50-ton M48 tanks often could not. That day Marine infantry used Ontos fire to reduce NVA strongpoints and fortified buildings as units pressed toward the Citadel walls on the north bank of the river. Its rapid salvos of high-explosive and beehive rounds blasted openings through masonry and silenced flanking fire from across the water, giving rifle companies the direct support they needed in the tight urban fight. Colonel Stanley S. Hughes later called the Ontos the most effective of all Marine supporting arms in the battle. 🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer143,696 views • 10 days ago
During WWII, in 1944 the U.S. Army built one of the largest-calibre guns ever produced, a 36-inch (914 mm) mortar they nicknamed Little David, having a larger calibre than both of Germany's Schwerer Gustav and Dora which were 31.5-inch (800 mm) railway guns. It fired a 3,650 lb (1,660 kg) shell at 1,250 feet per second (381 m/s) out to 9,500 yards(8.7 km). The complete weapon weighed 173,000 pounds and traveled in two loads—an 80,000 lb (36,000 kg) barrel and a 93,000 lb (42,000 kg) base—hauled by heavy tractors and ready to fire in about twelve hours. Meant first for the Siegfried Line and later for Japanese fortifications, it never fired a shot in combat.🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer481,164 views • 1 month ago
During World War II, the German Luftwaffe trained bomber gunners using a mechanical motion simulator known as the Wackeltopf (wobble pot). This forced them to master deflection shooting principles while simultaneously compensating for the physical disorientation of a unstable firing platform.
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer938,103 views • 2 months ago
The German Luftwaffe used a high-tech ground simulator during WWII called the "Bombenteppich" (Bomb Carpet). Instead of flying, student bombardiers stood on a raised platform above a giant, mechanically driven conveyor belt painted with target terrain. The belt moved at the exact apparent ground speed of a combat aircraft. Cadets used real bombsights to track targets, calculate drift, and trigger mock releases. They weren't allowed to drop live ammunition from real planes until they mastered this moving map simulator.
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer873,394 views • 1 month ago
On 22 December 1943 at the new Torokina fighter strip on Bougainville, Marine and Navy ground crews prepared 100-pound bombs that had been field-modified by wrapping them with .50 caliber rounds. 👀 These were loaded onto SBD Dauntless dive bombers operating from the still-expanding airfield. The modified bombs supported early Allied air strikes aimed at Japanese ground positions as part of the larger effort to isolate the major base at Rabaul. Seabee construction continued around the same strip while fighters and bombers flew daily sorties in the northern Solomons campaign.🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer554,461 views • 1 month ago
In 1914 Harry L. Bowdoin filed a patent for a "Submarine Armor", it was granted in 1915, and by 1918 he had completed his invention, a 1,400-pound metal diving suit. Designed to explore deep-sea caves and sunken ships, the all-metal atmospheric armor used gears and levers so the diver could move the oil-filled rotary arms and legs. Twin 1,000-watt lamps on the shoulders lit the darkness, and tests off the New Jersey coast had already lowered the empty suit to 400 feet and Bowdoin himself to 200 feet, where he walked the seabed for 45 minutes. The suit and Bowdoin gained fame with an attempt to salvage the sunken treasure of Spanish gold and jewels from the Golden Hoard of Davy Jones, which was believed to be worth more than USD80 million. Supported by “men of wealth”, the expedition aimed to have Bowdoin descend to the seabed in his suit and retrieve the many treasures as well as study the mysterious realm below. The outcome of the expedition isn’t known, and little further information has been printed on the suit’s design.👀
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer256,165 views • 28 days ago
Invented by the British in 1944, allied fighters used paper drop tanks of glue-soaked kraft paper to extend range. The lightweight tanks leaked after hours so crews filled them right before takeoff then dropped them after use saving metal and denying scrap to the enemy.🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer635,013 views • 2 months ago
On January 26, 1960, Airman Bruce C. Barwise climbed into a B-58 Hustler Bomber escape capsule and was set adrift in the icy waters of Lake Erie near Buffalo to prove the Hustler’s life-support and survival systems could keep a crewman alive for three full days. He spent most of the 72 hours curled in a fetal position inside the cramped, unheated capsule as winds whipped the surface and temperatures hovered near freezing. Barwise pumped out constant seepage with a small bilge pump, drew air through a snorkel when the hatch was sealed, and lost twelve pounds by the time the test ended. When the capsule was finally hauled aboard he stepped out under his own power, still in good shape and ready for more. 🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer248,866 views • 1 month ago
On April 24, 1952, a Nike missile successfully intercepted and completely destroyed in mid-air a remotely controlled QB-17 bomber high over White Sands. WSMR IGOR tracking telescope operator Joe Marlin photographed the intercept and won the 1955 Ernie Pyle Award for outstanding still photography in support of national security.🤘😎
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer558,143 views • 2 months ago
Before the F-14 Tomcat ever trapped aboard a carrier, its landing gear endured repeated drop tests at Grumman’s Calverton facility on Long Island to prove it could handle the hardest impacts in naval aviation. Engineers slammed the struts and structure onto test rigs designed to absorb 5.5 to 6.5 G touchdowns, completing hundreds of drops with sink rates as high as 26 feet per second at landing weights approaching 52,000 pounds. In June 1972 prototype number 10 moved to actual carrier suitability trials aboard the USS Forrestal. The aircraft made its first catapult launch from the ship on June 16, then on June 28 Lieutenant Commander Emory Brown completed the first arrested landing with Commander George White in the back seat. The airframe and gear held firm under the real stresses of the angled deck. 🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer96,600 views • 15 days ago
To comply with the START I treaty, the US Air Force had to eliminate 365 B-52 bombers from its inventory. Initially, the B-52s were chopped into pieces with a 13,000-pound guillotine supported by a crane because that was the only know way to stop a B-52.🫡
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer765,488 views • 4 months ago
During World War I, the Italian Royal Army integrated flamethrowers and synchronized artillery barrages to breach heavily fortified Austro-Hungarian positions along the Isonzo front and in the Alps. The Italian command established specialized flamethrower units, known as flammieri, who were equipped with both imported French Schilt apparatuses and domestically produced DLF models. These weapons delivered a stream of pressurized liquid fire directly into enemy bunkers and trenches, projecting a devastating psychological and physical impact at close range. Because the range of portable flamethrowers was limited, their deployment required precise tactical coordination with frontline infantry assets. To maximize the effectiveness of these assault teams, the military relied on heavy artillery to execute moving fire barrages. These bombardments laid down a dense curtain of high explosives that systematically suppressed enemy machine-gun nests and forced defenders deep into their dugouts. Elite Italian shock troops, the Arditi, utilized the cover of these barrages to advance across no-man's-land, arriving at the lip of the Austro-Hungarian trenches the exact moment the artillery fire lifted. Once inside the defensive network, the combination of flamethrowers, hand grenades, and daggers allowed Italian forces to rapidly clear entrenched positions that had previously resisted standard infantry assaults
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer263,771 views • 1 month ago
Battle sleds were half torpedo shells that pulled infantrymen behind tanks. Invented by Gen. O'Daniel (observing), they were used during the battle of Anzio—with 360 built. Half of them were salvaged for later use during the invasion of S. France. Infantrymen were not fans.👀
Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer647,510 views • 3 months ago