Do any photos exist of the ice removal vehicle used at RAF Strubby? I’ve been told it was a fuel bowser with an old Meteor’s Derwent mounted on the front which was used to blast the ice.
I really can’t imagine quite what the contraption would look like!
By: donald d - 30th January 2017 at 18:21
Salt Speader, I have never known salt to be used where aircraft are operating, salt is highly corrosive and aircraft are mostly aluminium the two do not go together, they might have used Urea.
By: Sabrejet - 24th January 2017 at 06:30
Me too! Operated MRD’s at Manston – we had a sideways-blowing (Snow Blow?) too. All with Derwent engines and all very rickety. When we decommissioned them I managed to liberate a couple of engine plates, which I still have.
By: cabbage - 23rd January 2017 at 23:20
I remember these (MRD) devices at both Scampton and Kinloss in the 70’s and 80’s. very noisy but extremely effective at snow and ice clearing. You soon learnt to give them a wide berth when they were in use
As an aside, I remember travelling to Wittering, to colllect some bang-seat cartridges, and being delayed at wittering, because the runway deicing truck (salt spreader) had overturned on the taxi-way.
By: Mustang51 - 23rd January 2017 at 21:19
Would they be RD45s?
By: TonyT - 23rd January 2017 at 10:40
Russian used a similar Idea for decontaminating vehicles from a NBC attack,
they also used this, and adapted it to put out the Kuwaiti oil fires post GW1
http://www.hexapolis.com/2015/07/29/big-wind-when-tank-mounted-jet-engines-douse-fierce-fires/
We on the other hand being higher tech, used a couple of buckets, some stiff brushes and wore a plastic see through suit over our NBC kit…. It was murder in hot weather and useless.
Russian MRD
By: TonyT - 23rd January 2017 at 10:34
They used a Phantom down south I believe.
By: Arabella-Cox - 23rd January 2017 at 10:31
I’m sure I remember a Sea Vixen from the SAH being used at Culdrose in the early 80s – taxi-ing up and down the main runway blowing & melting the snow away using it’s two mighty Avons! 🙂
By: TonyT - 23rd January 2017 at 10:30
From the web
Trained on them and they would turn a nice snow covered taxiway into a lethal layer of black ice.
Such hi-tech ……. except it needed two bods in the bowser, on to pump the rig across by hand! so it blew off to one side and when coming back down the taxiway it pointed the other way to continue blowing it one way. Brize had about 5 of them sitting outside the end of base hangar in all weathers.
By: ian_st - 22nd January 2017 at 21:15
I was a Sergeant Atech at Binbrook in the early 80s and was trained to operate this kit. Noisy and exposed. Not a pleasant job!
By: Robbiesmurf - 22nd January 2017 at 14:04
In the ’70’s, the MRD would be operated by a propulsion tech (J/T or above).
By: donald d - 22nd January 2017 at 13:45
You are right it was not a fun job and it was called the MRD main runway de-icer, the use of a pilot is correct I think but the noise and not knowing if the engines would blow there certainly wasn’t a queue to do it, it looked spectacular though.
By: donald d - 22nd January 2017 at 13:39
You are right about the runway de-icing unit at Strubby but it had two not one Derwents both ex meteor and time ex, there was a sound proofed cabin between the engines with i/c and as someone said it could propel large chunks of packed ice and snow a great distance at a fair old speed, the bowser used was a AEC Matadour and the driver from the 60’s to the end was Ken Richardson, memory is fading but I think it was one of the RAF people in the Cabin.
By: SADSACK - 4th May 2011 at 03:39
re;
now this is a different thread!
An interesting subject for model making too.
i wonder what health and safety would make of hurling snow at everyone 😀
By: bazv - 3rd May 2011 at 20:34
Hi Baloffski, was it the same thing picture above at Brooklands? I had a feeling that it was a one off.
Yes james,the Brooklands beast is a one off,used at Dunsfold,self propelled with a donkey engine and based on an Austin K4 chassis,the chap who drove it was a big lad…no power steering LOL and Avon powered so he had to be careful 😀
By: exmpa - 1st May 2011 at 13:40
I’m just repeating what I was told by someone who did enjoy having a bit of fun with it in the early 60s’
I suspect that what he really meant was that it was preferable to some of the other tasks on offer, e.g. being equipped with a shovel and expected to use it. But being pushed up and down a runway in a MRD was never a “fun” activity.
exmpa
By: inkworm - 1st May 2011 at 09:45
I can assure you that it was never a desirable job.
exmpa
I’m just repeating what I was told by someone who did enjoy having a bit of fun with it in the early 60s’
By: exmpa - 1st May 2011 at 08:27
but was at the time a very desirable job among the pilots due to the lack of flying.
I can assure you that it was never a desirable job.
exmpa
By: inkworm - 30th April 2011 at 22:32
thanks for all that, from what I gather at Strubby, a pilot had to be in control of the jet engine but would be reprimanded by the driver if it was given too much juice or ended up removing chunks of tarmac, but was at the time a very desirable job among the pilots due to the lack of flying.
By: pagen01 - 30th April 2011 at 22:01
Thanks for that, I was wondering if it was the type pushed by a bowser.
By: baloffski - 30th April 2011 at 21:50
Hi Baloffski, was it the same thing picture above at Brooklands? I had a feeling that it was a one off.
The picture EXMPA has posted shows the beast as I knew it. If you can imagine two long jetpipes with the ends flattened, you have roughly what it looked like from the front; as opposed to the Farnborough one, which appears to be one jetpipe with the efflux directed sideways through ducts.
Sign In
April 30, 2011 at 2:42 pm