Pete TrumanYou know what old people are like about modern technology, well get this, at 90, despite never having one before, my mother is desperate for a microwave, I’ve just been over to Braintree and bought her one for her birthday, my one consession is big turnable knobs rather than touch technology, she would have to be forever changing her glasses for that.
Just as a further comment, her late brother was an armourer on HMS Illustrious in the Pacific, I have his gun clearance periscope next to my elbow, he always thought that the Corsair was the greatest plane that ever flew.
Pete TrumanUnfortunately we only started watching it half way through the first episode and never managed to work out what the hell was going on, why make CGI of 3 Messerschmidts when a single JU 88 would have sufficed.
Das Boot is an amazing film but let down by it’s use of a/c, surely at the time of filming, there were more usable, suitable a/c than Harvards, it’s a while since I read the book, but wasn’t the final attack by Mitchells, or was it Mosquitoes.
However, glad it boosted entry into the Gosport Museum, an amazing place, while watching Ghostboat, my son recalled his experience of sitting in the preserved sub at Gosport with the klaxon sounding and the red lights on in the control room during the mock depth charge attack when he had the honour of manning the periscope, quite chilling.
Pete TrumanBrilliant reply Bigvern, am going to Nottingham tomorrow via Oakham and may take a little diversion past North Luffenham.
Only one more question, what was the speed and range of these beasts, did they have a proximity fuse, I would imagine, given my assesment of the size of the warhead, that they had quite a killing range on detonation, destined for Badgers, Bears and Bisons, I presume.
When I go to my brother’s tommorrow, I will check it out on his collection of original Eagle Comic cutaway drawings, you know the ones I mean, which will have probably more info than the official manuals.
Pete TrumanHave just looked on IMDB and noted that ‘Angels One Five’ dates from 1953. If the Hurricanes were returned to Portugal after the making of the film, and I don’t know how many were used, they would presumably still be classed as active a/c in 1953 rather than 1951.
Were they stored in 1951 and hung around on an airfield in Portugal until required for film work, which was possibly a year before the release of the film, any Portugese Hurricane experts out there, bondias.
Pete TrumanNot that I need much excuse, but I’ll raise a glass of Adnams to her over the weekend.
My mother is coming up to 94. Her wartime memories are of the Liverpool Blitz.
Moggy
Cheers for that Moggy, we have something in common, our mothers were both Lancashire Lassies, mine being born in Leyland where my grandfather was retained at the vehicle factory during the 1st World War, my other grandfather being inducted into the Royal Scots, despite being from Nottingham, I still have his dress cap and Sam Brown belt.
I am envious of the pint of Adnams, I think that the best that the pub will offer on Saturday is John Smiths smooth, the big companies having destroyed the Nottingham brewing industries, apart from Kimberley Ales of course, perhaps I’ll smuggle some in.
There you go, me and me mum, Trafalgar Square on our first visit, 1958, she would kill me for publishing this, did we always wear shorts in those days, refer to Wessex thread.
Pete TrumanAll I can see is a seagull and a Ryanair 737 on finals to Stansted.
Pete TrumanPete,
one slight correction for you, they’re Whirlwinds!
good photos none the less!
Oh b#####, I thought there was something not quite right, same family though and how many of these exist.
Pete TrumanDoes anyone know how many Bloodhounds exist, it would be fantastic to put one on the gate at Bawdsey, it would have quite a bit of pulling power I suspect.
I remember them sitting pointing eastwards at the base, the maintainance of them as they were subjected to sea air must have been horrendous, would they have really worked!!!
Heres an ancient picture of one at Cottesmore airshow 1960, before they became matt green, did anyone build the old Airfix kit complete with Landrover and launch platform that contained ‘moving parts’.
Pete TrumanI just dug these out of my brothers old photo album.
We were on holiday at Folkestone, August 1960 and for some reason went to Deal for the day only to find that this had just landed on the prom.
The first picture I scanned to see if I could make out the reg just in case this airframe had survived, but unfortunately the picture is too old and grainy for me to make it out, well it was taken with a Brownie, incidentally, I’m the youth standing in front with the filthy shorts, must have been caught short, no, no, my mother would never have allowed it.
Just for a laugh, second picture is of my only attempted take off in a Wessex, forgot to shut the clamshell doors though, I hope the pilot cleaned the seat afterwards.
