Heads Up: BBC 1 (North West), 19:30 14/02/11

Just to update everyone, today (Saturday 26th Feb) five of us spent to morning moving to engine from KH838 to a temporary public display at Chorley Library. On Monday Nick intends to finish off the display by putting some of the smaller items into one of the display cases close to the engine which are currently occupied with another temporary display.

At the moment the engine will be on public display for only 4 weeks.

Also Nick has put a page about the crash and recovery on his site.

Hi 611 Squadron – We are still struggling a little with his RAF career – we have dates of enlistment and promotion, as well as a rough idea of when he was injured and transferred to the ATA. But despite extensive trawling through the records at the PRO by Alan, no trace of him has been found. Even getting in touch with his relatives has not helped much in this respect, as his sisters were very much younger than him, so had no information and his widow, although happy for our project to go ahead, did not want to become involved – too many sad memories, I feel – and quite understandable. So we still have little to go on, other than a few family tales, with no place names or Squadron Nos. plus a few comments in the AIB report and his obituary. So the project remains open & we hope to get a break one day!

One of the witnesses on the day of the dig, certainly gave a graphic account of an aircraft clearly suffering from some form of mechanical problem. However, the engine shows no apparent evidence of this – in fact it’s like brand new! – It had only done some nine hours! The valve gear is all intact and shows no signs of failure, ruling out a dropped valve, which would fit with his description. Another possibility would be an ignition problem, but much of the harness was ripped away as the engine buried itself – so no smoking gun there. The engine does appear to have been running at impact, though perhaps not at anywhere near full power – gouge marks from a turning reduction gear breaking free are present, as well as a big end shearing off as it came to a sudden halt and rotational gouges and bearing failure around the supercharger gearing – all seem to point to it having been turning and stopping very suddenly!

Although several instruments were found, they were all in pieces and certainly no possibility of any readings – The same with the throttle quadrant, which was totally smashed, as were the trim controls. We do now know that the canopy was still with the aircraft on impact, so as it was noted as open by witnesses, it must have been slid back rather than jettisoned, so bailing out was obviously not Fairman’s first instinct? as it must have impeded his exit? All the witnesses do seem to agree that the aircraft was circling the village at a low altitude for several minutes before the crash and although it was seen flying erratically just before its final dive, none spoke of “aerobatic” manoeuvres. Sixty-five years after the event, we never expected a definite answer, but in our opinion the pilot was definitely in trouble and knew it – But sadly left it too late, for whatever reason, to abandon the aircraft.

Very interesting. It deserved more air time if you ask me, it would have been nice if they had expanded on the pilots bomber carear, but thats the telly for you. did the engine yeald any clues as to the cause of the crash?

iplayer

For those who missed it – well I suppose it was Valentines day & other commitments may have taken priority! 😉 It is now on iplayer at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ylrb1/Inside_Out_North_West_14_02_2011/

The dig is only part of the program, starting at 11:45 minutes – it was to have been the full half hour & they certainly had enough material, but that’s what happens when you work with the media – However, it’s well edited and gets the main points in without the usual repetition, so perhaps it was for the best – especially as you get to see less of me 😀

the impact site was now under a rockery feature in a front garden of a rather large house in a decidedly up-market area!

What an odd place to put a rockery..On top of an aircraft…:D

Currently showing as available soon on iplayer, hopefully sometime during tomorrow.

It was just over 10 minutes in to the programme and lasted just under 10 minutes.

Do we know if its on i player, you link only shows a 30 second clip

Just watched it ,Thanks for posting it,I found it very interesting.The Merlin came out fantastic.Cheers

I don’t know when it will be going out in the SE, at the time of the dig the producer was hoping to get them both out on the same night but that clearly hasn’t happened. When Nick spoke to him last week he is still hoping to get it broadcast in the SE.

The connection was the pilot was from London, born in Southwark late 1921.

Do you know when it is going out on BBC South East?

Is there a SE connection?

Gentle reminder, tonight 19:30 BBC 1 NW, or Sky 978

A couple more to whet your appetite – the impact site was now under a rockery feature in a front garden of a rather large house in a decidedly up-market area!

Looks good boys, the engine cleaned up lovely and no too badly damaged either, what happened to the prop hub?

Thanks Gareth & Ian – You should have seen me after cleaning the engine though !!! 😀

There were Magnetometer readings over towards the tree, which may have been the sheared off hub and reduction gear, but equally could have been more burnt fuselage remains – As we were under strict instructions that the tree must not be harmed, it was decided that it was not worth risking any further damage to its root system by digging towards it!

No sign of the hub or reduction gear, only the small gear off the engine crankshaft. There were no other mag hits around it either so the most likely outcome was it sheared off on impact.

Very nice engine, Nick. Look forward to seeing it!

Looks good boys, the engine cleaned up lovely and no too badly damaged either, what happened to the prop hub?

Photos

A few photos to be going on with 🙂

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[ATTACH]192543[/ATTACH]

Thanks will give it a watch, there is a similar story of a P47 that crashed on the outskirts of nantwich and a rather touching memorial on the site down by the river.

Inside Out

Managed to speak to the producer today – sounds like he has had to edit it again to make it shorter 🙁 He did confirm it will also be going out on Inside Out South East, though not necessarily at the same time.

BBC1 N West is channel 978 on Sky tv guide should be ok