Firebexshe would make a wonderful exhibit at Elvington. Whats the Jet next to her?
I don’t know it must be telepathy great minds do think alike !!!!!
Who is the P*****k who has lost all the logs then ????
Mike E
FirebexWonder what’s going to happen to the Catalina? Was pretty sorry looking a few months ago…
As there is no mention of the Catalina I assume its not up for auction that could mean it belongs to someone else or it has already been sold off to someone but its a big beast to try to move if its in poor shape.
Mike E
FirebexI have worked at CFS for the last 14 years and whilst they have not actually gone bust yet they are in the process of liquidation 🙁
You appear to have lasted a lot longer than most is it the current climate do you think or is it one of M C’s re shuffles.I have experienced CFS in a number of guises in Malta and at Coventry. Glad to hear Martin is still plodding along when I was rebuilding the Malta Spit in 91 he came across from CFS with Larry Shery and offered me my first spell at AA working on the Prentice and later the Twin Pioneers.
If anyone see’s him please pass on my best wish’s if you mention the Malta Spit he will know who I am.
Mike E
Firebexmaybe just priced themselves out of the market place – it happens
propshop at duxford should pick up the fall out i guess or we send our money to obama
Retro ???
FirebexBuccaneer XV863 is among a wide range of assets being disposed of with the liquidation of Weston Ltd., owners of Weston general aviation airport near Dublin.
Beech C-45 G-BSZC is also listed. The closing-date for expressions of interest is 22 December.
Very nice Southern Comfort I have not seen her in the air for many years she used to come into Barton on a regular basis for her maintenance. According to G-INFO she hasnt flown since she went there in 2005 and doesnt have a current permit.If she hasnt been treated properly I dont suppose she will be worth much,a shame wish I had my numbers up I would put a bid in I dont think the wife would like me sending a dear Santa letter (Again)
Mike E
Firebex…Susan?! :diablo:
More like Danny !!!!!!:D:D:D:D:D
FirebexI have just thought that there are a number of guys well versed in Nimrods on the forum and the aircraft at Elvington has a detailed support group of guys experienced and knowledgeable on many of the breed. Their machine is XV250 and they have a very active facebook page.
Hope this helps
Mike E
FirebexI can remember XV240 going down the production line and out the door but dont ask me the date as I cant for the life of me remember.I can also remember us having the first proto AEW conversion on the line and the flight trials aircraft.
Mike E
FirebexThen there where the sections of Horsa being used as sheds and greenhouses for decades besides a main road and no one realized they where there.
Mike E
FirebexHow else are groups like ourselves going to be able to create an extinct type other then by trying to track down crash sites.In our case with only 118 aircraft actually built and the majority or crash sites under water it is to say the least a challenge and for most of them there is not a great deal of detail on the location and in the case of 5 of them we are having to go through German War time archives.
Recovery of wrecks has its place provided it is done correctly and what is recovered is treated properly if not leave it where it is I would agree as without proper preservation it wont last very long.
Mike E
FirebexI wonder how many zero’s the offers removed off the end of the asking price.
FirebexDrawings
I was at Woodford when one day many ,many moons ago large delta things arrived (18 victors by air and one by road) followed by lorry loads of stuff including the drawings and archives from HP at Radlet. Now I know a lot of time was spent putting drawings on to film and it was all stored in the tech archive library at Woodford. Now then where it has all gone since BA shut Woodford i don’t know but the stuff did survive as myself and a few others spent many happy lunch hours browsing through the stuff and you would be amazed at the stuff that was in there.Yes the actual drawings lofts etc all got thrown into skips but some of it did not stay there but sadly you can only get so much in the boot of ones car during Saturday morning overtime before the skips went to the tip.
You could try Avro heritage at Woodford they may know to the fate of some of it but if its anything like the Whirlwind archive drawings they are around about eight different collections un indexed or because they haven’t got time to deal with your inquiries as its to much hassle.Thankfully Westland still exist and they have been great but sadly their archive is very incomplete after bomb and flood damage as regards our beast.But for anyone Fairey sorry I digress they have a lot of Faireys stuff.
I have some very vague stuff on Hampden in some war time engineering books I will see if anything is relevant need to dig stuff out anyway as I have some Lancaster stuff I keep promising to send to EK,and one of our young Ladies ex Manchester now living in Lincs is helping with the project.
