Does anyone know why Short Brothers at Rochester would be building, repairing or modifying Bristol Beaufighters during or just after the war, came across a photograph on Medway Aircraft Preservation Society’s website: http://www.mapsl.co.uk/
I think the man standing (not sitting) in front of the starboard engine is my late granddad? Hence the interest…
By: alertken - 2nd December 2009 at 11:27
Flying Services stayed there after the fabrication business closed in 1948, moving to W Malling (c.1960) and lingering there till (c.1971). It did odd mods for MoS: the last was Varsity WL681 with odd excrescences, operated in support of Hunting Engineering’s work on UK’s nuke programme. I saw it at (grass, soggy) Rochester, 28/5/58, plus Canberra B.2 WD929, Sturgeon I TS476, Sturgeon T.T.2 (No.2 P) VR371 and THUM Mosquito T.T.35. In the 1950s, SB&H overhauled RAF/NATO Sabres, and long ran RNARY/Sydenham: all this support activity provided continuity when various licence production programmes (Swift, Comet 2, modest Britannia) floundered. I think (under another name) they were still operating RAE W Freugh up to its closure.
By: Grumpy1 - 2nd December 2009 at 08:33
For some reason they have it identified as a Short Sturgeon on the MAPS website. According to this Flight article Shorts at Rochester started refurbishing Beaufighters for use as target tugs in January 1955. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1955/1955%20-%201528.html
Perhaps that answers your question. Nice photo on the following page.
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December 2, 2009 at 1:30 am