I remember visiting this place several times over the years (in fact, it must be my second most-visited museum!) just to see the Spitfire Mk1a there :D, and also to see some of the film stars that were housed there, including the Pilatus P2 and Stampe used in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, the Fokker Eindekker from “Aces High” and a model Heinkel 111 from “Battle of Britain”.
Can anyone tell me about the Pilatus P2 that used to sit outside the hangar there? I think it was a prop specially made for the movie (in particular the tunnel scene where the German pilot flies his plane in and ends up sliding beside Harrison Ford and Sean Connery while they drive through the tunnel!) although I’m not 100% sure.
also, if anyone has a good pic of the P2s used in the last “Indy” movie, that’d be nice! 🙂
PS – Hope you all have a Happy New Year!
(Don’t do nowt I wouldn’t do! ;))
By: DazDaMan - 2nd January 2004 at 10:58
A poll sounds good to me! 😉
By: Tom-W - 2nd January 2004 at 10:49
Hello all, the Eindekker flew fairly recently for the C4 production about Von Richtofen which was shown this time last year, there might be a bit more demand this year but we’ll see. As for ‘213’s scheme no real effort has been put into colour scheme as yet, there’s still a while left before any ideas of flight come into it and a C-47 needing lots of attention will take up a fair bit of our time too. My personal opinion is for the stripey nose but I’m sure that either way she will end up in the later scheme of Dark Green/Dark Grey/Medium Sea Grey, maybe a poll is in order to see what the general consensus is on the board?
Tom.
By: DazDaMan - 2nd January 2004 at 10:26
The Eindekker would be something to see flying, even if not a real one!
Tom – any idea on ‘213’s colour scheme yet?
By: Ant.H - 1st January 2004 at 23:31
Thanks Tom that’s great news,a stock Mk.1 will be something to see.:cool:
It would be nice to think that perhaps one or two of the WW.1 replicas could visit OW occasionally,particularly the Eindekker being as the LVG has been grounded.
By: Tom-W - 1st January 2004 at 21:58
No probs Ant. She will be restored to ‘as was condition’ when she was rolled out of Westland’s factory in ’41 which means no hand pump for the u/c as they stopped fitting them in late ’40/early 41, 5 aperture wheels, wing u/c position indicators, early canopy and screen and most importantly, 3 bladed Dh Bracket prop 😀 as for Compton Abbas, most of the A/C were flown down there last year but could all be made airworthy again quickly, they used to fly every year but there isn’t the demand nowadays as much as 10 years ago.
Tom.
By: Ant.H - 1st January 2004 at 20:24
Thanks for the links and pics Tom,looks like ‘213 is coming along nicely. 🙂 Will she be restored to stock Mk.1 standard or will she have the old 4-blade prop etc?
Any idea how active the machines at Compton Abbas are?Are tehy still flown or are tehy purely on static display?
By: Tom-W - 1st January 2004 at 16:17
…it looked state of the art at the time 🙁
Tom.
By: Tom-W - 1st January 2004 at 16:06
Indy Pilatus in-Flight and a really good site with info on the planes used in the trilogy, looks like they were both French Registered P2s.
By: Tom-W - 1st January 2004 at 16:04
Hello everyone. Here’s a pic of A-12 on a recent engine run, she’s the only genuine, Dornier built, Hirth engined Jungmann in the country at present, all others being CASAs. As for the spit, you can see that the firewall is now complete and re-fitted in the jig, in the time since this pic was taken the frames up to number 11 have been re-fitted and all the longerons are restored and back in too, along with frame 19, a few frames left to go yet though. Of the P2s used in ‘Indy’, one is now based up in my old neck of the woods, Little Snoring in Norfolk, I think it’s the Ex-Church machine. The Salis machine was another and I think that one more was restored after the film and put into a bare metal Swiss scheme, though I’m not completely sure. As for the Museum at Compton Abbas, it has been open since the summer, here’s a couple of links for more info:
http://www.abbasair.co.uk/museum.html
http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mus/uk/f-k/flyingaces.htm
Enjoy
Tom.
By: Septic - 1st January 2004 at 10:23
This shot was taken many years ago, just after the museum opened.
Is the relocated museum open yet!
By: DazDaMan - 31st December 2003 at 16:54
I think this is one of the Pilatus P2s from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” – colour scheme looks about right, anyway. Registration F-AZCC
By: Bruce - 31st December 2003 at 10:35
AR213 is currently undergoing a ground up rebuild, and as such has not flown for some years.
Bruce
By: robbelc - 31st December 2003 at 10:33
I think the P2 fuselarge is metal skinned but woodern based, but I could be wrong! It looked in a hell of a state when I saw it a few weeks ago. Not much better than the Lightning and Hunter round the corner at Booker.
I thought it was a good museum and it was good to talk to the staff restoring the Spits. I was lucky enough to visit a week before it suddenley closed in 98??
By: JDK - 31st December 2003 at 10:25
The fuselage of the P2 outside was (as Robbelc says) a replica for an Indiana Jones movie – I think it’s listed in W&R as such. I wasn’t aware it was wooden construction (sure you are right!) but I thjought it was metal skinning?
I could be wrong, but I thought some of the Jean Baptise Salis P2s were used in Indy films – not sure though. I’ll have a dig around in my P2 pic file.
Cheers
By: robbelc - 31st December 2003 at 10:19
Hi the P2 outside is still there, although the museum has moved to Compton Abbas I think. That P2 was totally a replica, as it was woodern.
The hangar is still used by PPS. There is a very nice yellow Swiss AF Jungmann in there at the moment.
The Spit is AR213/G-AIST, probably one of the most original ones about as it has never had a rebuild .
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December 31, 2003 at 8:55 am