Heston Airport Mystery

I hope you resolve what your mystery fuselage at Heston was…I’m stumped…I was a spotter in the period 1954-1961 but don’t recall anything else …I used to help a Job’s Dairy milkman deliver to Orchard Avenue in that period, and lived about 1/4 mile away in Meadow Waye 🙂

We lived at number 33, left in 1988. My father lived there from 1937 I think, so a long time. I wasn’t born until after you left.

I am trying to think where 47 was, we were 4 houses back (if going anti clockwise) from the green area on the bend with bushes. I remember Mr Bull, Mr Taylor and Mr Harwood who lived next to us.

My parents were here for dinner today, the planes he flew in were the Airspeed Oxfords with the 701 Naval Squadron and De Havilland Domini and Tiger Moth’s.

He even had his own parachute there. He remembers when getting out of a Airspeed once pulling the wrong lever and the door coming off. He couldn’t hold it and ended up sliding down the wing with it, before coming to rest. The pilot thought it was amusing, but the ground crew were not impressed.

One of his friends worked at Woodason Models for a time as well.

As for the Mustang crash, he was there shortely afterwards and the cockpit was in the road at North Hyde Lane. He said it was red inside, but the two Canadians guarding it told him not to worry and said it was Glycol from the compass. One of the first people on the scene was the father of a family friend called Waters.

I am trying to think where 47 was, we were 4 houses back (if going anti clockwise) from the green area on the bend with bushes. I remember Mr Bull, Mr Taylor and Mr Harwood who lived next to us.

Sorry to be silent for a day or two. I just got back from Thunder Bay (really) and am now in Spruce Grove Alberta

47 was the third house along on the left if you turned right from the little spur road from Vicarage farm road.

To get back to aeroplanes … I am at least half persuaded that your father’s theory of a glider is the answer. Either a Horsa or a Hadrian seems possible. I need to look through photos to find one that gives a view from the right sort of angle.

Thanks again.

Info c/o V.S. on Air Britain abix forum…there was a photo and letter in Aeroplane Monthly Apr74 from JM Darwin of Swindon of the Sea Eagle behind the hangars used by BOAC at Heston ca.1951…in good condition grey with black underneath….scan attached

1926 “The loss of the ” Sea Eagle,” G-EBGS, at Guernsey, through being rammed by a ship whilst at moorings during the night, also occurred during the same year.”
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1931/1931%20-%201056.html

“… Sea Eagle G-EBGR was considered redundant and was withdrawn from use.
The hull was preserved and exhibited alongside the Short Empire flying boat, Capella, at the British Power Boat Company’s display at Hythe, Hampshire, in February 1938. Finally, wrongly marked as G-EBGS, it was presented to John Brancker of BOAC in September 1949 by Victor Paine (half-brother of Hubert Scott-Paine) then publicity manager of Vickers (Aviation) who had acquired Supermarine in 1928. It was stored at Hythe base and then moved to Heston where problems of maintenance and storage caused it to be burnt on 13th February 1954.
http://www.imperial-airways.com/Aircraft_information_g_ebgr.html

As for the Mustang crash, he was there shortely afterwards and the cockpit was in the road at North Hyde Lane. He said it was red inside, but the two Canadians guarding it told him not to worry and said it was Glycol from the compass. One of the first people on the scene was the father of a family friend called Waters.

Very interested to read the stuff on the Gaston Riggs crash, there is quite some interest on this incident on the Heston Airport Forum mentioned in previous postings.

The Glycol covered cockpit makes sense as the Mustang did have a coolant system failure which caused the sudden need to get down. There is an account here, http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2002/09/the-airman-from-the-crash/ which makes interesting reading, although the role of the writer appears to have been “bigged up” a bit. Another Heston forum contributor had a relative who was also present and was commended for his actions in extricating the pilot, and is far more credible. However the red Glycol could be the reason for…

[INDENT]After discarding my bike, I ran to the aircraft and then clambered up onto one of the wings. I yelled for the pilot to get out, but he remained still. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and I noticed his forehead was bright red. .[/INDENT]
Interesting also is the fact that the guards were Canadians… and the writer of this account thought the pilot was Canadian? Coincidence, or confusion maybe?

