The Black Knight

I am the sister of OHBs passenger and I was there at that day, eye-witnessing everything, close to my brother. After having studied all official documents available, it is more clear that Ormond -for whatever reason- has been disctracted by the chase plane instructed to do some film docu. Either he needed to avoid it or he tried to be a better target for being filmed – either way, he reduced speed and that was it. It is proved that there is no other cause of the crash – no canopy, no cables, no nothing. This is the official verdict. (By the way – nobody tried to bail out; this for sure has been proven a tale.) The canopy strike happened before they started and it caused a delay, nothing else. OHB himself repaired the locking mechanism, and I remember he was in an excellent mood, joking and being very charming.
Black Knight – could you please get in contact with me? I would be very very much interested to receive a copy of the eye witness report (even though it seems that I do already have the “eye witness” report you have but I would be very grateful if you would submit me with a copy, please, to compare. To be honest – this report contains a lot of fantasy) and the photos you have… I may send you some further photos or details, in return, if you wish to.

It’s the August 77 issue. I now have an eye witness account of the last flight & some photos. The were many assumptions to the cause but never an official verdict. It does sound most likely that it was the canopy probably striking OHB that caused the crash. The passenger actually tried bailing out but was to low for the chute to fully deploy. ATC were informed of the crash & were more interested in who was going to pay the parking fee for the Sea Fury.

Duxford`76 and the fate of N12420

Just joined the forum and noticed this thread about H-B`s T-33s.

I attended an airshow at Duxford in June `76 and all three were present G-OAHB,G-WGHB and N12420.

The latter went Stateside and was written-off at Sebring ,FL in July 1979.The pilot attempted to land on a disused runway and hit a cow!

Thanks for bringing back some memories of those lovely jet warbirds.

Gareth

It’s the August 77 issue. I now have an eye witness account of the last flight & some photos. The were many assumptions to the cause but never an official verdict. It does sound most likely that it was the canopy probably striking OHB that caused the crash. The passenger actually tried bailing out but was to low for the chute to fully deploy. ATC were informed of the crash & were more interested in who was going to pay the parking fee for the Sea Fury.

Looks like all the questions have been answered. Here is another shot at Duxford. To conclude, the ‘pod’ underneath the belly is indeed a ‘travel pod’ to carry the crew’s odds and ends. The “Black Knight” T-33 did not have a smoke-making facility. Shame the Ronald Wong painting is a work of fiction, as there only was ONE black T-33, but it shows what was planned for the second one. The corn-field cutting photo was published in Aeroplane Monthly, possibly the August 1975 issue? I have it somewhere!

Alan – I guess it depended on how it detached .

Apologies for calling up an old thread, but I have read on another forum that the canopy detached in flight, could this have been the cause?
Alan.

Got hold of an old A*******e Monthly today with an article about the recovery of the Indian Spitfires. The bit that caught my attention was the mentioning of the Mustang I-BILL. Ormond was taking it to Dorniers who were going to repaint it into a World War II colour scheme. He decided to take part in the July 4th celebrations at Mainz, whilst doing a circuit of the airfield after take off the P-51 inexplicably nosed into the ground. No cause for the crash was ever found.

Did anyone here see this display, do they have any photo’s and which Spitfire was flown by The Black Knight?

Got hold of an old A*******e Monthly today with an article about the recovery of the Indian Spitfires. The bit that caught my attention was the mentioning of the Mustang I-BILL. Ormond was taking it to Dorniers who were going to repaint it into a World War II colour scheme. He decided to take part in the July 4th celebrations at Mainz, whilst doing a circuit of the airfield after take off the P-51 inexplicably nosed into the ground. No cause for the crash was ever found.

I had done that and not heard from him. I was hoping someone here might know him and could help me.

That is one of the superb images taken, like the shot above, by John Rigby. I’ve been trying to contact him but as of yet i have not been able to find out how.

Excellent image.

Has anyone got the photo of the Black Knight cutting the corn field?

Who’s going full circle then!

This ones for ‘Ol’ Saggy T**s’.

The man himself. If only he had lived, it’s hard to imagine what we would have had flying now.

G-OAHB before arriving in the U.K as CF-IHB.

David Taylor, your post reply has dissappeared since the liitle problem with the forum.
I replied to it but that has gone too.
Would you be interested in selling me your press pack? If not then would you get a high quality copy of the whole thing for me?
Full costs covered.
Thanks in advance.

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Does anyone have video footage of the late great Ormond?
I have seen a couple of bits on various aviation videos but i would like to know if anyone has any full footage of him performing displays or interviews.
I know he flew his T33 down the full length of the Grand Canyon and had a girlfriend cine film it.Does anyone own this footage or has even seen it as i bet it would make spectacular viewing.
I would also like to obtain photo’s and if at all possible a set of the patches that were worn by the crew, a white knights helmet on the black flying suit and a black knights helmet on the white ground crews overalls.

Hi Yak 11 Fan, you said you had a picture with that prees kit, any chance you could print it off for me? Full costs paid of course.

What a fantastic painting, makes you think just what we were robbed of on 3rd July 1977. The thought of a 2 ship Black Knight T33 display or even the potential the F86’s could have offered would have been mind blowing.

This painting entitled The Black Knights by Ronald Wong went for £450 at the Bonhams auction at the RAF Museum at Hendon last monday.
Some lucky bugger outbid me.

Does anyone know contact details of Wensley Haydon-Baillie?
Does he still have a museum in the pipeline?