Mike E
FirebexYou may also find a great problem if someone has previously obtained a license to excavate a wreck prior to the rule changes but never actually commenced to dig.They may suddenly become your next best friend you did not know about or a silent partner you may have to scour the earth to locate !!!.
Its all now got very complicated and as we have a few prospective wreck locations most of them in water it could be interesting as to how the wooly cardigan and trowel brigade will view these ???.
Any one with experience might like to share their knowledge as Andy is doing and perhaps Andy would be willing to expand further on what he has found out come across or experienced for those of us contemplating getting out a spade,excavator,rubber inflatable (for those that way inclined) and donning a wet suit (again for those so inclined ).
Mike E
FirebexSo (dear boy) after all that, why haven’t you purchased some of the complete examples that have appeared for sale before now? I seem to remember one of the Kemble T.7s languishing for sale for ages.
Believe me I’m all for restoring lost causes, and there have been some fantastic examples here (JonH s Vampire) but the Hunter isn’t by any measure scarce, In fact it could be argued that all the mass types that were in various museums in the recent past became scarcer because there were too many about.BTW I don’t give a flying fig if an aircraft is indoors or out, I was responding to DBs point about being indoors.
Subject for another thread maybe.
You can only purchase so much at one time personally and as I am sure a number of folks already know a good number of airframes that no one wanted in the UK are now in a couple of museums overseas arranged by myself and a couple of others on this forum to save being chopped up because of the well there are to many anyway syndrome !!!. I know I have countered my argument previously but in the case of these particular airframes no one had the will or the funds to do anything for them we could not get them saved in the UK but they are saved and in one piece.I am sure in future years they could be some of the very few of type still in existence
FirebexYou’re changing the goal posts somewhat, as this was a fairly tatty outside stored airframe then it doesn’t come under those.
Sorry but without my rosiest of glasses on there are plenty of Hunters about, both indoors and in flying condition – essentially the best condition Hunters there are.Is there a reasonably sized UK museum that needs an extra Hunter indoors?
It depends on your definition of reasonable ? I could think of two or three fair sized collections that are at present outdoors that would love a complete if tatty Hunter (some with significant airframes they are trying to preserve). Today’s museum in a field could be the next Hendon in 5 or 10 years time !!!!. To consign a full airframe to the junk yard because its tatty or there are a few about isn’t that what happened to a lot of airframes in the past that are now virtually extinct??. Oh we don’t need to preserve one of those we have plenty !!!!!! Airworthy aircraft have a habit of changing owners and hence homes and even countries look at how many Hunters,Gnats etc,etc are now in the US ?.
Look what happened to the lightning ? I know a few are in museums but there must be nearly as many in South Africa and the USA in Bits and complete airframes in storage.
So in the future if we haven’t got one left in the UK are you advocating we all jump on a trans Atlantic flight or dash through the channel tunnel to see an example at an airport or in the museum of a foreign country ???. If we have so many of a certain type are museums going to start to review their aircraft stock and on the basis of there are plenty about so we shall scrap the one we have it wont matter ??.
That is why dear boy ourselves and many others are working on projects to bring back from extinction aircraft we should never have lost to start with !!!!
I think if you start advocating well we don’t need to save another one of those because there are probably to many around you risk starting a very slippery slope. Look at airframes that have been lost in the some 40 odd years I have been involved with aircraft and preservation and restoration the collections that have folded up because of lack of support and some airframes that where written off and no longer exist or might well as because of there current status and lack of foresight or narrow minded policy ??.
We need to look very carefully at any and all airframes that come up for possible disposal from microlights and gliders to light aircraft as well as historic and vintage stuff even current RAF types in the process of demob and are currently in store.There will be few Harriers because of the Government policy and sale to the USMC for spares.The Tornado fleet going under the guillotine and the jaguars that have been stored for a long time destined to follow the same route. Gladly a number of Nimrods have been saved but not many VC 10 and other types. The larger aircraft surviving today from the 50’s and 60’s are there because of private individuals in a lot of cases and their dedication I am thinking of aircraft like the Victor and the Vulcan and the teams keeping them alive look how many of those aircraft should and could be around today ??.
Sorry not having a dig expressing a personal opinion.
Enough said I think:dev2::dev2::dev2:
Mike E
http://www.whirlwindfighterproject.org
Sorry moderators for my rant if you think we need a “Rant and Rave Corner” fine I don’t mind being Ranter number 1
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