What when where

British United Air Ferries livery it seems.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i.pbase.com/u43/fanjetuk/small/33615126.File0001090904a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbase.com/fanjetuk/assorted_aircraft_pix%26page%3D3&h=92&w=160&sz=3&hl=en&start=67&tbnid=N9U3Ptr_V5yOiM:&tbnh=56&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBristol%2BFreighter%26start%3D60%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3
DN

Image credit:- Fanjetuk collection

Mark

I have no answers but I have to say it’s a nice teaser for the old grey matter in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

I have managed to enlarge a section if it helps, are they hangers in the gap between buildings

RAAF Bristol Freighter.

I would go for it being an early Bristol ‘Frightner’ prior to the addition of the dorsal fillet,so I suppose it could be landing at Filton.
Or possibly Defford/Pershore

Nose looks too short/rounded for Hamilcar.
But it looks quite a distinctive building

Ideas anyone

Guess RCAF Bristol Freighter Germany. 1950’s

John

While there is a similarity to the Hamilcar there are two things saying no Freighter. 1st the nose section, the hamilcar has a much more pointed profile when viewed side on and 2nd the tail (already mentioned with possible explanation). While I could understand the overall dimensions of the tail being changed when engines were fitted the rudder would most likely have retained its original shape. That fin has a pronounced upward tapering rudder, just like a Bristol Freighter. There is a taper on the Hamilcar but nowhere near that of the Freighter

I have found a few photos on the net for comparison.

Bristol Freighter

http://www.defence.gov.au/raaf/raafmuseum/photo_album/bristol.htm

GAL Hamilcar

http://www.army.mod.uk/img/aac/hamilcar.gif (side on drawing, not a photo)

Blowing this snappy up and using a little photo wizardry on it, there does seem to be the semblance of an engine, however the general outline is very near too the Hamilcar.

As 20 if these, Mk 1,s to be precise were converted too self sustaining/launching models with a pair of 965hp Bristol Mercury radials, this could be one of those as a rather crusty picture I saw some years ago showed an enlarged vertical stabiliser, possibly to cope with engine out conditions, which was very different in appearance from the normal slab like fin the Hamilcars ‘Gliders’ were fitted with. Maybe someone has a printable shot of one.

As for the location, it is indeed a cricket pitch score board on the side of the hut small hut on the right, and though the background has some detail it is too distorted to pick out any details, a guess from the architecture, Wiltshire possibly.

Yup, Bristol Freighter. The tail is all wrong for a Hamilcar.

Best wishes
Steve P

More like a Bristol Freighter, early model without that elongated nose, probably mid to late 50s.

Where, not in France, that is a cricket pitch in the foreground (note the side screen with its slats removed and pavilion). I don’t think the french have ever got the idea of smacking a red ball.

Alan

GAL Hamilcar?
The conical tower on one of the buildings suggests France…
..so perhaps summer, 1944?

Roger Smith.