WW2 Airfield caravans

Spotted this one at Brooklands earlier this year;

A surviving one:

http://tinworm-wings.blogspot.com/2009/10/red-check.html

Earlier two wheel type.

G_Mendes

We have one, sort of, at the museum,will try to get details….not been in it for some time….

Jeepman, you’re correct the photo is from the AFEE at Beaulieu and is one of the figures illustrating the Fa 330 report.
Does anyone know if the R Malcolm Ltd (ML aviation) drawings for the rotabuggy’s fuselage and tailplane still exist? ALL the AFEE original drawings for the rotor system exist, I know I collated and listed them when they and some other AFEE original drawings were donated to MAF at Middle Wallop.

[ATTACH]161550[/ATTACH]I have a feeling that the trailer in this photo is the chassis and floor of a runway control caravan, see the corner support brackets. The photo shoud be scaleable as the dimensions of the two aircraft in the photo are known (the Jeep is the Hafner Rotabuggy sans the flying bits). Also the winch on the trailer looks like the one that would be fitted in the Dakota for Glider snatching.

First time I’ve ever seen a picture of the Rotabuggy with the tail and rotor ditched – presumably taken at the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment at Beaulieu during post-war testing of an Fa330. Apparently they left the air speed indicator in situ.

Ha ha very good! Sad looking collection though, where is it Long Marston?

This any use? – http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/wl349.jpg

Jon

Thanks gents and Newforest for the link . The Leuchars shot is superb in capturing the era. Thousands of these old ATC caravans must have been disposed of at the end of the war, but hardly get a mention or recorded for posterity. Then there was new builds in the sixties,which again little recorded in print or camera.

Alot of the wartime caravans were used well into the post-war era, and were probably fit for nothing by the time the RAF disposed of them.

Stan, the caravan controller was a risky position by the nature of the job, fatalities and injuries were not unheard of. These days aviation is much safer, but the potential for things going wrong is still there.

BTW can supply detailed pics of the modern R/W caravans, for what its worth!

[ATTACH]161550[/ATTACH]I have a feeling that the trailer in this photo is the chassis and floor of a runway control caravan, see the corner support brackets. The photo shoud be scaleable as the dimensions of the two aircraft in the photo are known (the Jeep is the Hafner Rotabuggy sans the flying bits). Also the winch on the trailer looks like the one that would be fitted in the Dakota for Glider snatching.

Only loosely connected to the thread but may be of interest. My dad was an ATC assistant post war, ending his days at Church Fenton. As a kid he always told me how he’d escaped death by swapping a shift with his mate who wanted to see a girl. My dad swapped and a Meteor went into the caravan killing his mate. I always dismissed it as a story until I looked it up recently and saw that on 10/1/52 WE854 did indeed take out the caravan and kill one on the ground.

Mind you my dad has always been a car nut and is always seems more fed up that ‘his’ new Landy was wrecked!

If anyone has a photo of WE854 I’d be interested to see it.

Thanks gents and Newforest for the link . The Leuchars shot is superb in capturing the era. Thousands of these old ATC caravans must have been disposed of at the end of the war, but hardly get a mention or recorded for posterity. Then there was new builds in the sixties,which again little recorded in print or camera.

Ah, thank you Mr Newforest! I must have deleted a couple of the pics that I posted on it:confused:

You should know Mr. Page as you were the last contributor to the thread!:D

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73758&highlight=Control+caravans

There were two basic types, a towable one which looked to be a properly designed unit and the ones built on the back of a vehcle, which seemed to vary alot in design and have local construction.
There is a seperate thread on this somewhere, complete with pictures.

I think they are just standard types of caravans used throughout the 30,s and 40,s.Look for gypsy types as they were probably the most prelevant.

I suspect he means the RAF’s special airfield control caravans with the glass box on top or even an old turret to give all round vision – usually painted in black and white (or red and white?) chequers. They have sometimes lasted through use by gliding clubs etc

Must be standardised designs as I have seen the brass data plates often attached to the Nicholas Staussler-designed (some anyway I think) chassis. Were some made by a firm called Car Caravans and Cruisers or something like that – they made the map trailer in Montgomery’s fleet IIRC

I think they are just standard types of caravans used throughout the 30,s and 40,s.Look for gypsy types as they were probably the most prelevant.