Duxford collections

It was in the beginning of the film and when the German bomber crews go to explain why they bombed london;)

But to be honest the CASA aircraft did not differ massively from their German counterparts except in engines and some equipment so does it really matter if they are wolves in sheeps clothing?

I would like to see the CASA HE111 in German markings as it is mostly a HE111except for in its place of birth and bits, same with the JU52 and the buchons.

curlyboy

The Ju-52 is a French built Amiot Toucan . She probably saw service in Indo China . The JU-52 from memory didn’t play a large part in the BoB.

DX

I’d heard that Tom Blair was hoping to have a hangar of his own at DX and that the site of the old (blown up)hangar had been mooted however this had been turned down by the powers that be because people wouldn’t be able to find the runway restaurant – how true this is I don’t know!!

I think that now is the time for a bit of a tidy up – be nice to see the Junkers 52 (casa ) in the BoB of Hangar with the restored He 111.

Certainly more hangar space needed as too may aircraft still displayed outside.

VBR

Jason

First of all, get rid of the American hangar, sell it to Curry’s, add a new floor……:D

Somewhere in the pipeline should be grouping the British jets together, in line with what has been done with the American building, or maybe a cold war hangar (as previously suggested). An airliner hangar would be nice…… all walk through aircraft! A BoB hall like hendon would be good given what is at DX… oh the potential!….

I was going to coment on what to do with the “woodlouse” BnQ and the other modern tat buildings, however I keep getting a slanging for it, so, i say ram em. They’ve ruined Duxford. Why not put in a Ghost train, merry go round, musical fun house and a s&&t simulator – oh they already have.

mick…

The Shackelton restored and inside is what I would like to see the most.

There is a Belfast truss hangar getting into quite a derelict state up in Norfolk which I visited last year. I would purchase it for the trusses and build a new one at Duxford . The loss of the Belfast hangar was only for the film – there is no reason why a new one couldn’t be sited again on it’s foundations.

First of all, get rid of the American hangar, sell it to Curry’s, add a new floor……:D

Somewhere in the pipeline should be grouping the British jets together, in line with what has been done with the American building, or maybe a cold war hangar (as previously suggested). An airliner hangar would be nice…… all walk through aircraft! A BoB hall like hendon would be good given what is at DX… oh the potential!….

It would be interesting to see if how hard it is today to get the necessary carpentry skills to recreate the wooden framework and trusses of the original hangars (two As!)

I often feel people don’t look up enough and appreciate them 🙂

I don’t know why people think that it would be hard to make those trusses.

It would be cheaper to erect a metal hangar than reconstruct a single bay Belfast truss, but then you would hide things like the restaurant, chapel and the all important loo’s (life saver at airshows them).

Plus why build a new one when one half hangar 2 is empty now except for the JU52 and some civil aircraft seems a bit of a waste, is there anything outside still that could fit in there (viking, F15 anything small), i mean they made PA474 sit outside all night for the BBMF day maybe they could have hangared it for the night the same would then go for the shackleton.

But i do agree about rationilising the collection so it makes more chronological sense like it used to, I mean you could have jets in one hangar and props in another and have a theme hangar like the battle of britain in one part then put the jets in another and have it for the cold war?

This would also help tourists and school children put the collection in perspective better, as often you here a teacher telling their children ‘they have one of those listed but it is in another hangar’.

I dont want to sound like i am moaning as i love Duxford and have been going there since i was young but maybe especially now airspace is built and open they need to concentrate more in other area’s of the collection.

curlyboy

I’m assuming that *back in the day* Dx etc would have a full machine shop as part of the tech site? Anyone managed to replicate this building anywhere or have photos, details of what tooling used (mills, lathes, presses, slip rolls etc)?
Hmm.. time to start a new thread methinks…:cool:

It would be interesting to see if how hard it is today to get the necessary carpentry skills to recreate the wooden framework and trusses of the original hangars (two As!)

I often feel people don’t look up enough and appreciate them 🙂

Replicating it is the easy part, any chippy who can read a blueprint could do it. The difficulty lays in finding chippies who CAN read a blueprint & then getting past the current building/safety regs etc… Also the possiblity of finding enough wood of the correct quality (old growth etc).
I think it would be easier to build with steel, cover the main beams with wood to look like the original….& then add the (now non-structural) latice but I think that the steel beams would likely be a bit bigger across the spans than the wood design…?

Think its now time – post Airspace for consolidation and theming the various hangars properly (ie Brisfit next to Hurricane next to FGR2 in BOB hall!)

The problem, if you can call it that is that the place is always in a state of flux, especially with resident aircraft moving in and out wherever they can find hangarage –

That said, Airspace has been a lot of work – including the restorations which went INTO it (which i think are often overlooked when maligning the building/aircraft positioning itself) which are quite superb.

Its now freed up a lot of space for ‘new’ exhibits or rather old exhibits to be pulled out of store and displayed. Top hole sez I.

In practical terms I’m sure that the next plan is the Airborne forces hangar/exhibition recently reported in FP – I look forward to seeing a Dak and a Horsa together for the first time (for me).

TT

It would be interesting to see if how hard it is today to get the necessary carpentry skills to recreate the wooden framework and trusses of the original hangars (two As!)

I often feel people don’t look up enough and appreciate them 🙂

That and rebuilding the hanger that was blown up during the filming of BoB, as you can never have too much undercover storage and its better than it just being used as a car park.