First if any of our overseas readers are feeling nervous, in my view anybody for whom English is not their native tongue can be immediately forgiven. (and no, I’m not going to comment on Americanisms) None of us are perfect and odd mistakes are fine – it is often how I learn.

My pet hate is the hangar/hanger thing

Quite right. I’ve quoted The Goon Show Wings over Dagenham before but this exchange is rather delightful:

Crun: Yes. Now, to finance. Apart from the aerodrome, we shall need five thousand pounds for the hangars.
Seagoon: I’d rather hand my coat on a nail.
Grytpype-Thynne: Mister Crun was referring to aeroplane hangars.
Seagoon: Erm, will my aeroplane need a hangar?
Crun: It would lose it’s shape hanging on a nail, you know.

There was a discussion on Radio 4 once about the importance of punctuation when the guest highlighted how different extra-marital sex was without the hyphen. It led James Naughtie to remark that it is not often a debate on apostrophes finishes with extra marital sex.

AllanK

PS: Is anybody else taking longer than usual to proof read their posts on this thread?

Henry Crun: As luck would have it gentlemen, I’ve got here the plans of a steam driven rocket.

Seagoon: That would overcome the petrol shortage. We’ll build one, right away!

Moriarty: I suppose this means the end of the horse-drawn Zeppelin.

Wings over Dagenham, Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens, Jan 1957

As always, it is the customer that calls the shots. For the customer it was a design imperative that all military aircraft be constructed in metal.

John, you are correct in that governments tend to have a lot resistance to anything perceived to be a departure from the norm – you only have to look 20 years before the Mosquito to their resistance to having aircraft built from light alloy to see much the same thing.

However, there was a real concern in the early months of the war about the supplies of alloy which caused the Ministry to ask for alloy aircraft to be built from wood, to limit demand. It was a short lived concern but a number of ways of replacing, if not aircraft, then components with wood, were seriously considered. I often wonder how much this environment led to the Mosquito.

Anyway, I wish the new group well. Hopefully their research will include accepting the already established wisdom.

I’ll ask this question to the Forum. Knowing that three or possibly four Mosquitos will be flying around the world, possibly the UK, in the foreseeable future, irrespective of cost, pain or risk, which would you prefer to see in the UK – a flying Mosquito or a pristine ground running Hornet or Sea Hornet?
Then think what you could do with the residue of the money. 🙂
Mark

If it is going to take 25 years to build another Mosquito, then my suggestion would be to invest the money wisely and simply wait for one of those currently being built to eventually come up for sale – then bring it to the UK. Likely to be quicker.

Interesting, there is a proven market for it but, like anything, keeping a clear thought for who you want to read it will work best.

I too would be keen to see a good understanding of the politics behind what happened to be included alongside good photos.

I’m also a fan of the social impact of aircraft factories at that time – a few interviews with workers makes the world of difference in bringing these sort of photos to life – but I appreciate it adds considerably to the research needed.

Glazed eye syndrome is usually alleviated by variety. The better story tellers intersperse the details (politics – production – engineering) with the memories of those who were there. Now that to me would be worth reading.

I’ve just been reading an interesting example. Guy Halford MacLeod’s books “Britain’s Airlines” sets the various post war airlines in the context of the political decisions – and how those were in turn dictated by economics (shortage of dollars) and other factors. He dumps descriptions of the aircraft, biographies of key players and airline descriptions in the appendices. Very readable and good introduction to the subject – even without showing what it was like to fly for or to fly in those airlines.

Good luck:)

AllanK

It would be nice to see some sort of flying display at Larkhill/Netheravon/Upavon. If only to see the Be2 flying low over Stonehenge.

There was a small event this year to mark 100 years of military aviation with a landing at the former Stonehenge airfield – now National Trust land. Unfortunately bad weather restricted it to just three Austers – a flight of SE5a replicas had to cancel. It commemorated the formation of No 2 (Aeroplane) Company, Air Battalion Royal Engineers, under the command of Captain J D B Fulton, Royal Field Artillery at nearby Larkhill on 1 April 1911.

Photo (C)National Trust/AJ King

The Cockpit section of ex-TF-FIE a 727-108 the first ever passenger jet in Icelandic service in registered in 1967. The cockpit is now at the Icelandic Aviation Museum at Akureyri.

Good heavens – the first passenger jet I flew on was an Icelandair 727. I can’t find the diary I kept on that trip but if it is the same one would I go to see it? – strangely no.

It is interesting what creates that emotional resonance – as Kev says, it is the people associated with them. For me, not an aircraft linked with me but those flying boats linked to the many people I’ve met who built them (and flew them) and their stories of what they went through. And the Deperdussin is a link to people I’ve met whose family flew pioneer aircraft – including a Deperdussin on floats.

James, you do realise that for museum curators trying to understand why people travel to see their exhibits and what creates an emotional response, you are opening a difficult can of worms with so many varied responses?

The wings did go from Rochester to Windermere.

When I visited Rochester to give a talk to some former Short Bros workers there we had an interesting chat about the route – they were particularly trying to work out where the most likely crossing of the Thames was in the 1940s.

My trip Cumbria to Rochester was 7 hours – M6, A14 M11. But pre M6 the northern section would have gone through the centres of Preston, Lancaster, Kendal and many others. I wonder how long it would have taken. There is a photo of a wing on a Commer Q2 lorry with more wing overhanging the rear of the trailer than on it. There some evidence that some wings arrived damaged and had to be repaired before they could be used.

You’re quite right – those journeys shifting big lumps of aircraft around took more planning than the motorway trips of today.

AllanK

This one?

Pic was a copy photo which came as part of a bundle – probably an Avro photo.

There’s also some info here: http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft30110.htm

AllanK