I was at RIAT yesterday and really enjoyed the last hour and a half spent watching the Lanc et al starting up and taking off to display. Took me back to 1989 when I took a Mk 11 Chieftain to display on that side of the airfield and when bored told lots of people that the turret was screwed on and if it was traversed 13 times to the left it would spring off 😮
If you are one of these then it was a fib it’s really 14 🙂
I saw a Typhoon body there which was restored from the engine bulkhead backwards. I talked to a chap who had only joined the restoration group two weeks ago and he gave me a spurious web address. I took an instant dislike to him when seeing him next to this beautiful creature but this was increased when he told me he wangled a tour of the Lanc and this was not helped when he said that he lived 1/2 an hour from Duxford!
Does anyone know what this group is all about? The cockpit looks like the restored ‘garden’ one with lots of bits added on at the back. They even have the fish-tail modifications on the structure but not flushed as was normal.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
Tank
By: DaveR - 19th July 2004 at 23:47
Tiffie…
If the link in the message above is the Tiffie you saw then this was completed by Roger Marley based in Shropshire. He has taken the last 8 years to do this completing the cockpit mainly in genuine parts. My experience in my dealings with Roger have been very good…spent hours at his place just talking Tiffies!! Last I saw it he had just fabricated the rear fuselage so to have ‘formed’ the tail is quite a feat, after all no-one has any access to any original drawings or tails to copy!!!
By: Tank Soldier - 19th July 2004 at 21:29
Thanks for that Flood it certainly seemed that way but this guy didn’t know much about it when I posed this to him. Its obvious that the tail has been manufactured to form a shape rather than fly. He did say that the group is based in Telford but again not sure if that’s where the replica is based.
On the Chieftain note I still feel guilty to this day for what I told those people. Another porkie I told them was that the extra armour on a Mk 11 (Stillbrew modification) was made of special rubber which made the incoming rounds bounce off. You can’t imagine how boring that job is and how many times they ask you “how far does this gun fire?”
I’ll post some pictures of it when I’ve figuered how to load Photoshop :rolleyes:
By: Flood - 19th July 2004 at 19:22
Suspect this is what you are looking for…
http://forum.airforces.info/showthread.php?p=414434#post414434
(Love the idea of 13 turns and the turret springs off…:D:D:D)
Flood.â„¢
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July 19, 2004 at 4:02 pm