F.I.D.O. Equipment Preserved or Not?

Dear All,
Those of you still seeking details of FIDO may like to know that there is a detailed account (mainly from the meteorological point of view) by Dick Ogden in the Proceedings of the first Conference on “Meteorology And World War II” held under the auspices of the Royal Met Soc at the Dept of Geog, Birmingham University on 25 Oct 1986. The Procs are at ISBN 0 948090 05 7 (pp 66-77 – at A5 size). With an ISBN number your local library may be able to find a copy!
If anybody needs any further info – or even transcriptions – then I can do some.
HTH
Resmoroh

Whilst at NAM today I pictured the piece of FIDO pipe on display, didn’t realise it was quite small, only about 2″ diameter and 1/8th inch holes drilled into it.

John.

For what it’s worth, during my time at Woodbridge I never heard of any FIDO equipment still on site.

And unless the system was still active, I’d guess the USAF would have removed it…they like to keep places tidy.:D

FIDO Equipment preserved or not?

The FIDO system at Davidstow Moor was of a temporary nature and used in 1943 in conjunction with the first European trials of a form of GCA being overseen by Arthur C Clarke, George Comstock and Luis Alvarez. I’m about to load details onto the website.

www.rafdavidstowmoor.org

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DGZOyt9iSA8

About 4 minutes in for anyone interested in seeing what F.I.D.O. was like.

I believe that lots of the F.I.D.O. installation still remains at the last site listed by exmpa. I’ve seen recent photos, either in a monthly or on the net (bit difficult to get to on a sunday afternoon drive, though).

The FIDO installations listed in William’s book are as follows:

Hartfordbridge/Blackbushe
Bradwell Bay
Carnaby
Downham Market
Fiskerton
Foulsham
Gravely
Ludford Magna
Manston
Melbourne
Metheringham
St Eval
Sturgate
Tuddenham
Woodbridge
Epinoy (France)
Amchitka (The Aleutians)

exmpa

Just south of the 28 threshold at Manston is a rather large bulk fuel installation. The last time I drove past (admittedly a long time ago) it had a definite wartime look to the construction. Possibly part of the FIDO installation?

There are a lot of interesting containers and installations around manston, and i am pretty sure when i did my work experiance there 11 years ago the airfield fire fighters pointed various things out, some of which i am sure were fido related. But since the RAF sold the site, there have been numerous changes to the infrastructure(it has a fence now for a start!) so i am not sure they still exist. I often wonder myself about the airfeilds arresting gear that interested me so much. The airfields museuwm still has a lot of info about the use of FIDO, so next time i am in there i will ask. I recoomend anyone that hasn’t been to go if they are in the area.

Just south of the 28 threshold at Manston is a rather large bulk fuel installation. The last time I drove past (admittedly a long time ago) it had a definite wartime look to the construction. Possibly part of the FIDO installation?

RAF Bradwell Bay also had FIDO installed, although I’ve never seen much physical evidence of it. The airfield plans show some FIDO buildings, of which there may be some extant but they were on a part of the field still fenced off IIRC.

John

I think you may find `Charles deGaulle ` airport,Paris has a modern equivalent with recessed turbines near the end(s) of the main runway,chuffing out hot air when necessary.Don`t know if it is still used..

I cannot say when it was last used, but it was at least 20 years ago.

exmpa

FIDO

Metheringham does indeed have some small sections of FIDO amongst it’s Visitor Centre exhibits, although the museum building is fairly limited for space.
I think if an interested party wanted to see more then arrangements could be made ….

I think you may find `Charles deGaulle ` airport,Paris has a modern equivalent with recessed turbines near the end(s) of the main runway,chuffing out hot air when necessary.Don`t know if it is still used..

I do know that Raf Metheringham in lincs had fido systems installed and rumours that some of it is still to be seen in the airfeld itself even tho i havent seen any personally.
Maybe the metheringham airfield society museum has some exhibits.
Have got some pics in a book somewhere of the installation and pics of it lit so will try and scan them and post them up.

DonClark, Thank you for those links, have read and understand more.
Seemed a very dangerous practise, but saved lives, and aircraft.
Just think what health and safety would say today ????
450.000 litres per hour at 2008 costs = £472,500 per hour at pump prices !!!
Keith.

My decaying memory has an inkling that there may be some remnants at Blackbushe?

I know that some FIDO is still extant at certain old Lincolnshire bomber bases. As you’d expect with steel tube that has been set alight and left out for over 65 years it’s not in brilliant condition, but still very lengthy.

Kurt

A history of the FIDO system:

“Flying Through Fire” by Geoffrey Williams ISBN 1-85627-900-6
Many copies are available at reasonable price here.

exmpa

Please excuse my ignorance, but could some nice person explain, in laymans terms, what exactly is / was FIDO. My reason for asking is that as a young man busily engaged in installing runway lighting systems etc, all of the older people I worked with were often talking of this, but never explained what it was ???? Keith.

I believe Newark Air Museum may have some lengths of FIDO piping, but that is all I know of.