I have in my posession the airframe fragments of an RAF Dakota. These were found several years ago near Mere, Wiltshire, UK. A long search has revealed them to be the remanants of an aircraft from 107 squadron otu, based at leister east, and the aircarft crashed in poor conditions half a mile after takeoff from Zeals airfield. All I know about the aircraft is that it was a glider tug, a Dakota mk1. How can I go about trying to find more information, in particular its operational history and build date? I would be grateful for any assistance in this matter.
By: Airspeed Horsa - 2nd January 2007 at 20:50
Yes, thats the aircraft… But that is all I know my end, too! I was walking on Beech Knoll and found wreckage in a pit left by the roots of a fallen tree. A look at the trees up there will reveal signs of impact and fire damage. The aircraft was at full throttle and climbing when it impacted. Needless to say, their is very little sizable wreckage – most was recovered, and very little was still in one peice.
By: cypherus - 2nd January 2007 at 20:16
Zeals losses
From information I can access here the aircraft may have been TS436 which reportedly crashed on 19th Feb 1945 while enroute too it’s home base of Leicester East carrying a full crew and transporting the ground crew, apparently the cause of the crash was determined to be that the aircraft hit trees on top of Beech Knoll about 2 km east of Zeals which were obscured by low cloud and came down within sight of the airfield killing all onboard except the pilot who later died of extensive injuries, a memorial was originally requested by a local man but in the end was erected by the WHMS with the permission of the National Trust, all relatives of those that died were traced and a cermony was performed on 14th August 1999 were the memorial was unveiled by Air Chief Marshall Sir John Gingell with a flypast conducted by Dakota N47FK out of North Weald.
The practice excersise being conducted at the time was that of glider ariel snatch , this resulted in the glider being towed off the ground without the tow plane having to land as described below.
The glider was fitted with a thick elasticated nylon towrope. Cradles on top of two 15 foot high poles held the rope in place, both ends of which were attached to the glider’s nose to form a closed loop.
A bronze hook at the end of a cable would snare the line. The immense strain was absorbed by the elasticity of the rope and an automatic friction brake on the steel cable. When the Dakota and glider were travelling at the same airspeed, the cable would be drawn in by electric motor. Depending on the load and conditions, the glider would become airborne in 50 to 80 yards, full acceleration being reached in 140 – 270 yards.
At the moment of pick-up the Dakota would only be 20 feet off the deck and doing 130 mph. Immediately before contact the throttles were opened and a climb initiated, the speed would fall off immediately to just over 100 mph.
The glider and it’s occupants was subjected to 7G for five seconds.
RAF crews were trained at Zeals, Wiltshire.
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January 2, 2007 at 6:54 pm