Hi all, has anyone noticed the spooky looking image on the cockpit combing skin just in front of the cockpit door on TB382!!!! looks like image of spit or 109. !!!! obviously a reflection of something.

Mackerel…. I reckon you have been sniffing the etch-prime again!

Hmmm, Sounds more like they want to turn the place into a housing estate in the long run, me thinks!

Hi there,

Short mention in the Putnam British Racing & Record Breaking A/C volume.

Cheers, Chumpy.

vacb & Tom,
Nice photos thankyou both.

Going back to Toms question of the 16th re the covering of the upper flare shute. Fabric patch 6″ square, see the attached section from drg No 30064-Sht53 ‘Installation of Plessey Device’.

Though I dare say a bit of Daily Mirror would do!

Cheers, Chumpy.

Hi all,
Ian many thanks for the latest bit of info re the parachute flares, have seen odd bits from crash remains but not the whole set up. So interesting to hear how it operated.
Going back to the upward firing unit, attached is a shot showing the mounting structure on a MkXIV. (outer skin panel removed).

As you can see comprises a couple of ali formers, with a lengthwise former along side the top longeron. On the bottom of these a thicker guage plate, this drilled with a circular pattern of holes that hold the ‘dispenser unit’. Steel tubular ‘barrel’ about 2″ diameter, this I think has a seperate flange around the top edge that attaches it to the outer skin.

This particular set up located between Frms 17-18 on the port side, however it seems to move locations on other Mks. But pretty much the same basic layout.

Chumpy.

Hi all,
Just to expand the debate a bit, often wondered if such devices were actually carried / used in a real shooting war?
Might seem like a nice idea to the men in the ministry etc, but operationally would you want flammable pyrotechnics inside your aircraft?

So maybe fitted to aircraft in the early months of the war, but perhaps removed at squadron level when the bullets began to fly?

Chumpy.

PS Is the illustration from Ian, the unit that fires out of the top of the fuselage, or the sort carried by early Mks that discharged from the underside?

Brief entry for George Reid, from 1933 ‘Who’s Who in British Aviation’. Judging by the address, very close to Hawkers it would seem.

Hi all,
A bit of a side track..but does anyone know what happened to the Fokker G1 that was at Reading airfield till the late 1940s?
An ex Dutch airforce machine that escaped from Holland during the early days of WW2, not sure of it’s ident.
Miles Aircraft Ltd had it for research into it’s construction according to some sources, though I have been told by an ex Miles man that they only wanted it for the Mecury engines. These ‘borrowed’ for the company’s Miles Master production, the remains just dumped out on the airfield.

Cheers, Chumpy.