Arabella-Cox
January 25, 2009 at 8:19 pm

DH Mosquito VX888

I have a photo of a DH Mosquito VX888 showing many aerials [ILS ??] at Martlesham Heath in 1951, would any of you knowledgeable types know what its role was at this Experimental Station, I live a mile from where the pic was taken here

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=46291&p=3&topicID=12567839&page=5

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By: Arabella-Cox - 26th January 2009 at 10:25

Thanks Dave that is interesting, there may well have been a connection with some aerials that were once situated on the roof of Martlesham Control Tower. This was re-roofed fairly recently and triangular fixtures were found when replacing the felt, this query arose, so this Mossie might have been there at the same time as the trials on the roof of the tower:)

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By: Davej - 26th January 2009 at 10:00

VX888 was an NF38 which belonged to the TRE then based at Defford. TRE had used Martlesham as a base during the war. The aerials would have been part of a trials fit, radar, radio or something like it. TRE also had an all gloss black NF38 (which I think was the last production example). Between 1940 and 1994, with a few name and base changes along the way, the unit operated around 800+ aircraft of various types on radar related trials.

I think today this sort of work happens out of Boscombe Down?