Hello chaps,
A friend was reminiscing about his officer training days at RAF South Cerney, 1959.
We had a look at the satellite imagery on Google Maps and he remembered the Expansion-era control tower ( they had to polish the floors on a regular basis ) and the peri track, used for flogging the trainees on endless circuits.
As part of the peri route he remembers passing a large white-painted aircraft on every circuit; he reckoned it might have been a Valiant or Vulcan but I thought 1959 was a little early for such to have been put on guard duties.
Any ides? Thank you!
By: Cherry Ripe - 7th January 2013 at 17:28
Thanks everyone! A Meteor T.Mk.7 sounds like a good fit; its silver finish could be mis-remembered as white after all these years.
I’ll have to draw-up an aircraft recce examination for him. Any errors will result in one lap of the peri track carrying that dreaded medicine ball…
By: Discendo Duces - 7th January 2013 at 15:56
I was at South Cerney for a week’s Summer Camp with the ATC in 1964.
No gateguard, but there was a derelict but otherwise unburnt Meteor T.7 in the long grass by the fence on the far side. It was in natural metal with no roundels or serial number, not a speck of paintwork anywhere, in fact.
The only items of aviation interest were Chipmunks from Cambridge UAS and our AEF on summer camp, plus the daily Piston Provosts doing touch & goes from Little Riss; but a day’s visit to the USAF at Brize Norton more than made up for that .:)
DD
By: Wyvernfan - 7th January 2013 at 15:21
Not necessarily large, but didnt S Cerney have a Gloster Meteor gate guard for a while?
Rob
By: AMB - 7th January 2013 at 13:12
I have visited South Cerney many times since the late ’50s when I was a small lad and only just into plane spotting, but don’t recall ever seeing anything that looked like a gate guard or even on a fire dump. South Cerney was the HQ of the CFS Rotary Wing then, before they moved to Ternhill, so any ‘large white aircraft’ would not seem appropriate for the base. Furthermore, the airfield is grass with no hard runway, so the largest aircraft that would land there would have been a Pembroke, but no doubt a Beverley could have got in and out.
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January 6, 2013 at 4:33 pm