Agricultural use of aircraft items

In about each and every garden complex near Eastern Block airbases, you can find dozens of external fuel tanks (mostly of the stubby sort, as on the MiG-15) as water tanks. Also quite a number of An-2 fuselages as sheds.

Back in 1978 I used to travel into Shrewsbury from Shawbury by bus and at one stop in Shawbury village a garden contained a couple of Mosquito bomber perspex nose transparencies. Wish I had paid more attention to their exact location now. They had obviously come from either Shawbury or High Ercall Mu’s and were used as cold frames/cloche’s. Also came across an Anson mainwheel in a farmyard at the bottom of The Merrick in Ayrshire in about 1985. probably all long gone by now -pity.

Dad worked for a season in the early 1960’s in the Motueka area near Nelson picking apples. He said loads of orchards had trailers with Mustang wheels, and mounted on them was the Merlin with prop and all. They would tow the running engine down the rows between the trees in the early morning to stop the frost settling on the apples.

Dave – these days they use Helicopters in the Wairarapa (Martinborough etc.) to stop frost setting on grapevines. We stayed a couple of nights on Palliser Estate in the mid-90’s (to avoid DIC on way home from Martinborough Wine Festival) and got woken at about 4-5am by a God-awful racket. Turned out to be this huge old Russian chopper (no idea what) cruising slowly up and down the vineyards – very low. Not a particularly pleasant way to wake up with a hangover. :rolleyes:

A bit more modern…

I’ve heard of time expired helicopter rotor blades being used for windmill blades…

[QUOTE=adrian_gray]

When I was a lad, I used to scour the farms and junk shops around Witney in Oxon for such stuff. A farmer still uses 4 Horsa wheels on a hay trailer. I used to find spit tailwheels and old Mk1 Hurri tailwheels were used in the local, now closed, blanket factory. Some stuff came from the old Witney airfield but most from 6MU at Brize which got rid of such stuff just after the war.

Good job you didn’t get to weston on the Green, or people’d still be following you around now looking for Brisfit frames!

Ever get as far as Wolvercote? Actually, come to think about it, there is a monument in the church there cast from metal from the wreck of the plane crash at Wolvercote in which Lieutenants Bettinson & Hotchkiss were killed in 1912. OK, it’s not agricultural, but it’s a relic, and a real oldie….

Adrian

Been there, nice memorial on the bridge too. Port Meadow is interesting too

CanadaTD,

Were the Hurricane canopies the ones that were reported on in FlyPast many years ago?

Cees

Yep, I got two or was it three? I got them from the people who found them.

[QUOTE=Canada TD]When I was a lad, I used to scour the farms and junk shops around Witney in Oxon for such stuff. A farmer still uses 4 Horsa wheels on a hay trailer. I used to find spit tailwheels and old Mk1 Hurri tailwheels were used in the local, now closed, blanket factory. Some stuff came from the old Witney airfield but most from 6MU at Brize which got rid of such stuff just after the war.

Good job you didn’t get to weston on the Green, or people’d still be following you around now looking for Brisfit frames!

Ever get as far as Wolvercote? Actually, come to think about it, there is a monument in the church there cast from metal from the wreck of the plane crash at Wolvercote in which Lieutenants Bettinson & Hotchkiss were killed in 1912. OK, it’s not agricultural, but it’s a relic, and a real oldie….

Adrian

When I was a lad, I used to scour the farms and junk shops around Witney in Oxon for such stuff. A farmer still uses 4 Horsa wheels on a hay trailer. I used to find spit tailwheels and old Mk1 Hurri tailwheels were used in the local, now closed, blanket factory. Some stuff came from the old Witney airfield but most from 6MU at Brize which got rid of such stuff just after the war.

The farmer with the Horsa told me how he had bought 4 complete gliders and that he had the undercarriage and wheels for his farm and the rest stored around somewhere! I was wide eyed and followed him to the tiniest hut you have seen in your life out of which he brought a bucket of metal fittings which (after he had burnt the fuselages) he thought ‘might come in useful’!!. Since then I have recovered at least 4 spitty mainwheels (1 early and 3 AH10019s) from assorted trailers and some 7 spit tailwheels (in the last 4 years).

Best find was a row of cloches (formerly Hurricane canopies) in varying states near North Weald. I just missed a Spit canopy being used for the same use, it was trashed a month before I got to it.

CanadaTD,

Were the Hurricane canopies the ones that were reported on in FlyPast many years ago?

Cees

Hi Cees,

I acquired this Frazer Nash FN5 cupola (Lancaster front) from a Lake District garden last year. In a former life it had apparently been a shelter for a farmer’s ducks!

Wow, nice turret cupola Al. Have you seen the advert in Aeroplane where there is a surplus FN5 turret on offer by 57Rescue Canada. If you have a Lanc tail turret or Martin SC250 in exchange he is willing to swap.

