Preserved Valetta

DH106 I didn’t intend to imply the Avro Manchester was related to the Vickers Wellington

25 deg south I was aware of the relationship of the York to the Lancaster but hadn’t got time to work out a way of illustrating that via the computer keyboard :confused:

My original idea of ‘family’ was concurrent or follow-on designs from the same design office thus the Tudor would be an addition to the Manchester family.

One could argue a family line from the Sopwith Tabloid to the Hawker (sorry BAe) Hawk but I was thinking of aircraft with structural commonalities.

Roger Smith.

On the basis of 25DegSouth’s post can I add Short Shetland to the Short’s flying boat family?

Steve

Interesting, what other types ‘spawned’ such a family?

The Manchester springs to mind first – leading to Lancaster > York > Lincoln > Shackleton.

Roger Smith.

To be very pedantic, I think that the York and Lancaster were actually parallel design exercises.
By stretching it a bit though , one could also put in the A.W. Argosy as having the main structure of a Shackleton wing. As for the Tudor with its basic Lincoln wing?
Some would argue that the B.E.2 spawned virtually all tractor biplanes, including the Tiger Moth ,by extrapolation.
Like most arguments it depends how you define your parameters e.g. does the Brit/Argus/Yukon/CL44 line include the Belfast?
Spitfire, Spiteful/ Seafang -Attacker?
An interesting line of discussion I would think.

How about for Shorts:

Empire ‘C’ Class, Empire ‘G’ Class, Sunderland, Seaford, Solent & Sandringham.

Althought I suspect this should really be a tree.

Steve

Interesting, what other types ‘spawned’ such a family?

The Manchester springs to mind first – leading to Lancaster > York > Lincoln > Shackleton.

Roger Smith.

No – the Manchester is an early WWII Avro design that predates the Viking/Valetta/Varsitty, and possibly even the Wellington. Different designs.

Interesting, what other types ‘spawned’ such a family?

The Manchester springs to mind first – leading to Lancaster > York > Lincoln > Shackleton.

Roger Smith.

The Viking was developed from the Wellington and basically has the wings of the Wellington.

The Valetta is a military version of the Viking with a strengthened floor, cargo door uprated engines due to its greater weight.

The Varsity is larger than the Viking and Valetta and has a nosewheel rather than tail wheel

The Viking came first after the Wellington – then the Valetta and finally the Varsity, so the Valetta could arguably be said to be a militarised(?) Viking!

So………… showing my ignorance….. 🙂

All of the Viking/Valetta/Varsity were ultimately derived from the Wellingon. The Varsity is easy to spot cos of the tricycle gear, but is the Viking merely a civilianised Valetta or is there a more fundamental difference between these two?

I have been told it is not planed to move it out of storage at present.

A couple of years back I toured the plane at Flixton (yes, I even made a donation at the door) and was impressed with the aircraft.

One question: its wing spar crosses the fuselage and must be stepped over.
This seems a bit of a liability for a cargo aircraft.
Why was it placed there (aside from attaching the wings 😀 ) and how did the RAF work around it in service?

The Valetta at Cosford is stored without its wings although I belive that the museum still has the wings as they did not want the wings from VX577 at Sunderland prior to its remains being scrapped.

Here is Cosford’s Valetta, which I last photographed there in June 1985. Think it has been hidden away in storage ever since. VX573 is named “Lorely” and is in RAF Germany Comms Sqn. colours(not Transport Command). VX574 was in an identical scheme used by RAF Malta. Have no idea when it will be restored but with all those aircraft moved out into the new Cold War Museum, there should be room for it now.

i was at uni in the mid/late 1990’s in west suusex. clearly rem been told of a scrap yard in the local area that had a set of valetta/viking or varsity wings crated up in their original packing case. Wonder if the story was true and if so r they still there.

Thanks everyone

This is the one at Flixton.

The Valetta at Cosford is stored without its wings although I belive that the museum still has the wings as they did not want the wings from VX577 at Sunderland prior to its remains being scrapped.

There is a complete Valetta at Flixton with the Norfolk & Suffolk aircraft museum.

There was one at the North East Aircraft Museum but got burned out by vandals. I think putting several hundred volts through the fence would be a good deterent.

Ali

Whilst I agree in principle 😀 the problem for NEAM at the time was that they didn’t have much in the way of fencing to put volts through. The underside of the Vulcan had quite a few dings and dents knocked in it and the bomb aimer’s window smashed by the same lovely folk. Thankfully the fencing situation was sorted a few years back and they’ve had no more problems as far as I’m aware.

there is or was a wingless valetta at cosford, painted in the blue and white transport command colours.

There was one at the North East Aircraft Museum but got burned out by vandals. I think putting several hundred volts through the fence would be a good deterent.

Ali

Noo that there’s a Varsity. I can remember them flying around when I was at School! I was lucky (!) to have some trips in the old Varsity as an air cadet but the tailwheel Valetta, no didn’t cop one of those in my log book.

I had a ride in a Varsity with the ATC.

And two in tailwheel Vikings.

But never a Valetta

Moggy