Mosquito Heaven 2 plus

According to the Air Britain ‘Big Book’ – (Mark 12 knows about this now!) the 4th Proctor was indeed G-AIED

Mark 12
The tail in the back of your 2nd pic ????

I would have said Proctor fin and rudder. (not early Spitifre 🙂 )

Mark

Mark 12
The tail in the back of your 2nd pic ????

More likely to be an Alouette 3 rather than the Alouette 2 in Swiss Mustangs picture.

I agree, it’s NOT a Hiller…especially a UH12E4.

FL200

It must be G-AIED as that would tie in with the date of the BoB film

I think 1947 would be way to early

I agree that the Proctor is probably G-AIAE. ALOK and AIEY were ‘small’ Proctors which had a smaller square rear window. It can be seen in the photo that the aircraft has a long rear window so it is a ‘large’ Proctor (Mk4 or 5). AIAE was a Mk5.

From my records I have AIED w.f.u at Shoreham 10-65 and AIKH crashed at Shoreham 07-47 so either of those could be the identity of the unknown Proctor. (again, both were ‘small’ Proctors).

Paul, I would be interested to read that article on BoB film, can you scan it and email it to me?

Jon.

Co-incidentally there’s a Proctor spade grip and other bits on eBay at the moment allegedly from the aircraft used in 633 Squadron.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14050&item=2262456393&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Proctor

Secondly, One film studio could easily be mistaken as another – I am not doubting your memory or pictures Mark!! But were they at Pinewood?

Paul,

Well definitely at what I call Borehamwood studios but I agree there is confusion and people do get it wrong – Borehamwood, Elstree, Pinewood, Denham, MGM etc a whole host of names.

A theory:

Film companies use the services of ‘property companies’ extensively for costumes, artifacts etc.

It may be that the aircraft were actually owned by a property company and just happened to be on site.

‘Trading Post’ at Southhall, Middx, were/are such an outfit. They had a vast warehouse acreage of materials. I remember you could see a Walrus or Sea Otter fuselage sticking bolt upright in their yard in the 1950s. It was on the schoolboy ‘must see’ list. Perhaps connected with ‘Sink the Bismark’ – Steve Bond?

During the BoB film, Spitfire TB863, surfaced from a reported ‘Pinewood studio’. There was a bit of a wrangle over ownership post filming. When I was buying Spitfire bits and pieces from ‘Trading Post’ in the mid 1970’s they claimed that they had owned the Spitfire.

Mark

OK Back to the Proctor

As it so happens I am reading a magazine article about BoB Proctukas at this very moment!. It says 4 Proctors were bought for BoB Film

G-AIEY, G-ALOK, G-AIAE and ??? (from Shoreham)

Only the first 2 were converted to ‘Stukas’ and only the first one flown by Vic Bellamy

Says all ended up being bought by Jeff Hawke and ended up at Pinewood.

Says one given false reg of G-ATIO (poss for a film) and a second (probably G-ALOK) ended up being in background of 1972 Spike Milligan film ‘Adolf Hitler – My part in his downfall’ and ‘appears to have been destroyed in the making of the film’

The article ends up with saying ‘last known Proctuka G-AIEY was said to be in Pinewood Studios Buckinghamshire. Last recorded sighting in the early 1970’s stated aircraft in ppor condition and not for sale. Rumours suggest it was recloacted to Derbyshire in 1977’

Right back to the photo…

First problem. The Proctors were at Pinewood in Bucks, not Borehamwood in Herts (though the distance is not to far between these 2 studios and they could have been moved)

Secondly, One film studio could easily be mistaken as another – I am not doubting your memory or pictures Mark!! But were they at Pinewood?

Thirdly – The Proctor had obviously NOT been converted to a Stuka – The rear cockpit decking is still ‘evident’ – the converted ones were ‘glass’

So I reckon it is either G-AIAE (the uncoverted one) or the unknown one From Shoreham

You may still be right. But it so reminded me of the wrecked Hillers at Thruxton in the 70’s. The seemed to write them off regually while crop spraying. The only thing that maked a AIII likely is the plate on the nose. Can anybody read it as thats where they pain the c/n, its certinally not a G- one as they are all accounted for.

Hmmm.

*

I have to dissagree on the chopper, its a Hiller 360/UH-12E

There were quite a few registered in the uk in the late 60 and used for crop spraying. The Aoulette was very rare with only a couple imported and much larger.

Methinks now from the above image, the shot on the film studio lot is all Alouette.

Mark

More likely to be an Alouette 3 rather than the Alouette 2 in Swiss Mustangs picture.

I stand corrected – never felt much attraction to those ‘copters. 😉

Martin

More likely to be an Alouette 3 rather than the Alouette 2 in Swiss Mustangs picture.

Enlightened.

The “a/c” in the foreground of the 3rd photo is mainly a French type “Alouette II” helicopter……

Ah yes. Thank you.

Mark

The “a/c” in the foreground of the 3rd photo is mainly a French type “Alouette II” helicopter……

Cheers
Martin / Swiss Mustangs

I would love to know what happened to the engines – if I could get a runnable pair for TA634, then we would have some fun! Bruce

Bruce

I believe Doug Arnold finally got them.

Paul Coggan might be able to give you the definitive answer.

Mark

The top two photos are TJ118’s rear fuselage, and aft tail section. Although the fin has gone missing over the years, nearly all of the fuselage of TJ118 survives. It is currently all stored at the Mosquito Museum. We laughingly refer to it as ‘the retirement project’!

The other one, RS715, went as Mark12 says, to Tony Agar, and now forms a large part of HJ711.

I would love to know what happened to the engines – if I could get a runnable pair for TA634, then we would have some fun!

Bruce

Was that one of the BoB Proctor ‘Stukas’??