I think thats my mother standing in front of the Bedford chatting up the aircrew, my old man was probably insulting the radio equipment on board, as he would, it never paid to take the old boy anywhere near any radio equipment.
My only other ‘trip’ in a Wessex was the flight to the carrier at Yeovilton, well, one of the kids believed it anyway.
Pete TrumanYes, it was assembled from unairworthy parts at Booker then shipped to the filming location.
Are you sure, it’s definately flying in the film, doesn’t look like CGI to me apart from the close ups with the devine Kristin SC’s corpse in the front cockpit, and what about the Stearman, I did make a note of the reg but can’t find it amongst my piles of paper, it was UK registered however.
We were going to watch the DVD last night but settled for ‘Highlander’ instead as my missus had never seen it and we thought that the Jaguar sequence at the end ( low flyby over Glencoe ), was a fitting tribute to the beast, anyone know the reg of that, was it at Coltishall last week, it must be the only Hollywood film where a Jaguar squadron appears in the credits, or do you know otherwise.
Pete TrumanHow about ‘The English Patient’, just checked on the DVD, Moth G-AFFC, or is this a spurious registration.
Pete TrumanHi Pete, I just Googled “Flight Test Establishment hucknall”. Take a look at the results. Notable hits are:
http://www.rolls-royce.com/history/heritage/offices/hucknall.jsp and
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g6nhy.uk/rolls.htm – this one is quite descriptive
Thanks for that, I just found this barely distinguishable old black and white picture from about 1960 that you might be interested in.
Pete TrumanWhen and where was the Varsity crash that claimed the lives of some of the Flypast staff, including the editor. Was this down to failure of the Hercules engines, or airframe fatigue, I remember seeing it fly at Duxford and this was probably the last time I saw Hercules engines in action.
Varsities were very common at airshows in the 60’s along with the Hastings that were also fitted with Hercules engines, pity the 2 surviving examples at Duxford haven’t been given much TLC recently, back to happier days, Cottesmore, 1961.
Pete TrumanNice piccies, but you weren’t there for the hiking and solemn splendour of the mountain valleys.
About 10 years ago my son and I stayed on a campsite at the head of Kirkstone Pass, every morning we counted the rivets on the underside of the Jaguars as they threatened to get involved with breakfast.
One day, I was waiting for the Windermere ferry when a Tornado came over so low and fast, that I felt that he misjudged the height of the yacht masts, his mate then passed behind me and did the same to the trees on the hillside, you could see the disturbed branches waving on the trees.
You mention the A6 at Tebay, last year we were driving up to Ben Nevis to take part in the 3 Peaks climb when we hit really bad weather at Beattock on the M74, as we were struggling with the wipers and visibility, a Hawk flew so low towards and over us, that we thought he was coming down on the motorway, lets put it this way, a dozen of us hammering up the motorway in a mini bus, loud conversation, radio on torrential rain on the roof and excessive road noise, but the blokes in the back wondered what the hell the jet noise was all about, and I think that Hawks are pretty quiet.
Pete TrumanThat HH-43 shot looks like Wethersfield again to me.
Certainly is, it’s close to where the MOD Police now have their shooting range, which I have had the pleasure of using, Hechler and Koch no less. During their last open day, late 80’s? the Red Horse Airfield Repair Unit spent the whole day detonating that runway with explosives and rebuilding it in record time, most impressive, they even provided a grandstand for our comfort.
I think that the hangar behind is now used to store the gliders and launch winches, it still has it’s sodium lights on every night.
My great regret is that living in Nottingham at the time, I never saw any of the classic Wethersfield airshows of the 60’s, some of the locals have great tales to tell about them, the last true airshow there, 88 I think, was the only time that I actually walked from my house to an air display, and bloody hot it was too that day, I remember the C141 getting stuck in the mud and by the time it did take off I was doing a barbecue in the garden and the sight of this thing just clearing Spains Hall was most impressive.
There’s still a lot of activity up there, a few months ago there was a contraversial night landing by C-17’s and C-130’s containing 4 Para and we are always subjected to the odd mock attack by Apaches.
We have also been told that Wethersfield would be used as a diversion airfield for hi-jacked aircraft, but they seem to prefer to snarl up Stansted instead.
A ‘Retired Airfield’ that has a life, even if it is under the Stansted flightpath, Coltishall take note.
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