Wings BBC

Coincidentally the Sopwith Pup FSM at MAM is but a few feet away from the Humber Monoplane replica.
The start of the “Wings” series came at about the same time as the launch of Ford’s new ‘baby’ car the Fiesta. Leamington Spa Ford dealer Soans for their part of the official launch hired the Humber Monoplane from the Midland APS (MAM’s forerunner) to display in their showroom and also hired Tim Woodward the star of the series for a ‘gala evening’.
The Humber (a Bleriot replica on loan from Shuttleworth but subsequently fitted with an original Humber engine) travelled around well before we got the MAM up and running – other car showrooms, the Fleet Air arm Museum and the, then, new terminal at Birmingham Airport – usually in a large furniture removal van. Adding to the coincidence the Humber engine mentioned had, in the 1930’s, somehow found it’s way to Sywell where years later (I presume) the Pup was built by Dave Boddington.
I’ve still got a paperback copy of “Wings” signed by Tim Woodward that evening.

Roger Smith.

The Pup was built at DB Models Factory at Irchester, had to remove a window to get it out. It ws then test rigged at Sywell before going to the set at Chipping Norton for filming of the episode where “Triggers” comes back to his farthers factory to test fly a new Scout for the RFC!!!!

As this is obviously attracting a bit of interest, you can now download David Boddington’s excellent 1977 articles on building and flying the scale models for Wings, at www.biggles-biplane.com/wings%20models.pdf

Enjoy! 😉

PLUS! The Blue screen ‘special effects’ models of the BE2, Albatros and EIII from Wings presently reside in The Sywell Aviation Museum – as built by Dave Boddington and Dave Toyer.
TT

We must get that rudder fixed TT :diablo:

PLUS! The Blue screen ‘special effects’ models of the BE2, Albatros and EIII from Wings presently reside in The Sywell Aviation Museum – as built by Dave Boddington and IIRC Dave Toyer.

I think Dave T still has a larger model from the series – perhaps the Eindekker?

TT

Coincidentally the Sopwith Pup FSM at MAM is but a few feet away from the Humber Monoplane replica.
The start of the “Wings” series came at about the same time as the launch of Ford’s new ‘baby’ car the Fiesta. Leamington Spa Ford dealer Soans for their part of the official launch hired the Humber Monoplane from the Midland APS (MAM’s forerunner) to display in their showroom and also hired Tim Woodward the star of the series for a ‘gala evening’.
The Humber (a Bleriot replica on loan from Shuttleworth but subsequently fitted with an original Humber engine) travelled around well before we got the MAM up and running – other car showrooms, the Fleet Air arm Museum and the, then, new terminal at Birmingham Airport – usually in a large furniture removal van. Adding to the coincidence the Humber engine mentioned had, in the 1930’s, somehow found it’s way to Sywell where years later (I presume) the Pup was built by Dave Boddington.
I’ve still got a paperback copy of “Wings” signed by Tim Woodward that evening.

Roger Smith.

By the way the Rumpler was never used in Wings!!;)

As always. I bow to the knowledge of the true expert!! 😀

Just a quick reply from the burning desert, actually its pi**ing with rain at the moment!

The ground reps for wings were two taxiable BE2’s at about 7/8 full size to match the flying example, a Albatros cII to the same scale and i think the Gunbus was one of the Shout at the Devil exanples. The 504 was the same one as in Ace’s High. There was also a Sopwith Pup built by us for one episode, this still belongs to Uncle Davis and is currently at Coventry MAM. I know not where the rest are now, mores the pity. One of the BE2’s and the Albatros were at North Weald for A time.
There was plans to progess the series and plans were afoot to produce more Pups and a 1 1/2 Strutter but the main men at the BBC pulled the plug due to the costa envolved in producing more.

Back to the dessert for now!!!!!

By the way the Rumpler was never used in Wings!!;)

I have often wondered if the plan was to take the series forward through the rest of the war?

I don’t believe there were any plans to take Wings beyond the two series that were made. They’d already stretched Barry Thomas’s original book beyond all recognition.

I dont suppose we will ever see the likes of this series again (espcecially from the BBC!).

Well, you never know, I suppose!!;)

Actually Wings (and Flambards and Airline) were all made in a ‘golden era’ for BBC and ITV drama. In the early 1970s, the TV companies had all totally underestimated how fast colour television would catch on and the money from licence fees for the BBC and advertising revenue for ITV went through the roof.

For the only time in TV history, they were awash with money, and a lot of this went on drama series like Wings. At the time, it was reckoned that BBC and ITV actually had bigger production budgets than most feature film producers. It certainly isn’t the case today!

. Whether the Gunbus ‘prop’ is the same one as graces Hangar One at Sywell, I don’t know.

Steve;)

It isnt.:)

TT

(Ah so thats where Bod is…)

Hello again,

Thank you very much for the info.

I have often wondered if the plan was to take the series forward through the rest of the war?

I dont suppose we will ever see the likes of this series again (escecially from the BBC!).

Cheers

633

For what it’s worth…
I had an Aeroplane magazine from June 1975 that mentioned two Gunbus replicas built for a film..”Shout at the Devil”.
Could one those be the film prop mentioned?

Yes. Sorry folks. The Blue Max is currently bolting Stearmans together in some desert oasis, while I’m back on maximum rate jetlag from even further East!

But, back to Wings. It seems the aerodrome locations and flying sequences were actually filmed in two specific locations, Old Warden in the UK and Bealeton, Virginia.

At OW, the Boxkite and Avro were used, along with at least one ground-taxiable BE-2 replica and a fuselage ‘mule’, plus a Gunbus film prop. Derek Piggott (Lasham gliding guru) was the aerial co-ordinator and the pilots were James Gilbert and Neil Williams, who also flew the PPS/Bianchi Eindecker in a couple of sequences.

The flying in the USA, with the BE-2c and Rumpler replicas and Cole Palens Avro 504K, was cleverly integrated with the OW footage with David Boddington also providing a lot of large scale models for the flying sequences too.

As for survivors. Well, there’s ‘our’ BE-2. The Rumpler is airworthy again in the USA, and so of course are the OW aeroplanes. Whether the Gunbus ‘prop’ is the same one as graces Hangar One at Sywell, I don’t know.

A year or two ago, the fuselage of one of the BE-2 ‘props’ came to light in Doncaster, but I seem to remember it was in pretty poor condition having lived in someone’s back garden for 20 years or so!! 😮

Hope this helps!!

Steve;)

I meant, it was unusual for Bod and Steve to be slow to reply to a BE2 query!

Hello,

Not quite so slow, if I remember correctly the flying BE2 was filmed in the States for the series, also in some of the ground scenes there are at least 2 BE2 replicas in shot, these are the ones I am interested in.

Also I presume this was filmed somewhere near Shuttleworth, as the Boxkite was also used.

Cheers

633

Cor, the poor old boys are sooooo slow – must be their age –

The BE2 is being restored to fly -by two forum members – Low n Slow and Blue Max – see their website at www.biggles-biplane.co.uk

as for the others….

TT