The answer is yes.
It is a 40ft AA Dome Trainer with the two concrete blocks supporting a 16mm projector system. This projected the aircraft image onto a gimbal mounted mirror. The mirror then reflected the image of the aircraft onto the inner dome wall. The mirror was moved by cams driven by the same motor as the projector so that the film was synchronised with the movements of the mirror so that the aircraft “flew” around the inside of the dome. AA gunners where trained to use the correct amount of deflection/aim off to allow for the flight time of the shells to reach the aircraft. On the film there was a yellow spot ahead of the aircraft on each frame of the film. This was the future position that the gunner should be aiming at. He would not be able to see this as there was a yellow filter place in front of the sights. On the gun there would be a graticule ring sight projector that projected the image of the sights onto the dome wall. This was aligned precisely with the sight on the gun so that the gunner was unable to see it. Thus an instructor could see when the graticule image on the wall coincided with the yellow future position spot the gunner was using the correct amount of deflection/aim off.
The films were produced by stop frame filming of aircraft models. The system was designed by (later) Lt. Cmmdr. Henry Christian Stephens in 1940 at the Royal Navy Gunnery School, HMS Excellent at Whale Island, Portsmouth. He was assisted by Bernard Happe and FG Gunn of Technicolor Ltd. of Bath Rd., West Drayton.
The system went on to be adopted by the British Army and the RAF.
Frank Phillipson.

Sabre/Meteor and other Guildford story.

Rich,
If you could look at your past issues that would be great. Think there was a F86 Sabre in the spot light section in the September issue?
You might also be interested in another Guildford aviation story I wrote at:-
http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2012/04/20/the-wwii-crash-of-c47-lilly-bell-ii/

Best wishes,

Frank.

USAAF WW2 Personnel Records.

Having researched the crash of USAAF C47 Skytrain 42-100766 “Lilly Bell II” near Guildford on 25th October 1944 (see http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2012/04/20/the-wwii-crash-of-c47-lilly-bell-ii/ ) I was able to obtain the “Individual Deceased Persons File” for each of the crewmen from the US Army Human Resources Command, Alexandria, Virginia. These files commenced from the date of the crew man’s death and contain burial details, names of Next of Kin, list of effects etc.
The WW2 US Army personnel records were lost in a fire at the St. Louis in 1973. However the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri was able to send me a single page outline record for each crewman sourced from other documents.
It does seem that the MoD is being obstructive with regard to record release compared with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Presumably this is to do with the old fashioned and overly secretive mentality of the UK MoD civil servants and military hierarchy. I would also suspect that it is also due to the amount of work any release would involve and the lack of funds for it.
Would they allow suitably vetted volunteers to be involved with the task?
Is there no way of challenging them such as by lobbying politicians or legal action?