Chipmunk Mystery

….Strange that both such early examples survived so long. Incidentally what’s the history of 556 ?

Regards

Wicked Willip :diablo:

History of WB556 is very short:-

It is the eigth Hatfield Chippie C1-0008 Dec 6th.1949.
It was one of the very first deliveries to the RAF at Oxford UAS Kidlington on Feb 3rd.1950 and became RUO-C and later ‘C’ of Oxford University Air Sqdn.
It went into storage at 20 MU Aston Down on Oct 10th.1953, was moved to Kemble on May 26th.1960 when Aston Down closed as an MU.
To storage at Kemble in its original yellow bands scheme on 23.02.61 & 30.09.64 and 03.10.66 – probably due to its low mod state it was struck off charge Sept 12th.1973.
Reduced to spares with the fuselage going the RAFGSA at Bicester when they purchased several Chipmunks at the time.
Noted still at Bicester in March 1989….and the rest is, as they say, history !

Cheers……..

Dave T’

(Photo credit: Chipmunk Club archives)

Chipmunk in the Church

Does the photo below jog your memory ? Although the location is a barn near Halton, not a Church. Nor did WB556 serve with Liverpool UAS…….

Missed this one, but no Dave it doesn’t. My distinct recollection from perusing the log books is of the Liverpool UAS & Woodvale connection and that it had suffered an accident, which ties in with your ‘Google’ search.

However, it doesn’t equate to the ‘scrapped at St Athan’ bit as it was pretty complete when we saw it. The quest at the time was to find a project to rebuild to be a flyer but in the event there were too many mandatory mods needed to make it viable.

Strange that both such early examples survived so long. Incidentally what’s the history of 556 ?

Regards

Wicked Willip :diablo:

Contrary to popular belief, W&R is not the be & end all. Many entries are merely carried forward from previous editions and only amended if new details come to light. Many private owners wish to remain private.

I agree, I know of quite a few airframes down here in the South West that arent where they are listed in W&R. I will give an update to Ken on a few, but for the others, like Dave says above some people wish to keep things to themselves.

Best wishes,

Martin

WB556 was sold on E-Bay earlier this month.

Yes indeed it did, as stated in post #3 of this thread.

Myself and it’s new owner are collaborating on our mutual parts needs.

Cheers……..

.

Does the photo below jog your memory ? Although the location is a barn near Halton, not a Church. Nor did WB556 serve with Liverpool UAS…….

WB556 was sold on E-Bay earlier this month.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=72145&highlight=Chipmunk

Several years ago and not too far away from Duxford, whilst looking for a possible restoration project, a look was taken at a Chipmunk, which was stored in an old disused church…..

Does the photo below jog your memory ? Although the location is a barn near Halton, not a Church. Nor did WB556 serve with Liverpool UAS…….

Thanks guys

The depth of knowledge on this forum never ceases to amaze.

I’m now pretty certain that that was the one I saw.

It was owned at the time by the late Euan English and I often wondered what became of it so interesting to learn that some part of it still exists.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

If Ellerton is the Tony Brier project I would be interested to know where the identity came from.

C/N of WB555 is C1/0006.

Incorrect. WB555 is C1-0007. Build number DHHf.7 (Hatfield built)* I won’t bore you with the details of Chipmunk production but they dont always follow in numerical order. I’m sure Bruce will give us his thoughts.

Presumably Wrecks and Relics would have a note of this one?:

In this case, no. Contrary to popular belief, W&R is not the be & end all. Many entries are merely carried forward from previous editions and only amended if new details come to light. Many private owners wish to remain private.

I can recommend http://www.demobbed.org.uk/ for a more current online resource.

*Source: Chipmunk-The First Fifty Years, M Fisher/R Brown by Air Britain

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C/N of WB555 is C1/0006. Presumably Wrecks and Relics would have a note of this one?:confused:

Courtesy of a quick ‘Google’ search…….

WB555 c/n C1-0007

d/d 03/02/1949,
w/o 25/04/1966 while with Liverpool UAS,
allocated 7924M,
scr. 06/1979 as St. Athan,
Cockpit for spares use 03/2006 Ellerton, Yorks

Cheers……..

.

Anyone Chipmunk experts out there know whether this one saw service with Liverpool UAS at Woodvale and what it’s subsequent history was?

Wicked Willip :diablo:

http://www.south-lancs-aviation.bravepages.com/Woodvale%20Incidents.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/airnet/MAMupdate24-2007.pdf

No offers yet on this mystery but on further recollection I believe it may have been an early Chipmunk with the original serial being distinctive, maybe with three digits all the same. WB555 comes to mind, which would be rather a coincidence since 556 apparently recently came up on ebay.

Anyone Chipmunk experts out there know whether this one saw service with Liverpool UAS at Woodvale and what it’s subsequent history was?

Wicked Willip :diablo:

The story behind that could make interesting reading. I’d love to read it if anyone can post it here.