Top Landing Gear

Tony Hoskins - Restoring Sandy’s Spitfire

Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps and the first part of our interview with Tony Hoskins who is restoring a rare photo reconnaissance Spitfire PR4 to full flight.

Back in 2018 Tony and his team recovered the wreckage of Spitfire AA810 from a mountainside in Norway where it had laid undisturbed for 76 years having been shot down on a mission to photograph the battleship Tirpitz. The pilot Sandy Gunn bailed out but was later captured and sent to Stalug Luft III to become one of those immortalised in The Great Escape.

Tony's aim is that 810 should become a flying memorial to the men and woman of the Photograph Reconnaissance Unit during World War Two. And as well as restoring the aircraft is campaigning to have a permanent monument to the PRU erected in London.

We visited Tony at Airframe Assemblies on the Isle of Wight where 810 is being painstakingly restored. In Part Two we'll take you around the workshop where you can hear how the restoration is taking shape. Here in part one Tony talks us through his ambitions for the project and the fascinating story of a very rare Spitfire and it's pilot. 

Please visit to https://www.spitfireaa810.co.uk to find out more and  how you can support this incredible project.

You can also purchase Tony’s wonderful book ‘Sandys Spitfire’, order signed prints of the aircraft or even have your name  engraved forever on the engine cowling HERE

Aerial reconnaissance and Restoring Sandy’s Spitfire AA810

Welcome to Top Landing Gear and the first episode proper of Series Five. Along with our usual catch up and 'Ask James' feature we talk aerial reconnaissance and hear the remarkable story of a very special Spitfire.

We speak to engineer and aerial restoration specialist Tony Hoskins who shares the incredible story of Spitfire AA810, a photo reconnaissance PR4 which was lost over occupied Europe whilst on the hunt for the German battleship Turpitz. He recalls the story of its remarkable pilot Sandy Gunn, who would be later immortalised in the mass escape from Stalag Luft III, and tells us about the aircraft's recent discovery in Norway and its painstaking relocation and planned restoration to flight. 

Please visit the Spitfire AA810 project page, a project dedicated to the memory of all the men of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit who risked, and gave, their lives during the second world war. 

Audacious Aviation - Alan Pollock and the Hawker Hunter that flew through Tower Bridge.

A massive thank you to all our listeners. So many wonderful words across social media about the return of Top Landing Gear this week.

After we mentioned it in last weeks episode we thought it only right to repeat our Audacious Aviation Podcast and 2020 interview with Hawker Hunter pilot Alan Pollock.

A brand new TLG episode will be dropping next Tuesday. 

The last 747 and airport near misses - Catching up on the latest aviation news and looking ahead to Series Five

Hello and welcome back to Top Landing Gear. The aviation podcast for everyone. After several months in the wilderness we’re back with a brand new series. Today we catch up on the latest aviation news and look forward to what’s coming up in Season Five of www.toplandinggear.com  

 

If you have a topic you would like us to consider or a question for our pilot and aviation expert get in touch via our socials or send us an email via info@toplandinggear.com

 

Thanks for listening

Series Five Starts Tomorrow

Top Landing Gear is back... (Well it will be tomorrow on TLG Tuesday!) Here's a quick overview of what we've got coming up over the coming weeks.

If you have a topic that you think we should cover this year or a question for our Ask James segment we would love to hear from you. Contact us via our socials or send us an email at info@toplandinggear.com

Until Tomorrow!

 

 

TLG on Eggheads Special

Hello and welcome back to Top Landing Gear after a bit of a hiatus during the summer. But we haven’t been totally idle in that time. Having said that we’re not launching the new series just yet. 

This episode, to be brutally honest is unashamedly about creating a bit of self-publicity. As you have no doubt seen via our vast social media empire, the Top Landing Gear team recently appeared on the popular channel 5 quiz show Eggheads. How did we do? Well we're not at liberty to divulge that information until after it airs on Friday 14th October (630pm STREAM here Channel 5) So enjoy this summer catch up episode in the meantime...

If you discovered us on Eggheads here is a taste of what we do. An aviation podcast for everyone. Think Top Gear with wings, and always with a quiz at the end. 

Please subscribe and leave us a review if you've enjoyed it. All our previous episodes and interviews are available wherever you found this podcast.

 

 

Traveling by air this summer? Interview and travel advice with aviation expert Jeremy Spake

Welcome to Top Landing Gear and our final episode of the series, one to put a spring in your step if you’re heading off on your summer holidays. As we are all too well aware, the aviation sector has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic, resulting in thousands of delays and cancellations. From pandemic to pandemonium; it’s a pantomime farce only not as entertaining! 

What will be entertaining is our special guest, celebrity aviation expert Jeremy Spake who will share his wit and wisdom, and tell us how best to approach our travel plans this summer. 

Jeremy’s knowledge was so impressive and his passion so infectious that Rob invited (forced!) him to join the quiz. How did he do? Listen to the end to find out if he beat TLG's very own aviation expert James Cartner.

 

 

Full Flaps - the Jet Engine - Interview with Ian Whittle, Son of Frank Whittle

Hello and Welcome to TLG and to the second stage of our Full Flaps interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank, the man who invented the jet engine. Ian told us so much in part one, you’d hardly believe there’d be more – but there is – and we couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass us by. So here once again is Ian talking to James Cartner and me Rob Curling at his Surrey home, almost 85 years to the day since the first running of Sir Frank Whittle’s revolutionary invention.

Full Flaps - The Jet Engine - Interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank Whittle - Part One

Hello and welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps, and to the full length interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank Whittle, the man credited with one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, something that changed the world forever – the jet engine. Ian is a pilot himself and flew the Gloster Meteor in RAF service, Britain’s first jet fighter, powered by the very engines his father had invented. James and I had the enormous pleasure of visiting Ian at his Surrey home almost 85 years to the day since the first successful test run of his father’s jet engine. Ian speaks with such passion and enthusiasm, not to mention incredibly detailed knowledge. You don’t get much closer to touching history than this. I hope you enjoy it.

As Ian was so generous with his time, we’ve split the interview into two parts, so here’s part one – keep an eye out on the socials for part two – or it may already be there now.

PLATINUM JUBILEE BONUS EPISODE - Typhoon Formation Pilot, SQN LDR Zane Sennett

The nation came together over 4 days in June to mark the extraordinary milestone of HM The Queen's 70 year reign.  One of the highlights of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations was the flypast over London of 70 aircraft from the Royal Navy, the Army and of course the Royal Air Force who flew 15 Typhoons in formation as the number '70'. Among them was Sqn Ldr Zane Sennett, who described to TLG in fascinating detail what it was like to fly

in this mass formation, and how the whole operation was devised, planned, rehearsed and eventually executed with the eyes of the world, and of The Queen, upon them.