Dave T,

Is the shack nose section the one from St Mawgan that used to be on the dump?

I don’t suppose you know how much the scrappy are wanting for it, do you? (curiosity is getting to me now!!)

Regards
Richard W

I saw BL655 at East Kirkby earlier this year. It captivated me and I’m still not sure why.

The best reason I can come up with is I know what a beautiful machine it was (and to some extent still is), yet it represents such a violent end to a young man’s life and to the machine itself.

All I kept thinking of while I was looking at it were the words to “High Flight”.

All in all a very poigniant display of the remains.

Regards,
Richard

Ugly flying buttresses??!! That’s almost blasphemy….

I rather like them. Plus it’s the view that most peole get of it (especially the old V12 version)

Anyways, better not stray too far off topic!!

Rich

“Over Exposed” was an F-13A photographic B-29, I think the serial was 44-61999. She was on one of the missions, I don’t think it was a combat mission, just a test, which involved filming the explosion and then flying through the mushroom cloud and taking samples.

If you get up to the wreck (photos don’t do it justice, the site covers an area the size of a couple of tennis courts) there is the remains of the starboard wing, which still carries yellow markings for Operation Crossroads.

Technically it’s not on Bleaklow (there’s a Blenheim, and a Defiant up there though) the B-29 is on Higher Shelf Stones. It takes about 45mins to get to it from the A57 Snake Pass if you know exactly where it is.

I always get mixed emotions when I think about stuff like this. I was at East Kirkby recently looking at the Spitfire remains in the hangar and couldnt help thinking what an end for such a beautiful aircraft to lay sleeping with its pilot for all eternity.

I realise sometimes family want the aircraft and pilot recovered and buried properly, and that some of us go on big searches for the missing in action, but I can’t help thinking if given the choice, I would have liked to stay with the Spit.

As that option for me is higly unlikely, they can stick me in the boot of my Jag, crush it, and drop it in a deep hole. I’ve worked hard enough on the thing that I’m going to keep it that long.

Come 300 years from now, there’ll be an over enthusiastic Baldrick type digging me and it up…

Regards,
Richard W

How can they enforce this???

The current rules regarding military remains don’t stop people taking pieces. There’s q a B-29 wreck up on the moors near Derwent, and there was quite a bit of it left. Over the past few years, since a coulple of walking books mentioned it was easy to get at, there’s been unauthorised digging and pieces removed with hacksaws and crowbars.

It’s idiotic legislation like this, that makes it harder to protect. The person/persons wanting to recover it and display it for future generations (e.g taking away an engine or two…. Newark Air Museum’s Engine hall is a wonderful example) have to work twice as hard, only to find that some idiot has had the cylinder pots away with a saw.

I think in theory, yes, getting EH involved is a good idea. But leaving the stuff on a hillside to further deteriorate, and classing it as a monument, is not going to help an ‘extinct’ type; unless EH go to the same effort to preserve them as they do with castles, iron age hill forts and other sites of interest.

Regards,
Richard

I already have my dream car, my Daimler Sovereign will do me

My series 3 Jaguar XJ6. Only got a 3.4 litre 6 pot up front, but at least its an XK unit so it makes the right noises…

V12’s are alright but changing the plugs takes you at least a day.

Regards,
Rich

I’m an opinionated B******

Jay

So am I. I cannot agree with your answers though. Vandals should be put up against a wall and shot! It doesn’t matter what it is, what it’s used for, vandaslism is a crime. Are you really naieve enough to think that it’s the aircraft that’s killing the people? It’s the weaponry that does the killing.

Even if you do vandalise it well enough to stop people flying it, there’s going to be another one in reserve…

By throwing paint at it or damaging it, you aren’t making a statement about freedom, you’re just making yourself the equivalent of the louts that go around keying cars for fun.

Regards,
Richard