Tag Archives: Royal Nancy Historic Flight

Holding Down the Swordfish

During the Cosford air show, the Royal Navy Swordfish was part of the display. While it might not be the fastest aircraft from that era, it still has a pretty meaty engine up front. Once started, time is needed to get the oil up to temperature and to run up the engine to check its performance before it goes flying. The ground crew needed to keep the plane anchored while this was done and the way they did this was to hang on to the tailplane. Watching them getting battered by the prop wash while the engine was cycled was rather amusing.