Emmanuel

@emmanuelmpeg

Scientist. (Aviation) History nerd. Belgian.

642 Following498 Followers1,113 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and emmanuelmpeg.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 3d

De Havilland DH115 Vampire (trainer) Letov S-116 MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 Heinkel He 118

The delightful little Boulton Paul P.120, an experimental, delta-winged jet aircraft.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 8d

Not featured yet in the 55-56 Jane’s, but it has the Lamson Air Tractor, which is quite a sight.

An angular biplane with an upper wing of inverted gull configuration, reinforced by lots of struts.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 12d

The weird TF-102, which was an F-102 with a front fuselage sufficiently widened to install a side-by-side cockpit.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 13d

It’s needed to deal with the really difficult cases.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 19d

Exhibition on Belgian Communism and Art in Mons/Bergen. This is rather good, in its diversity and swings from the tragic to the irreverent.

“Fussillé” by Guillaume Vanden Borre (1947) is a rough sketch in black ink of a body sagging to the base of a pole, held half-upright by his arms being tied around it.

Dustin’s invitation for the Feast of the Red Flag (the communist newspaper) in 1979 shows Karl Marx as a grinning red cat with a peacock tail.

“Ouradour-sur-Glane” by Leon Navez (1953) is a half-abstract painting showing two large? faceless men in Green uniforms, beating civilians with a rifle.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 22d

Really good exhibition at the Belgian Center for the Comic Strip.

Panel from “Alone”, a comic by Gazzotti & Vehlmann.
A girl on crutches asks — “Is it me, or did religious tensions increase since our death?”
Her companion replies — “Yes, it is disquieting. Fortunately Diane defuses the conflicts.”

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 22d

Share a book you'd love to see adapted into a movie

The title translates to “When the wolf devours the wolf”. It could be described as a murder mystery set in renaissance Italy, but that would simplify it a lot. The Lapo Mosca stories are bleak, but charming.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 24d

Would highly recommend this one. Fascinating stories, and really changes the perspective.

The cover of “The Maginot Line - A new history of the fall of France”, by Kevin Passmore. (What’s in a name.) Yale University Press, 2025.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· 25d

If it looks right, it flies right… Perhaps.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jul 8

Crazy like a bucket of Frogs you say?

A French aircraft that looked clumsy and awkward thanks to the three engines mounted high above the wing, but otherwise not unreasonable.

A French aircraft, derived from an unreasonable type, with a big washing machine — well, armoured gun turret — stuck up front.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jul 5

Sexiest, I don’t know. Most frivolous, probably! (Do 217K, M and N.)

A type of air brake used on the German Do 217 bomber, equivalent to sticking an umbrella at the tail end and opening it.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jul 5

Why would we?

The map of the town of Baarle-Hertog (Belgian) and Baarle-Nassau (Dutch), which is a crazy collection of little enclaves, reflecting medieval traditions of land ownership.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jul 5

What have we ever done to you?

Image from the (in)famous comic “Let’s kill all the Belgians.” It shows a zombie-like Belgian about to eat a hamburger with a puppy in it. The accompanying text says “If the Belgians came over to America, they would eat your puppy. If you don't have a puppy, they would buy you one and then eat it. That's how the Belgians roll.”
As a Belgian, I appreciate the sentiment.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jul 5

Igo Etrich — with coworkers including Ernst Heinkel — developed the original Taube, patented it, and issued licenses to Lohner and Rumpler. But he found that he could not enforce the patent, so then everybody started copying the Taube design. I guess still calling it Taube was pragmatic courtesy.

The Etrich Taube II coming in the land in Vienna in 1910. Picture from the massive volume on Austro-Hungarian Aircraft of WWI by Grosz, Haddow and Schiemer.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 29

And it’s supposed to look like this after a mere 2000 years.

The triumphal arch of Orange in France. Exact date of building uncertain, but generally thought to date back to the reigns of the Roman emperors Augustus or Tiberius.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 28

Quiz time — I will indulge as well, if everybody does. ID all four, and add a fifth variation on the common theme.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 25

Every hometown's got the ominous megastructure, what's yours?

The tower of Sint Rombouts (St Rumbold’s) cathedral in Mechelen. The fact that at 97m it is somewhat short of its designed 167m only adds to its expression of massiveness.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 25

Cities in warm climates are built very different. Updating our infrastructure will have to be a lot more far-reaching than putting in AC, although that might be a necessary quick fix.

A street in the town of Nîmes in the French Provence. A waterway runs along its length, with a little waterfall half way down the picture. Trees grow along its sides, creating a canopy of green over the water, which is dappled with spits of light.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 21

I agree that it absolutely looks like a Potez 25, even if the quality of the picture is poor. Puzzled by the markings.

Camera installation in the fuselage of a Potez 25, showing some cockpit detail.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 16

The original nose looked like this. Rather more elegant than that of the Buchón.

A HA-1109 at Madrid Cuatro Vientos. The type was a Bf 109 with a Hispano-Souza 12Z engine.

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 14

Fair.

Barrier at a construction site in Brussels. The text on it reads “If Rome was built in a day, we would have used the same contractor.”

Emmanuel@emmanuelmpeg· Jun 12

Now that’s annoying! Of course the Hansa-Brandenburg W33 and Heinkel HE-2 were close kin. I see Wiki indeed had this picture on its HE-2 page. But Mikesh & Abe have a good picture of the very thing, Y 112: