Hello guys and gals 🙂
I’ve got a couple of random questions I hope someone can answer…
1) Who is the current owner of the Gary Numan Harvard? What is it doing at Duxford? Is it here permanently? Has it been given a new colour scheme/painted recently? (It looks all pristine and shiny)
2) Has TFC’s P40 been relatively inactive this year? I don’t remember seeing it in the skies very often in 2003 if at all, until today, when Stephen Grey took her up for a zippy practice this afternoon. It took a fair bit of pushing and shoving to get her back in Hanger 2 afterwards (not entirely sure if this was due to space in the Hanger being at a premium or to some kind of problem with the tailwheel…if someone on the board in the know can answer this, please do, in my mailbox if preferred, I would be interested to know)
3) Where does the name “spam can” come from? Was it originally a particular nickname for one particular aircraft, or type, or is it a general term? Mr Ashley spotted what appears to be a storecupboard for TFC’s engineers with “Naked Pussy” stenciled on one door, and “Spam can” on the other, and wanted to know if the “Naked Pussy” compartment stores parts for the P40…personally I think it’s more likely to store reading material for the engineers in their tea breaks 😉 :p 🙂
4) Does anyone have any info on Meteor WF877, a T7 variant, resident during the 1990s at North Weald, then at Kemble? I know where it has ended up (if you want a clue, I don’t have many roads to cross to visit it) but l don’t think it will be going on show anytime soon, if at all 🙁 I would love to be proved wrong though…A pic from the early 90s can be found here: http://www.meteorflight.com/survivors_ukdisplay.htm
5) Is the French B-17 ‘Pink Lady’ still airworthy? A recently updated IWM caption board for ‘Sally B’ states she is the only airworthy B-17 in Europe…’Pink Lady’ is a B-17G like ‘Sally B’, isn’t she? Either way, if ‘Pink Lady’ is airworthy, then I’m in the wrong job and should be writing caption boards, not spending hours examining films (not viewing, examining :(…still, beats a lot of jobs I know)
Ok, that’s 5 questions, but what the hell!
~Slurping back the Jacob’s Creek waiting for answers :p~
Becka
By: snafu - 5th March 2014 at 00:10
(nods)
By: charliehunt - 4th March 2014 at 20:01
??……
By: snafu - 4th March 2014 at 19:32
What, as well as Britain…?;o)
By: charliehunt - 4th March 2014 at 19:27
Part of Hague’s problem is that he is the Foreign Secretary of an increasingly ineffectual nation.
By: trumper - 4th March 2014 at 18:06
There has been a precedent set with Olympics being boycotted by countries.
Personally i would rather the athletes go,as stated they have earn’t the right to make THEIR decision to compete.This is THEIR party..
They can probably highlight the problems more by being there.
By: John Green - 4th March 2014 at 17:58
Is it just me or, does Hague come across as the most ineffectual Foreign Secretary ever ?
By: AlanR - 4th March 2014 at 16:48
Of course they should go, they’ve trained a long time for this event. It should not be treated as a political football.
Especially by the likes of Hague, who likes to poke his nose in everywhere.
By: charliehunt - 4th March 2014 at 14:13
I have always felt that the separation of sport from politics works better than not. And I also think that athletes compete for themselves as much as for their nations and that opportunity should not be taken away from them. And we need to bear in mind that although Putin has overstepped the mark in his reaction it all started with an undemocratic overthrow of an elected President by those in a part of the country inimical to his policy. When there are ultimately new elections, assuming Ukraine has not been split in two by then, what happens if a pro-Russian President is elected then?
By: snafu - 4th March 2014 at 11:33
Where – Sochi
Why – winter olympics
More why – the paraolympics
Additional whys – because it is taking place in part of Russia, just 200 miles from where troops have seized control of the Crimea. And it would be a blow against Putin and his strong arm bullying.
Oh. Just realised I hadn’t fully filled out the questions.
Sorry.
Sorted now.
By: John Green - 4th March 2014 at 11:10
Go where? Do what ?
By: Chipmunk Carol - 15th December 2003 at 17:38
Spam is actually tinned, processed, pig meat. It’s cheap and nasty. As the wildly exciting nosewheel training aircraft pilots learn on are often cheap and nasty, they get nicknamed spam cans. Then many aircraft manufactured after 1960 with a nosewheels get the same nickname too.
Because bulk email is often crass, it also gets this ‘cheap, nasty’ nickname.
By: Mark V - 15th December 2003 at 08:06
The P-40 was in the ‘100 Years of Flight’ exhibition at Fairford too 🙂
By: mike currill - 15th December 2003 at 08:05
Originally posted by kev35
Hiya Becka.I might be wrong but I thought ‘Spam Can’ alluded to the materials used in aircraft construction in the USA during the war. I seem to have a vague memory of reading of an aluminium (aloominum) canning factory being turned over to aircraft manufacture.
Think of the implications if the only way out of a B-17 or B-24 had been by using one of those keys like on a corned beef tin.
But as I said I might be wrong.
Regards,
kev35
And the key would break off half way round like they always do:)
There is a different meaning for spam in relation to things American but I won’t post it here in case I upset any American readers.
By: mike currill - 15th December 2003 at 08:00
Originally posted by Snapper
Hardy’s Shiraz old friend.Isn’t Pink Lady an F? Hell, I can’t remember.
My naked pussy cupboard hasn’t got any aeroplane parts in it, I just checkd. See you later.
ahem.
As far as I can recall from an article I read a few years ago all the airworthy B-17s are Gs though I believe there was an F under restoration in the states when the article was written but I don’t remember if it was intended to be an airworthy restoration.
If it was intended to fly her she has probably been airworthy fo a little while now.
By: Bradburger - 15th December 2003 at 05:17
She also flew at this years Legends with Grey jnr at the controls.
Cheers
Paul
By: Piece of Cake - 14th December 2003 at 13:00
Re. Question 2.
TFC’s P40 did fly this year at the September and October shows, I think it was in the first section of the “100” formation at the September show if my memory serves me correctly.
Brgds
By: MK959 - 14th December 2003 at 10:03
Hello all,
You can find some infos about Pink Lady here: www.lfac.info
The official web site is: http://pink.lady.free.fr/
By: Moggy C - 14th December 2003 at 09:54
Spam can was the term coined by ‘real’ aviators as the glorious tube and fabric aircraft we all know and love (Cubs, Austers, Moths – not to mention PA22s) started to be replaced by the souless and intensely boring C150/152 and PA28 series of metal skinned aircraft.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with these types, they are just rather stodgy and never smell right.
Moggy
By: Stormin' - 14th December 2003 at 09:51
“Pink Lady” was flying in Sept as I saw it at Jersey and Leuchars on Battle of Britain W/end. I also got shown around it!!!!!!!!
By: Snapper - 14th December 2003 at 09:37
“Think of the implications if the only way out of a B-17 or B-24 had been by using one of those keys like on a corned beef tin.”
Thatstatement has brightened my morning considerably!
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December 13, 2003 at 11:41 pm