With recent research we have built up quite a dossier on this incident and hope to publish something in the local press along with some sort of permanent reminder of the incident, and maybe submit the full story for publication in Flypast. Now…. I wonder if you might be able to do us a small favour and ask you dad to recall the incident in as much detail as possible and capture this for us in an email?? He clearly has a good memory of the crash… and with a little prompting maybe able to add some more details which although trivial may help to create a fuller picture? Anything would be of interest, from the general scene and what was where, to the conversations with the guards, the damage to the aeroplane, its colours and markings, the disposal of the wreckage (71 MU from Slough came a and took it away, it ended up in Slough) or maybe local views or speculation after the event?

Finally…the Mustang was a P51B and if the hood was seen in the road afterwards, maybe suggests it was a Malcolm hood version?? (I’m trying to make a model of the aircraft in 503rd colours)

Thanks!!

Colin

He would be happy to put down what he knows, he also still keeps in contact with friends who lived in the area when he was kid. He does remember it well though.

I’ll PM you with his memories of it. As for the legionmagazine article, he is not sure that this is the same crash as this doesn’t tie up with the location of the P51 crash, due to the location being Cranford Lane, which is the other side. He remembers the oil drums for the smoke screen and it was definitely in a different place to where the crash was.

Looking back on it, he thought the Canadian guards were trying to make him feel better about all the red in the cockpit by claiming it was glycol, but it may be true then. He always thought the location of Grange Farm was crazy as it was so close to the airport.

EDIT: Does anybody know when those new industrial units were built in Aerodrome way, I remember seeing some of the buildings probably 10 years ago, next to the concrete hanger. It was obviously not the control tower or anything like that, but were certainly airfield buildings painted white

I hope you resolve what your mystery fuselage at Heston was…I’m stumped…I was a spotter in the period 1954-1961 but don’t recall anything else …I used to help a Job’s Dairy milkman deliver to Orchard Avenue in that period, and lived about 1/4 mile away in Meadow Waye 🙂

Well you probably delivered milk to our house then – thanks for all the calcium… I remember the Job’s Dairy shop at the end of the parade on Vicarage farm Road. I wonder how many other shops names I can remember …

This thread is going off in unexpected directions…

Interesting also is the fact that the guards were Canadians… and the writer of this account thought the pilot was Canadian? Coincidence, or confusion maybe?

FinallyThanks!!

Colin

Gaston being a Texan with a French name, I wondered originally if there was a Louisiana connection…but maybe he was from a Canadian family?…..Mick

Gaston being a Texan with a French name, I wondered originally if there was a Louisiana connection…but maybe he was from a Canadian family?…..Mick

The Riggs family was most definitely American, not Canadian!
Gaston’s father was also named Gaston, and the family name has been traced back to the early 17th century in Essex (England). It seems they were quite early settlers in New England, only ending up in Texas in the mid 19th century. Louisiana does not appear on any family records (yet).

Heston Avenue anyone?

He would be happy to put down what he knows, he also still keeps in contact with friends who lived in the area when he was kid. He does remember it well though.

I’ll PM you with his memories of it. As for the legionmagazine article, he is not sure that this is the same crash as this doesn’t tie up with the location of the P51 crash, due to the location being Cranford Lane, which is the other side. He remembers the oil drums for the smoke screen and it was definitely in a different place to where the crash was.

He always thought the location of Grange Farm was crazy as it was so close to the airport.

EDIT: Does anybody know when those new industrial units were built in Aerodrome way, I remember seeing some of the buildings probably 10 years ago, next to the concrete hanger. It was obviously not the control tower or anything like that, but were certainly airfield buildings painted white

Thanks…. it would be great to get his account!!…. Look forward to reading it. You are not the first to suggest that the account in the legion magazine may be confusing two different incidents… and you could well be correct as no mention is made of the Grange Farm House that was partially demolished, highly significant and would have most likely featured in anyone’s memory of the crash!!

