It wasn’t as secret as you are made out to believe. If you knew someone over there, or went shooting birds it was quite simple to gain access to the island though the areas around the White City end were out of reach. The local spotters were well aware of comings and goings and I recall seeing a Navy marked Canberra pass me by on a low loader as I was surveying a field in Shoeburyness nearby. Aircraft hulks peppered with small arms fire damage were usually moved to the East beach end of the facility for collection for disposal and I saw several S1 Bucc’s and Scimitars here when I lived in Southend. The whole place has a very spooky feel to it though and the general public can get that just walking round the sea wall at Wakering Stairs before you cross the bridge onto the first Island. Here there are several old abandoned emplacements and train tracks for railway guns and I recall being told that Typhoon’s were said to be the staple diet of the guns at this location in the 1950’s. Have a look on Google earth and you’ll see the road layout and the “Broomway” , a man made hard mud pathway that was used to access the Island ( and move some TSR2 bits down) before the building of the bridge. The last time I was on the Island was a long time ago when I was involved in some construction work for testing bombs against runway concrete. They were test firing a modern version of the “Stalin’s organ” rockets right over our heads. Very entertaining! Funnily enough when I was in the RAF years later and the first Gulf War kicked off, the very same weapons were being shown on CNN nearly every day being used in anger! 🙂

Spitfires and Polished metal was a very tasty book for its time, I even caught a female reading mine. Could hardly put it down.:eek:

I understand there is an updated version of this book underway with new pictures added and loads of close ups of current projects. 🙂

It’s turned into a very sunny but cold day down here, but even so I was very surprised to see a Spitfire fly over about half an hour ago, quite low and heading north, no doubt for Duxford. I suspect it may well have been BM597, but I can’t be sure. Very unusual to see one out and about at this time of year, does anyone know more.

TA805 en-route Biggin Hill to ARC at Duxford for annual maintenance, JR was the pilot.

For me G-FIRE was the best. Seeing it make its debut at Biggin Hill in fresh paint and in the hands of Ray Hanna was awesome. Many slated the strobes in the gun ports and on the cannon stubs but for me it just added to the showmanship of the spectacle. It was a disgrace that its condition was to go downhill in the hands of the sydicate after Spencer. The last time I saw it close-up was at Southend when passing through for customs clearance on the way back from the fateful Ramstein show in 1988, about August time. It was tatty, oily, had red dope splashed over the rudder, one oleo was collapsed and the general condition was very unlike the first time I’d seen it only a few years previously. Don’t know who was driving it but he was doubled over like a hunch-back and not looking like he was in for a good nights sleep! Even worse was the fact that when it did finally take up a military scheme in new ownership in the States, it was such a typical “American” one. Totally incorrect for the aircraft and a right shame. I would imagine Mk12 was even less impressed with this than with it in Red! It would give me the greatest pleasure to be involved in the return of this aircraft to the UK and the restoration of it to its own historically correct RED scheme. Of course I’d have to research the correct shade, and then there would be the debate over the size of the cheat-line etc etc…… 😉

Boulton Paul Balliol (perhaps ?), some of the airworthy Spitfires and Hurricanes (including the BBMF aircraft) have been fitted with -500’s in the past though this no longer seems to be the trend. I beleive Lanc PA474 had some for a time. Probably due to all those blue coloured examples that came from the Spanish Air Force in the 1970’s. I seem to remember WoGB having about 60 at one time!

David Arnold sold this a/c many years ago, and it ended up in Florida. It has also been listed for sale through Sherman for some time. T J

T J, when did David Arnold dispose of it? Presumably it was some time after “Shangri-La” went to Mexico, so was it around the time that “Petie 2nd” was up for grabs with Courtesy? I wasn’t aware it had even re-surfaced out of its container yet alone managed to log so many hours in the air. He really can’t have much left from the old days now. Wonder what’s next up for grabs, P40N maybe? Better fix those dents in the wing first;)