Following on from my previous question about an ASI calibration card, I had a ferret around for other aircraft artifacts I may have (there are not that many!).
I have turned up two small plates, one of which is from a Shackleton and is illustrated below. It is a piece of metal I did actually obtain from my visit to the firm as described in the previous post.
It is self-explanatory. Two questions arise: Why did the manufacturers feel it necessary to name the aircraft type on a permanently fitted label? Secondly, as I understand it, GR.1s did not go into service (at least not as GR.1s) and I was uncertain that any were actually built. But given that it looks like production started, it would seem that on change of designation to MR.1, they couldn’t be bothered to change any labels to reflect the change.
Any comments?
By: HP111 - 24th May 2012 at 08:23
I am reassurred that the GR.1/MR.1 overlap seems to have been widespread.
Incidentally, the pilots instrument panels referred to had a foot or so of nose structure with them (they had literally been chopped out of the fuselage). As I remember it, the colour was a faded gray at the front and light at the side, but I don’t suppose that provides any useful information.
By: richw_82 - 24th May 2012 at 00:11
Most of the MR1 manufacturers drawings are marked as “Shackleton GR Mk.1”.
Its been most confusing when we’ve been trying to find the ones we need for VP293. We’ve been digging through some of the instrument panel drawings lately, I’ll have a look if the warning placard is on one of them.
Interestingly, the warning on that plate applied to all versions of Shackleton, and is still adhered to now.
Rich
By: pagen01 - 23rd May 2012 at 22:07
My understanding is that RAF Coastal Command went from General Reconnaissance to Maritime Reconnaissance sometime during 1954/55, the Lancaster and Sunderland going from GR to MR designations.
However according to Chris Ashworths’ book, the initial version of the Shackleton was always known as the MR.Mk.1 in service (from CA release, 31 Jan 51), that variant was based on the three GR.Mk.1 prototypes that were built and flown. The first production batch of these aircraft were ordered to a contract for Shackleton GR.1s, maybe that explains the label?
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May 23, 2012 at 6:25 pm