Wyvern's Scrapped at Lossiemouth

Toni, when you post on the forum, press ‘manage attachments’ and you should be able to browse and attach images from those saved on your computer, they have to be below 300 kb in size to post.

send me an address mate, I cant seem to cut and paste from my PC. I am the Station historian at RAF Lossiemouth so if you ever fancy a visit to the museum, let me know. It is free, but for obvious reasons, by invite only!

Toni, have sent you a pm mate. Cheers.

nope, wont do it, tried to download, its having none of it!

send me an address mate, I cant seem to cut and paste from my PC. I am the Station historian at RAF Lossiemouth so if you ever fancy a visit to the museum, let me know. It is free, but for obvious reasons, by invite only!

Yes Toni that would be very welcome!

send me an address mate, I cant seem to cut and paste from my PC. I am the Station historian at RAF Lossiemouth so if you ever fancy a visit to the museum, let me know. It is free, but for obvious reasons, by invite only!

Ye gads! Amazing pics Ollie, thanks.

A dangerous place to be

The Wyvern that struck Eagle’s funnel left its Python Engine and a large portion of its Stbd wing embeded in the same area. So yes at least on this day it was a dangerous place to be.

Cor, that funnel is made of sturdy stuff! I’ve read about that event many times, but first time I have seen the pic, thanks.
There is a story about a well known photographer who was flown out to Eagle, in the first few hours he witnessed a number of Wyvern accidents and at the end of the day asked if that was normal! Could be one of those anti Wyvern fables though.
Olllie is correct of course, and the flight deck could be equally dangerous with Sea Furies, Sea Hornets or jets operating.

Goofing Deck

Was speaking to my brother-in-law recently (retired Fleet Air Arm) about this thread on the Wyvern, and he mentioned that whilst serving on ‘Eagle’ the order was to clear the ‘Goofers’ platforms when the Wyverns were landing on.There had been injuries and (one that he knew off) fatal accident caused by flying splinters thrown from shattering propellors on the deck. 🙁

As an Ex F.A.A. Wafu and many time Goofer on many Aircraft carriers it was normally up to Commander air or Little (f) as to whether this deck was open to ships personnel to view flying. A flight deck has been quoted as being for its size the most dangerous place to work in the world I tend to agree.

Just to show your point about the Wyvern, this is one that struck Eagle’s funnel. The pilot lived, and apparently on being sent home fathered a daughter all because he wrecked a Wyvern.

Well aware

The Gnome wasn’t, originally, a R-R design was it? – neither was the Sea King a Westland design??:)

Roger Smith.

Thanks Smudge, I am well aware that the Gnome ECU was an Bristol Siddley engine itself derived from I think a G.E Design. As for the Sea king being a Sikorsky originally yes I am aware of that fact also. What you might not be aware of is that Westlands took this aircraft and built it under licence selling more to other countries than the Americans. Im sure this counts as some kind of success for Westlands. I have been working on Westlands aircraft from Whirlwinds,Wasp,Sea King,Lynx andd even the Merlin over the last 37 years they did a good job then and they still give sterling service today. The Sea King in particular is set to be further improved with its’ new Carson blades which will give it greater lift and speed characteristics.
Had the Wyvern not been developed at the dawning of the Jet age what kind of history might that Westlands design have had?.
P.s I am aware that S.R initially designed the Wasp/Scout.;)

Generally it was reliable but when things went wrong, usually to do with the props and or engine, it went in one direction (down) very quickly.

It did suffer more than its fair share of accidents but considering its size, weight and long nose, not to mention a complex propeller system and relatively untried engine, thats hardly surprising!

Was speaking to my brother-in-law recently (retired Fleet Air Arm) about this thread on the Wyvern, and he mentioned that whilst serving on ‘Eagle’ the order was to clear the ‘Goofers’ platforms when the Wyverns were landing on.There had been injuries and (one that he knew off) fatal accident caused by flying splinters thrown from shattering propellors on the deck. 🙁

Hindsight is such a useful thing:rolleyes:
Same as ergonomics, didn’t have any in the
1940’s/50’s
Cheers

Cees

Post WW2 Westland and anything fixed wing seems to have been a bad idea.

I don’t entirely agree with that!

The Wyvern was basically an excellent design and subsequent aircraft, but massively let down by two cancelled Rolls Royce engines (nee Eagle and Clyde) and its subsequent redesign, and the under development of the replacement Armstrong Siddeley Python. This engine was initially designed to power Avro Lincolns on long bombing missions at a constant power setting, and not for use in a fighter (strike) where the position of the throttle is constantly changeing.
Blame the engine manufacturers yes, and to a degree the navys constantly changeing specifications, but to pin it all on Westlands does seem a little unfair!!:(

Westland + Rolls Royce = bad combination???

Roger Smith.

Post WW2 Westland and anything fixed wing seems to have been a bad idea.

Erm, if that’s a comment on the decisions of others then that’s as maybe; hope it’s not an observation on my comments! :confused: My comment certainly isn’t an official statement, but more a piece of advice having already discussed the possibility having the site investigated further with the previous FAAM Curator. Personally I’d love to see the area properly surveyed, but it’s a question of how and by whom.

Ollie, I asked a number of people who were around at the time and they quite clearly recall climbing down into this pit – it was quite deep; obviously deep enough to devour a Wyvern, Tiger Moth fuselages, fuel bowsers, uniforms and a whole host of other items. Now it is probably less than a foot deep but extremely overgrown with brambles and trees. We once found a rather rotted aircraft tailwheel tyre of Sea Fury size back in the mid 90s and also some form of control lock assembly which was tantalising.

I think it may have been a comment on the assume attitude of officialdom. Still smacks of ‘we’re saying no just because we can’ or ‘if you don’t want to play by my rules I’ll take my ball home’ though.

http://www.modelenginenews.org/gallery/croft/eagle/side.jpg

Here’s a picture of Mr Barrington Hares scale Eagle. It is a fantastic piece of work – made more so in that it runs!

He also has made a scale running Merlin.

That is absolutely fantastic, almost turns an engine into an art form. Do you happen to know what scale it is?

Rear Fuselage

The rear fuselage was last seen at the now defunct Ludham museum run by Tony White. I’m not sure what happened to it after the closure of the museum and his conviction.

George

Would like to see that pic also.

Would also like to get to the bottom of this cockpit section at Tangmere, is James D winding us up? Wouldn’t mind seeing a pic of the rear fusalage section, is there one about (looking to RMAllnut now!)?

Yes Toni that would be very welcome!

I’ve got a picture of Wyvern VZ799 at Lossie awaiting scrapping. Would that be of any use?