A terrible picture I know but…………….

Now why don’t I live somewhere like Duxford! Here in Bucks my locals are Denham or Booker but I go past Northolt when driving into ‘town’ sometimes. Lots of metal fencing and a busy road make Northolt not a very friendly viewing place though.
The biggest thrill at Denham for me is to see the butterfly tailed Bonanza housed there. Great sound too. Alas nothing truly historic but when you look at the age of most of the UK General Aviation fleet you realise they are infact damned old and have outlasted most military and civil types!
DT

“Avtars” (Is that what it is?)

When I see Avtars like yours ’24 Threshold’ I always want to know more…which ‘Runway 24’ in your case (there are so many 24’s in this part of the world)!
DT[/QUOTE]

My location is a bit of a clue!

The ‘Threatening mood’ shot is very funny. Don’t see too much comedy in aviation photos so I think that’s ‘very special’!

When I see Avtars like yours ’24 Threshold’ I always want to know more…which ‘Runway 24’ in your case (there are so many 24’s in this part of the world)!
DT

More of XP915

Two shots: one in threatening mood at Abingdon BoB 1967 and also on a roundabout in Cheshire, presumably, en route Woodford.

****** me is that you again Chris? Well you know who’s got me door now!

It is a real shame that the Cockpit was never saved at SM, it was removed (and assumed scrapped?!) well before the fusalage was carted off.

A bit of trivia – she was the first jet airliner to circumnavigate the world.

Flightdeck of XP915 (GANLO) as she lay on the burning area at RAF St Mawgan some time late 80’s maybe early 90’s. Partially buried in the ground to stop it rolling away in the wind. Long gone now, what a waste of such an historic airframe.

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I Saved the RH yoke though!

For such a rare Mark, XP915 met an undignified end being grounded and used for runway arrestor trials, being ploughed into foam and gravel!! Needless to say these trials didn’t do it a lot of good and it was scrapped at Bedford and not even that nose probe was saved!

Not quite it’s end – the fuselage was taken to Woodford for use in the AEW nimrod trials – there are/were photos in the Scrapyards thread showing it there. the forward fuselage was the taken to St Mawgan for fire rescue training.

Ooops. answered before reading Pagen’s message.

AMB notes it as a 3B – this is because it trialled the shorter wing for the 4B.

Now does anyone have a picture of it in RAE markings before the probe was added…? (I’m on a bit of a Comet kick at the moment!)

Graham…wow those a fantastic. Thanks
DT

I can remember way back in the sixties, maybe 64 or 65 at RAF Laarbruch I was with my father and we had just left hangar 1 in Dad’s car and as we drove away from the hangar he pointed towards the woods to our left. There was a hardstand behind the woods and there stood a large aircraft. Dad said Look there’s a Comet! I was quiet puzzled as I understood Look there’s a comic! Only years later did I realize what he meant. I guess I can get away with though as I was only four or five at the time.

Peter

Pete, would like to see your pics with a York in them ????

Keith.

XP9I5 was indeed Comet 3 G-ANLO, really was the first decent Comet with the Avons of the 2, but with new longer fusalage, and many improvements as a step to the Comet 4.
It ended its days on the St Mawgan fire dump as an evacuation trainer. After service with the BLEU (Blind Landing Experimental Unit) it was used for Nimrod trials work and much later for AEW.3 fitment trials.
I used to have an entry door from it, and always imagined holding the same door handle as ‘Cats eyes’ Cunningham did.
There is quite a bit of info with pics under the scrapyard pictures thread.

Here’a a couple more for ya!

Postfade
Magnificent pictures as usual, I always look forward to your postings, my only comparable one is a colour slide of wall to wall BEA Comets at Heathrow taken in 1963, nothing else but Vanguards and Yorks in sight. Air France were still using Super Constellations, we were lucky enough to be taken on a coach tour around the perimeter track ( imagine doing that today!!!! ) and I have a nice colour shot of one at the end of the runway preparing to take off.
AMB
It was definately taken at Waddoe, I recieved a totally useless Ilford Sporti 4 camera for Xmas in 1962, I recall the date as it was a ‘special’ present for passing my 11+, I struggled with it for a while but virtually everything I took with it was naff, unless it was stationary and in perfect lighting conditions, in frustration I carved lines on the viewfinder to try and capture what I thought I was pointing the blooming thing at, my brothers old plastic Brownie was a better bet.

Which reminds me… i seem to remember an edition of Horizon(?) in the late 70’s which showed footage of a comet having her nose gear deliberately retracted whilst running at high speed over a foam carpet.. would this be XP915…?

IIRC a very small image of it nose down ended up on an album cover which i will be able to dig out later…

Zeb

Yes David, XN453 was indeed a Comet 2E based at RAE Farnborough. Returning to the RAE Mk.3B, XP915, that Pete photographed. I saw this twice, firstly flying at Abingdon Battle of Britain Day September 1967 (weather was awful and foggy) and then at Benson Battle of Britain Day September 1969 in beautiful weather, so perhaps it was taken at one of those shows? For such a rare Mark, XP915 met an undignified end being grounded and used for runway arrestor trials, being ploughed into foam and gravel!! Needless to say these trials didn’t do it a lot of good and it was scrapped at Bedford and not even that nose probe was saved!

Pete:

I would have loved to have seen that one..Comets are just so beautiful and the ‘long pointy nose’ on that one is very ‘Pinnochio’!

This is another research Comet from RAE XN453, which I believe is a Mk2…confirmation sort from experts there.
It’s parked on the ‘far side’ at Paya Lebar, Singapore in late 1963 whilst work was being done on Changi’s runway. The Comet 4 of BOAC is G-APDK.

216 Sqn at Lyneham flew C2s and C4s into Changi.The RAF Comets looked even ‘snappier’ than the BOAC planes, in their silver and white.

Like this.

Most of the C2’s had ‘day-glo’ on them, implying some ‘training’ role?

The most fascinating use of the Comets was with Watton’s 51 Sqn as detailed in this report , which a friend in Oz John Feltam has just reminded me about:

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/51sqn.htm

John joined 51 sqn in after serving at Changi and Butterworth.

David

Thanks for that, having now done a bit of Googling based on your info, I feel privilaged to have witnessed such a significant aircraft in flight, pity my ropey photograph didn’t give it the justice it deserved, does anyone have a picture of it on the ground that day, as a youngster at the time, I’m afraid I was rather more enthusiastic to take my limited number of pictures of the latest USAF offerings instead.
Was it really the first jet airliner to have circumnavigated the globe.
I actually have a few more ropey airshow pictures of Comets, I’ll dig them out to see if it appeared elsewhere.

Thats the one and only Comet 3 XP915. A moderate stretch over the mk1 and 2 but shorter than the 4. Was a RAE Bedford aircraft from 1961 to early 70’s used for Blind Landing trials, then to Woodford for Nimrod system work. Scrapped 87.

Richard