A turret is also something I have always looked to have, but these things are a bit rare or expensive. A BP type E Halifax tail turret cupola would be nice, now where to find one.

Cees

Either of the Kiwi Daves should have something on this – postwar there was a big sell-off of Mossies in particular – that ended up on farms all over NZ. Doing what I don’t know, but the engines and tyres and things apparently came in handy.

Dad worked for a season in the early 1960’s in the Motueka area near Nelson picking apples. He said loads of orchards had trailers with Mustang wheels, and mounted on them was the Merlin with prop and all. They would tow the running engine down the rows between the trees in the early morning to stop the frost settling on the apples. I had never thought about it before, but as well as P51D there could have been Mossie Merlins/wheels too.

There was the Corsair in Mr Walsh’s garden right here in Cambridge. See my website for the story of that one.

The RNZAF Museum’s Hudson and Anson both saw life as sheds, the Hudson was a chicken coop. As was the Lodestar now at Wanaka. I believe the Hudson’s turret was also found in a garden from memory.

On the subject of using aircraft parst for agricultural use, the biggest project must be the Aussies who dismantled old Wirraways and rebuilt them into crop dusters, the Ceres. A little off the topic I guess.

My uncle got a lot of surplus RNZAF junk at a big sale in Rukuhia. He even had a bomb in his garden which I was always amused and terrified by as a kid. In the early 1990’s I talked him into giving all the Corsair parts, etc, that he had to the RNZAF Museum, but they still have a large float that once formed a fence and is now under a hedge. I can only guess it must be off a Catalina. It was a common thing in older times for farmers to fill gaps in hedges with aircraft parts or old cars. I saw a very old rusty car as an integral part of a farm hedge earlier this year when I was in the South Island and I thought to myself, if only that were a plane, I’d have it.

When I was a lad, I used to scour the farms and junk shops around Witney in Oxon for such stuff. A farmer still uses 4 Horsa wheels on a hay trailer. I used to find spit tailwheels and old Mk1 Hurri tailwheels were used in the local, now closed, blanket factory. Some stuff came from the old Witney airfield but most from 6MU at Brize which got rid of such stuff just after the war.

The farmer with the Horsa told me how he had bought 4 complete gliders and that he had the undercarriage and wheels for his farm and the rest stored around somewhere! I was wide eyed and followed him to the tiniest hut you have seen in your life out of which he brought a bucket of metal fittings which (after he had burnt the fuselages) he thought ‘might come in useful’!!. Since then I have recovered at least 4 spitty mainwheels (1 early and 3 AH10019s) from assorted trailers and some 7 spit tailwheels (in the last 4 years).

Best find was a row of cloches (formerly Hurricane canopies) in varying states near North Weald. I just missed a Spit canopy being used for the same use, it was trashed a month before I got to it.

hmmmm P51 wheels?

There is a antique and gaarden centre near here that has a farm wagon with a complete set of 4 harward mainwheels and tires fitted.. sorry no pics

Guess what !?! 😀

still in use here in Switzerland on a farm – the owner doesn’t want to part with it.

But one day…..

Martin

Either of the Kiwi Daves should have something on this – postwar there was a big sell-off of Mossies in particular – that ended up on farms all over NZ. Doing what I don’t know, but the engines and tyres and things apparently came in handy.

Same thing happened with all sorts of airframes in Canada, America (I believe), Rhodesia, South Africa, and Britain (Horsas as sheds, turrets and canopies as cloches) – Nermal

Plane bits….

An interesting topic.

In WW2 my great uncle on Sheppey tippytoed out to a beached B17 at low tide off Bartons Point Sheerness – it was badly shot up and force-landed on the sand at low tide without further injuries to the crew – and liberated some control cables/ turnbuckles from it just before the salvage crew came for it.

He used them as stays for a flagpole in his garden in Alma Street. I wonder if it is still there?

HP

Either of the Kiwi Daves should have something on this – postwar there was a big sell-off of Mossies in particular – that ended up on farms all over NZ. Doing what I don’t know, but the engines and tyres and things apparently came in handy.

ummmm…..

Also, the Blenheim Mk1 nose section used as a car.
Hope they told the DVLA that it’s kept off the road now. 🙂

Regards,

Paul

Does than mean it was SORN off the front of the airframe??? 🙂

Also, the Blenheim Mk1 nose section used as a car.
Hope they told the DVLA that it’s kept off the road now. 🙂

Regards,

Paul

Wreck & Relics 3 are full of this sort of thing including a ex USAF C-47 used as a football pitch changing room!!! I will dig it out later.

Hi Cees,

I acquired this Frazer Nash FN5 cupola (Lancaster front) from a Lake District garden last year. In a former life it had apparently been a shelter for a farmer’s ducks!