Real long shot this one.
As a schoolboy in the summer of 1959 or 1960 whilst on holiday with my parents at Weymouth, my dad took me to look at the helicopters at RN Portland.
This was just before I started my interest in aviation, so my recognition skills were limited.
In my memory I seem to remember seeing a jet aircraft with a tailwheel over the fence. I’m using my memory and my latter recognition skills here to come up with the Attacker.
Obviously it could not have landed there as no runway but perhaps roaded there on the way from A to B, or temporarily stored there.
Does anybody recoil this, or is my memory deceiving me. My memory is quite vivid.
Has any fixed wing aircraft ever been seen or landed at Portland other than possibly a Harrier.
Any possible info appreciated.
Elmdon Boy
By: DaveF68 - 30th January 2017 at 21:54
Yes but HMS Osprey wasn’t able to steam into wind…
😀
By: Lee Howard - 30th January 2017 at 20:26
So about the length of a carrier deck? 🙂
Yes but HMS Osprey wasn’t able to steam into wind…
By: daveg4otu - 30th January 2017 at 16:23
So about the length of a carrier deck? 🙂
But with no wires .
By: DaveF68 - 30th January 2017 at 12:20
Working logically, a tailwheel jet fighter is either going to be an Attacker or the 510/17. The latter was in RAF hands at that time, so the Attacker becomes the logical one.
The surviving Attacker was moved form Abbotsinch to Yeovilton by road in September 1963, so that’s outwith the timescale too.
So either it’s mis-identification OR a mistake about the time/place
By: DaveF68 - 30th January 2017 at 11:59
Seems like a shaggy dog story . The runway before it was realigned in the 80s or 90s was only 240yds in total.
Maybe a low flypast but touch and go – doubtful.
So about the length of a carrier deck? 🙂
By: daveg4otu - 29th January 2017 at 21:23
When I was an apprentice, I worked with a old Navy hand (now sadly passed away), who one day was ‘spinning a dit’ about the time he was on the line at Portland, when a Vulcan did a touch and go! True or not I have no idea, but I love the idea of seeing it ��
Seems like a shaggy dog story . The runway before it was realigned in the 80s or 90s was only 240yds in total.
Maybe a low flypast but touch and go – doubtful.
By: Flat 12x2 - 29th January 2017 at 18:26
Probably best you acquaint yourself with the location of Portland then. It’s well off the beaten track, not easy to get to (either then, or now) and the only gate guardian it ever had, of sorts, was a Wasp. And that was towards the end of its existence.
No Attackers are recorded as being anywhere near Portland.
I can remember reading about a Sea Vixen that was put in the harbour next to Portland RNAS for dive practice, a bit bigger than a Attacker. I could never find any info of it being removed, when the water was clear enough I used to look for it when windsurfing there, never found it.
By: Lee Howard - 29th January 2017 at 17:29
Redundant airframes were routinely roaded in and out of bases and schools, etc, for gate guard duties or instructional use. Because it was fixed wing doesn’t necessarily mean that it flew in.
Anon.
Probably best you acquaint yourself with the location of Portland then. It’s well off the beaten track, not easy to get to (either then, or now) and the only gate guardian it ever had, of sorts, was a Wasp. And that was towards the end of its existence.
No Attackers are recorded as being anywhere near Portland.
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th January 2017 at 12:28
When I was an apprentice, I worked with a old Navy hand (now sadly passed away), who one day was ‘spinning a dit’ about the time he was on the line at Portland, when a Vulcan did a touch and go! True or not I have no idea, but I love the idea of seeing it
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th January 2017 at 11:13
Redundant airframes were routinely roaded in and out of bases and schools, etc, for gate guard duties or instructional use. Because it was fixed wing doesn’t necessarily mean that it flew in.
Anon.
By: Lee Howard - 29th January 2017 at 10:56
No mention that I can find in ‘Wrecks and Relics 1’ (1961) or ‘Wrecks and Relics 1963’ for any aircraft at Portland – that does not mean that there was not an Attacker (or similar) there, just that it had not come to the attention of Liverpool based enthusiasts compiling the lists!
Looking at this from a different direction, where was the Attacker that is now in FAAM Yeovilton at the time? Well, the answer is not absolutely clear, but likely either at Lasham or then Abbotsinch. ‘British Museum Aircraft’, MAS 1977.
The Attacker was at Abbotsinch mounted atop a pole before being saved for FAAM Yeovilton. The runway at Portland was not designed for fixed-wing operations and indeed something with such a lousy performance as an Attacker could never have got in – or out – of there in one piece. Sea Harriers did use it occasionally for VSTOL when some were refinished in the Portland Dope Shop, but that was about it.
By: viscount - 29th January 2017 at 09:48
No mention that I can find in ‘Wrecks and Relics 1’ (1961) or ‘Wrecks and Relics 1963’ for any aircraft at Portland – that does not mean that there was not an Attacker (or similar) there, just that it had not come to the attention of Liverpool based enthusiasts compiling the lists!
Looking at this from a different direction, where was the Attacker that is now in FAAM Yeovilton at the time? Well, the answer is not absolutely clear, but likely either at Lasham or then Abbotsinch. ‘British Museum Aircraft’, MAS 1977.
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th January 2017 at 08:07
I was told a story by the Boscombe photographer who was in the rear seat at the time, of when they did a touch and go at Portland……….. In a Buccaneer.
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th January 2017 at 08:07
Yup Piper Vagabond has landed there!
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January 29, 2017 at 12:39 am