Grange Farm pre dated Heston aerodrome, although the eastern (Grange Farm) end was an extension to the original Airfield. The control tower and main central complex were demolished in 1978. The Jackaman Hangar (the concrete hangar) has a preservation order on it and is of course original. The Hangars to the east of this are original, but altered to some extent. There are plenty of pictures over on the Heston Airport Forum….along with more stuff on Gaston Riggs including the crash report, pictures of the wreckage and the partially demolished Grange Farm house, funeral details and documents……. and much discussion and speculation!!

rgds

Colin

Thank you, Martin. I don’t think that one could ask for any more definitive an account of its history and sad end. But it leaves one thinking what might have been if, like today, workers had the weekends off!

Got an answer today from BA Museum, Mr. Keith Hayward, the Consultant Archivist:

“Our records show that the fuselage was moved from Hythe sometime after 1951 by BOAC to Heston for open storage. Prior to this approaches were made to see if Saunders Roe or Power Boats would retain the fuselage, but they declined.

In 1954 thoughts of a national aircraft museum were being formulated and approaches were made to BOAC to see if the Sea Eagle could be placed under cover before it rotted away. The Royal Aeronautical Society also became concerned about the airframe. BEA offered to accommodate it or arrange for it to be transported to Weybridge for storage under cover with the famous Nash collection. There was even the possibility that Vickers could be persuaded to add mocked-up wings and tail unit and thus exhibit the complete aircraft.

Sadly there seems to have been a complete breakdown of communications with BOAC at this time.

On 20 January 19544 the BOAC Stores Superintendent was ordered by Supplies Management to burn the fuselage at Heston where it was in a very deteriorated states. He contacted the Fire Section who destroyed the Sea Eagle on Saturday 13 February 1954 after originally planning to do it the following week. As BEA had offered to move the fuselage, BOAC management telephoned the Stores Superintendent on Monday 15 February telling him not to arrange for the aircraft to be burnt, not knowing that this had already taken place.

Ironically, misunderstanding and a 48-hour change of plan caused the loss of this historic aircraft. A sorry story.”

AA, maybe some answers to your questions…

Martin

More boat than a/c…!!! 🙂

Regarding Mike BB’s original enquiry about the Northrop Black Widow , there is an article entitled “Heston Revisited” in the April 1995 Aeroplane Monthly, pages 16/17 which has picture of the Black Widow with the hangars behind and a text to say that ” A contemporary report in Flight said that it was intended to increase the Spearfish’s flap size to 90 per cent of the span, with small feeder ailerons as on the Northrop black Widow.

Heston Airport Mystery

The handover to Mr John Branker of BOAC in Sept.1949

An earlier photo of the Sea Eagle flying:

Thank you, AEROFOIL. That is indeed a sad tale that you relate. Had it hung on for another few years…… – but as has been said: ‘The past is a foreign country : they do things differently there’!

It would be interesting to know the Sea Eagle’s history of survival in the decades prior its arrival at Heston. But that doesn’t really fit within the ambit of this thread.

I first saw the Sea Eagle G-EBGS at Heston when I first became interested in civil aircraft in about 1950. It was stored in one of the smaller hangars not far from the concrete Jackaman hangar which is still preserved as a listed grade 2 construction in amongst the warehouses which surround it nowadays. The aircraft was cramped in amongst several other aircraft fuselages including a couple of Tiger Moths and possibly an Aeronca from the Airways Aero Association I believe, with its wings detached and the Imperial Airways sign. On an occasion travelling to Heathrow by bicycle in 1954 and passing by the Fairey hangars in Cranford Lane, I was astonished to see G-EBGS outside on a empty concrete patch with its wings attached and to all purposes complete in itself being set alight and flames
burning the structure. By then it was too late to do anything and this magnificent relic which could have been saved as part of our aviation heritage for a museum was practically finished. It is most unlikely that anything was saved in this process.

…ok, ok, Mike! 😉