Duxford Victor – where's it gone?

She is berthed now in the restoration part of the airspace hanger when she is not outside.

I dont think she would fit easily in any of the Belfast hangars although both bays of hangar 2 were empty yesterday bar a Shakleton MR1 cockpit and the usuals in one side and the JU52 and a couple of civils in the other.

I still think they should get the victor and the shackleton (not the cockpit above) in the restoration side of the hangar and get to work at making them at least more presentable after all those years outside the shackleton looks worse each year.

curlyboy

as in back inside airspace? or one of the other hangars? she’s not on any of the floorplans for airspace :confused:

I forgot to add she is going back inside after legends according to one of the bored marshalls who was walking about.

Oddly though the restoration area and the lancaster side upstairs were again closed to the public, Airspace is supposed to be open but does not ever seem to be FULLY open just mostly open?

But i had hoped they would have done something with the victor as just about every other plane that has shared the restoration section with her has at least come out with a new coat of paint recently.

curlyboy

Peter – may I suggest you do a search on DH Drover and Lasham!

thanks for getting back on topic curlyboy

She has got to be the most sad looking 4 engine jet aircraft of any uk museum right now..

Because i was largely responsible for Junking this thread i thought i would put a couple of pics of the victor taken at Flying Legends yesterday as recompense.

Although it does not look like they have done anything to her….. (yet)

curlyboy

cosfud

what were they thinking of junking those fine machines… years ago (80s) we went to an airshow there and there were lots of Canberras, Shacks etc. Got some pix somewhere.

google maps shows a victor sat next to a vulcan at cosford, i haven’t been there in an age but is it still there, or was this the B1 that was scrapped?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Cosford,+Shifnal,+Shropshire+TF11,+United+Kingdom&sll=52.644222,-2.31679&sspn=0.002383,0.005021&ie=UTF8&ll=52.642959,-2.314317&spn=0.004765,0.010042&t=k&z=17&om=1

It seems to be a very old photograph, because forgive me if im wrong, but it looks like there are 3 Jet Provost’s sat on the ramp outside the farthest hangar to the right, and the airliner collection is still intact, can anyone shed some light on this? 🙂

It’s a K2, only the mk2’s had the Whitcomb pods on the trailing edge of the mainplane.

Duxford victor

Getting back onto topic, is the duxford victor being worked on now then?

google maps shows a victor sat next to a vulcan at cosford, i haven’t been there in an age but is it still there, or was this the B1 that was scrapped?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Cosford,+Shifnal,+Shropshire+TF11,+United+Kingdom&sll=52.644222,-2.31679&sspn=0.002383,0.005021&ie=UTF8&ll=52.642959,-2.314317&spn=0.004765,0.010042&t=k&z=17&om=1

It seems to be a very old photograph, because forgive me if im wrong, but it looks like there are 3 Jet Provost’s sat on the ramp outside the farthest hangar to the right, and the airliner collection is still intact, can anyone shed some light on this? 🙂

😎 Just to bring us back on thread: Its outside again this week

That’s to make room for the Aurora to have a spruce up before the American Air Museum 10th anniversary event……:D

😎 Just to bring us back on thread: Its outside again this week

mill

Mill? Looks like a barn. Didn’t know it was as old as that and had been part of the airfield.

Were all those woods there during WW2?

Sorry to kinda divert from the point however;

the Fw190 that was refered to is a replica/new build from Germany in transit to Tom Blairs collection in the US

The russian engine that you mention is a chinese built yak engine which is the power supply selected to power the replica 190’s.

They are very similar to the original 190 but there are a few differences, the permission they were awaiting for is CAA approval to fly her in Brit skies, she is due to appear at a few duxford based shows before she departs across the pond.

Pete

No the EF111A crashed in the car park at Finmere mill which is one of the old hangars from RAF times converted to a mill.

I know this as go airsofting in the woods behind the mill every other Sunday so i know the area quite well.

I did start a thread about the crash last year so it might be owrth doing a search, instead of glogging up this thread.

Still here are a couple of pics from that thread.

Article about the crash

The Finmere site from google earth the mill is clearly shown on the right hand side of the pic, and where the blue I is, is where i go airsofting.

curlyboy

car park

Indeed – most of the cars in the agricultural supplies company’s car park were set afire. Another few yards closer and they would have had it come through the roof. The odd thing is that the building is in the middle of nowhere. The old RAF airfield (not sure of the status of that what with the Tingewick bypass and sunday market) Finmere is about half a mile further NE I think. Probably on Google Earth.
See attachment Zoom out and you can see the old runways and the relatively new bypass. Interesting that the local place name is ‘Barton Hartshorn’. Wasn’t there a Luftwaffe ace called… no, it was Barkhorn… I think.
I did a Google search and it found Curlyboy’s earlier thread.
Some people wondered if the crew were making for the Finmere runway but it seems doubtful.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/printthread.php?t=61330
Pics of the crash here:
http://www.raf-upper-heyford.org/20thTFWf111eCrash.jpg
http://www.raf-upper-heyford.org/EFstory2.jpg

A very near miss!

I hope the Phantom is inside too…;)

Then years later I recall the Raven crash. If I had been on my usual route back home from Oxford to MK a bit earlier (minutes almost) I might have seen it overhead. As it was I saw all the crash crews come tearing past and the smoke. Scary.

That was probably EF111A 66-0056 that crashed by the old RAF Finmere in 1992 just missing the flour mill and ending up on the road after having an electrical failure, crew were fine.

curlyboy

Interesting pic

I hope the Phantom is inside too…;)

As for the Croughton cops I recall when I was a kid and my dad having an argument with a yank in a mil cop car about us stopping to rubberneck the UH planes on a family Sunday afternoon drive around. Maybe they have a point but it was the cop’s attitude which annoyed him.

As for the Husky I dunno why we used to see it over my house 30 miles away from UH unless it was visiting other US airfields.

BTW one of the vaarks crashed not far from where I live – I recall the local papers with pix of the escape pod thing in someone’s greenhouse.

Then years later I recall the Raven crash. If I had been on my usual route back home from Oxford to MK a bit earlier (minutes almost) I might have seen it overhead. As it was I saw all the crash crews come tearing past and the smoke. Scary.

Here is a pic of the Huskie when she was outside, at least she is inside and attempts have been made to restore her.

curlyboy

Can you drive past the Croughton gate guardians? Be nice to see these birds and take a snap or two.

Or one of those cute Kaman twin rotor choppers we used to see yonks ago. I remember as a kid hearing this beastie ages before it came in view. When we went to UH Open Day they did a demo with one putting out a petrol fire. Amazing.

The yanks don’t like people turning up to take pictures at Croughton and told me it was “not allowed”. I argued with the same two guards that I was a British citizen and I was going to stand on a British public road and take some photographs of their two aeroplanes – which I did. I also pointed out to them that similar photos had been published in a book (“Wrecks and Relics”). I don’t know whether I was breaking any laws or not but I’ve not had a visit at home from MI5.

As Phantom Phixer pointed out there is an HH-43 Huskie at MAM (although not very viewable I think) which very relevant as it is one that was based at Upper Heyford (in the Midlands!) and actually did a similar rescue simulation at a Baginton air display. The downdraft from the twin rotors was used to blow the flames away from the area that asbestos-suited firemen (that had jumped out of the back of the Huskie) were trying to rescue aircraft crew from.

Roger Smith