Jules in the flesh

I was following this thread from a general interest point of view when I looked at one of Jules’ replies and realized that he can’t live too far from me.

I sent him an e-mail and he phoned me the next morning. Turns out we live about 2 miles from each other! This morning, (Sunday), we sat down for a couple of cups of coffee together and I can certify that Jules is in relatively fine shape – he has his eye surgery coming up and he did something to a thigh muscle recently, but apart from that he gives every appearance of being healthy. His skills as a raconteur are certainly unaffected – he kept me entertained for a couple of hours and we will certainly be getting together again in the future.

jeepman raised the subject of parts on the airfield at Yeovil.

I’m going to suggest that there may well be parts there but they probably somewhat predate the Whirlwind. Around 1940, presumably to accommodate Whirlwind take off runs, the airfield was extended westwards by about a quarter of a mile. This was accomplished by filling in Watercombe Lane from a point about 200 yds east of Preston Road almost all the way to the GWR railway. The Watercombe Lane bridge over the railway was left in place and a new road was built around the southern and western perimeters of the new area of the airfield. Although I was a small boy at the time, I am sure that I remember aircraft pieces sticking out of the fill at the northern end. The fill was left bare at the time and gradually became overgrown.

There are certainly other Yeovil experts on the Forum – I recall someone quoting the number of the house on Seaton Road which was taken out by a crashing Wyvern. Anybody else have any ideas on the above?

If anybody thinks this is off thread, I apologise. Incidentally, the Whirlwind is one of my favourite aircraft, too.

My first airshow was Farnborough 1952 on the Saturday when the DH110 piloted by John Derry broke up. By the following year’s SBAC show I was a student apprentice at Farnborough and life became like one 5 year long airshow.

l.garey:

You mention walking past ETPS. If you entered the Establishment through the gate adjacent to ETPS, continued straight ahead down the hill to the Comet test tank, turned left to the area of the main maintenance hangar (C Shed? Memory problems!) you probably came across the Avenger. There were two of which one was operational (barely) so I assume that lauriebe’s info is correct.

To describe the service as an air taxi service is a bit of an exaggeration.

It ran most working days, weather permitting, and served as the inter establishment mail service, providing a number of seats at the same time.

I can only remember the use of Ansons (I think there were two that were more or less dedicated for the run) and one of the more interesting aspects of the flights was that the pilots were drawn on a rotating basis from the rather elite corps of Farnborough test pilots. Because this bunch included a number of unique individuals, a number of hair raising escapades were concocted to enliven the otherwise boring flights (such as taking off down wind at Wescott to confound the one and only fire truck which was parked at the upwind end of the runway!) One doesn’t normally associate this sort of thing with flying in Ansons!

I was a Student Apprentice at Farnborough (53-58) and one of my training postings was at Wescott for 3 months in 1957. I had digs in Aylesbury and rode my bicycle out to Wescott each day along the A41. As an S.A. I was supposed to get as much flying time as possible just for the experience value so I was often able to get on the ‘air taxi’ when a spare seat became available (often up front).

As a side comment to Newforest’s posting, this was long before BAE Systems came into existance – it was strictly an MOD operation. Also the fuels in use at that time were mainly Kerosene/Lox and Kerosene/HTP. I believe that the oxidisers came from commercial sources (BOC?) because I can remember the HTP tankers with large warning labels passing me on the A41.

I’ll be happy to try and resurrect some more memories of 50 years ago if anyone is interested!

The Farnborough shots are very interesting for me – I was a Student Apprentice at RAE 53-58 – and the Valiant photo particularly since I think I have ridden in the car next to the plane. It was a Riley belonging to ‘Dinger’ Bell, an RAE Test Pilot, and I presume he must be in the surrounding throng. My apologies for somewhat late reply, but I am a newcomer to the group.

Peter