Farnborough Met Flight

I So much for being a museum – guess you can only count on surviving if you happen to be a Spitfire!

Not if the BBMF get their hands on you….:dev2:

Alan, Hi,
If you Google ‘HB778 + Fortress’ you’ll get what they know. Now just what the Ministry of Supply was doing with an RAF Fortress at RAE Farnbough in 1947 I have no idea! Presumably NPC Duties – where NPC = Nefarious Purposes Committee!!!!!!!!!!!
HTH
Resmoroh

Many thanks, but I sort of found the answer myself! If I had studied Pete Cooper’s excellent book ‘Farnborough – 100 Years of British Aviation’ a little better, I would have seen that there is a photo of HB778 on p. 92 with the caption: ‘The B-17G Fortress III HB778 arrived at Farnborough during March 1945 and was operated by WE Flight and, later, SME Flight. It served at Farnborough for the next seven years, undertaking a variety of trials, which included combustion heaters that were being researched when this photograph was taken in September 1946. It was returned to the US 3rd Air Force in September 1952.’

What threw me a little is that the lists of RAE Flights in the back of the book jump from those in 1940 to those in 1950, a rather large gap for such an important period, and one must read in the main body of the book to gather what may have been on strength at the end of the war.

In the chapter 1945 to 1954 a total of 9 B-17s are listed as having come to Farnborough for various tasks, not including HB778.

Apols for having jumped onto the wrong thread!

brgds
Alan

In Battle Damaged photos there’s an aircraft just beyond that trailer thingy to the right of the B.17 – can someone confirm my suspicion that it’s a Brigand/Buckingham type aircraft, and what are those unusual markings (or is it me imagining things) ?

HB778 was ex USAF 42-97115 loaned to the Ministry of Supply. It was sent to Burtonwood 9.9.52 for fire protection tests and presumably burnt on site.
Even Roger Freeman’s listing on B-17 histories is wrong ,can anybody else give more details ?

Alan, Hi,
If you Google ‘HB778 + Fortress’ you’ll get what they know. Now just what the Ministry of Supply was doing with an RAF Fortress at RAE Farnbough in 1947 I have no idea! Presumably NPC Duties – where NPC = Nefarious Purposes Committee!!!!!!!!!!!
HTH
Resmoroh

As far as I am aware the Met Research Flight (MRF) never operated a Fortress.
The High Altitude Flight (HAL) operated:
Fortress 2A FK192 from 1943-45 SOC 18 Sep 45
Fortress 1 AN531 from 1944-45 SOC 17 Jan 45
HTH
Resmoroh

Hi,

I’m only quoting what I recall Jim’s telling me at the time – mind you, it WAS around 48 years ago!;)
I wonder what she was used for then…?

cheers
Alan

As far as I am aware the Met Research Flight (MRF) never operated a Fortress.
The High Altitude Flight (HAL) operated:
Fortress 2A FK192 from 1943-45 SOC 18 Sep 45
Fortress 1 AN531 from 1944-45 SOC 17 Jan 45
HTH
Resmoroh

I can offer this one, taken somewhat earlier, of HB778, which I think was also Met flight’s. The occasion was a colleague’s first ‘flip’ as he called it. I believe Jim (Williams) was working in the tower at the time. I met him much later at Fleet UDC.

It is indeed and the hooligans at Duxford destroyed it. So much for being a museum – guess you can only count on surviving if you happen to be a Spitfire! Thanks for the photos – they’re great. Love the MRF Fleet! The Canberra sadly ender her days on the dump at Coltishall I believe.

Farnborough Varsity

I think this will be Varsity WF425 which went to Duxford after retirement where it ended up being scrapped…

We know Snoopy lives on in its current altered state (seems that they could have found a higher houred Herk as a test bed so the low houred plane might be useful in its intended role….unless previous mods made that impractical)…

But what became of the Canberra and Valetta?

Varsity…

We know Snoopy lives on in its current altered state (seems that they could have found a higher houred Herk as a test bed so the low houred plane might be useful in its intended role….unless previous mods made that impractical)…

But what became of the Canberra and Valetta?