Think somewhere at home have photos of her in Portuguese markings. Know that have some (somewhere) of TSIX. Will take a look up in the loft at the weekend.

Martin

Bet North Weald is not on the list, as they (the Government) and the local council still seem hell bent on building houses on the airfield site.

Martin

some of the Harvard bits ended up at my house (my Dad has at his house some cloches made up from Harvard canopies and I have a redundant tailplane, fin and rudder at my house amongst other small paper weight sized pieces) and some went to NWFS at North Weald. As to the rest, I dont know, but will ask Tim Lane to see if he knows.

Best wishes,

Martin

Well I did go home and found yes it was another Harvard (my excuse is that have so many period photos that I cant remember all the serial numbers). I do have one of KF487 at Sandhurst (almost there), but none of the one (KF488) at Bournemouth. I used to know Bill Hamblen who owned both the remains of this Harvard and the more substantially complete FX442 in the mid 1980s. FX442 went to a ATC Squadron at Fordingbridge and is now in the Museum at Hawkinge (a photo of this shows her at Sandhurst minus wings and with the codes SI-B circa late 1950s). We got to know each other when I was helping on the rebuild of CTKL in Dorset withTim Lane at Toller Pocorum.

According to John Hamlin’s Harvard file, KF488 saw no RAF service at all and was struck off charge on 20 July 1950. I presume she went straight to Sandhurst after this and remained there until purchased along with FX442. The rest is history (I think).

Its good to know that she is a bit of a bitsy (but then most British Harvards are like this) as looking through the Sandhurst photos I do have, there seem to be pieces of Harvards everywhere. Not all seemed to have been scrapped as at least one escaped. Have a photo of FS881 which later served with the Lebanese Air Force.

As dont have a scanner, will some how try and get the photos onto the forum and probably in a new thread too.

Martin

hope that the Harvard is painted just in primer colours as that is such a bright colour scheme. I probably know it, but can someone provide me with the identity of the airframe?

Martin

I got bored of it after 15mins or so….thought was way too biased towards the Americans. Didnt seem to recollect any mention of the Miles M.52 (perhaps did when I was flicking channels!), but it made us look like the underdogs when with that aeroplane, if we were allowed to have done, we would have been the first throught the sound barrier!

Most of the Harvard Mk.Is were shipped to South Africa and Rhodesia. Think that most of the aircraft at Sandhurst were Harvard Mk.IIIs and IIBs.

Its funny to believe that there are no Mk.Is left, but then this country has had a way at destroying aeroplanes….Brigands…Hornets….etc etc.

Martin

The Harvard at Rochester. I must say that if I was lucky enough to have a aeroplane needing a rebuild MAPS would get the job every time, they have done a fantastic job on her. Dezz 🙂

I was asked to find a colour scheme for the Harvard before she went to Rochester. The owner didnt want the aeroplane painted in her original colours (overall yellow when with the RCAF as 3064) but wanted a wartime RAF scheme. After a few schemes were researched and devised the end result is as you see her today, being FE788, the 2nd Noorduyn built example which served at Boscombe Down from 1942-1955. The scheme is a 100% accurate, with the correct paints and stencils used.

I’ve researched the histories of over 70 different Harvards for their owners and also three schemes too, namely Rob Davies TVIJ, and then CTKL and TEXN.

Martin