Many things we want are too expensive for us so we make our choices and spend what little we have on what we want. It’s entirely a free choice. Clearly shows are not overpriced for the several hundred thousand who pay annually for the pleasure. I can’t afford RIAT anymore so I don’t go. But I do go elsewhere. If finances no longer allowed I wouldn’t be able to attend anywhere. But that doesn’t mean that the events are overpriced, per se.

Self-righteous? Really? Being critical of those who want something for nothing? I disagree. As you rightly say there will always be freeloaders wherever there is alternative to paying the entrance fee.

I’m sure you are not but you sound very much like an elitist. You are using the language of our political class. One of their favourite words currently is denier. It is not used for its purely descriptive meaning but to associate those that they are describing with those who refute the events of the early 20th century. Take a step back, by using the word freeloader you are doing the same thing. That is why I find it offensive, because it is just what the elite class do. As I say many many people watch air show from out side the airfield and they don’t all deserve to be classed as some sort lowlife. I’m not defending those that trespass or those that may put themselves in danger by standing at either end of the runway. I’m standing up against an offensive term.

Errr…what? I don’t understand that opinion in the slightest. There are many reasons why freeloading is a bad idea, and I don’t see much of a problem in calling people who don’t pay anything “freeloaders”. Perhaps there are some who pay and then go back out for a different angle, but that’s probably a minority and still a bad idea.

I’d elaborate further but I don’t want to hijack the thread.

Please do but I think it has been explained above. There are many people who watch airshows from land outside the airfield. Most you will find often live (Duxford, Biggin Shoreham) or are staying in the immediate vicinity (RIAT) of the airfield truth be known. Not only that but as in the case of the examples given there are busy public roads closer to the action than most off airfield observers. They break no law, so it is insulting to label them with what is aimed to be a derogatory term whose only purpose is to shame them. You can point out all the reasons YOU think it is a bad idea but I’m just saying that the term freeloader is offensive. Personally I wouldn’t travel to an airshow just to stand in some field, and I think you will find that 99.9% of aviation enthusiasts are the same.

A sad day that should not be forgotten and hopefully never repeated. Some of those photographs however illustrate
Very well the dangers that the freeloaders in the fields around Airshows put themselves and other in.

Its correct to point out the dangers present to those who watch from outside the paid enclosure of an airfield, and I’m sure everyone weighs up the risks. To categorize them all as freeloaders is not becoming. I hope you don’t do it again.

I thought Aviation Jersey Ltd had the right from RR to supply spares and technical services for the Merlin and Meteor. If so, how far did the ‘technical services’ part of the deal extend?

If you were to look back at the original suppliers of consumable components in the Merlin, you may just be surprised at how many are still about still supplying pistons, rings, valves and bearings etc to all and sundry. It maybe that others have taken up the challenge of keeping the Merlin airworthy, but getting new parts is only a matter of will power and demand. There are no technical impediments. After all certain Merlin’s had been cleared to 30lbs boost late 44 early 45 giving about 2,200 hp on 150 fuel. Aside from the Reno racers who also use water injection to cool the intake air, it’s not as if those displaying at airshow really put the Merlin under that much stress and accelerated wear rates.

Tony,
I’m gonna have a crack at you ! In order to find solace from this post modern paradigm of self defeatist, cold water pouring, lily livered, gormless, authoratative denunciation of dreaming that has assisted in seeing industry dismantled, manufacturing jobs lost and capabilities flushed down the toilet I turn to old aviation literature, which is infused with an entirely different spirit. While you hose down your neighborhood the Chinese government is doing the opposite and rapidly building up the mentality of its engineers and entrepreneurs. Go pull out your old “Bridges of England” or Aircraft Engineering to see what goals grandpa kicked with one eightieth of the resources at your disposal !

I understand that there was only one forge capable of turning out Merlin crankshafts in the UK prior to the Battle of Britain, proving conclusively that in the United Kingdom there were not “many companies (with) the facilities to do this at all”, so the UK should have just turned over and died in 1940. Today, I reckon there would be more than one machine shop capable of CNC’g a crankshaft out of modern 4130 and then heat treating it using usual techniques to come up with a short run of crankshafts equal to 1940’s forged specs. Block ? Shoot, where the city of London can come up with exchange traded derivatives, collaterised debt obligations and other algebraic financial confections then complexity is still within the wit of modern Britain. I reckon Old Harry can still put together a block casting down the road.

Can’t get drawings ? Why ? Why would the proudest manufacture of a nation be hidden ? What would it do for a younger generation to be drawn in to an OEM supervised short run ? Perhaps get them excited about engineering ? About excellence ?

The can’t be done attitude makes me want to reverse engineer a DB 605, to absolutely prove a Merlin can never be done !

I do like the boat. That’s the spirit ! I don’t have the bling or the babes to carry off a snort to Calais in a unit like that. Controls would need to be in Russian so buyers could understand which console the cocaine was stored in.

Really if you had not spent all that time hosing down dreams it should not be fitted with a 70 year old engine design. It should convert the hydrogen in seawater to generate rocket thrust at higher power to weight ratios than a crusty ‘ol IC engine.

I have just finished Nevil Shutes “Slide Rule”, a person who started Airspeed on nothing more than excitement, and he provides some considered reflections on his career in aviation development : R101 & R100, government v private industry in innovation and especially what made innovation work in the 1930’s, in the teeth of a Depression. Astonishingly, he put this down to a class of Boris Johnson like upper class twits with money, who, on the basis of real estate derived wealth, were willing to punt on high risk, new technology start ups. Death taxes wiped out this segment, and I guess this is coincidental with the decay of UK industry. It is an unusual, though not illogical observation. All that seems to be left is defeat, defeat, defeat.

I shall now retire to my drawing room to listen to some Winston Churchill broadcast recordings, as a tonic.

That’s the spirit. As someone who has worked in manufacturing of engines I know that the costs of reproducing certified Merlin parts wouldn’t be as grotesque as everyone thinks if there was demand. Given that there is still a stock of original Merlin engine parts about, no one is going to do it, and all answer to any inquiry will be cost plus 10 times. Look at the prop for the recent Mk1 restoration. That had to be more complicated than forging and machining a crank. Modern manufacturing in Britain is more advanced than most think. It just doesn’t employ the numbers it once did, and our press is self absorbed so don’t really know what goes on in the country outside their own fantasy world.

Black 2 was only at Duxford from 1995.

Seem to remember it having a problem at one of the Duxford shows in 95, possibly the VE Day Airshow or possibly a OFMC flying day.

Then this is the day it had trouble VE day display 1995. It looks very green in the country side so that would fit. I was working in the Middle East from August 95 although I did attend the 1996 Legends airshow on the Saturday when back on holiday. Not sure Black 2 was around that day.

Thanks for that. Told you I’m no expert!

The hood was first used on the G5/AS and G6/AS and fitted later to the G14 & G14/AS. These aircraft had the DB605AS fitted (mostly as Germany was starting to become chaotic) The K4 came next with the DB605D, a beefed up and improved engine. The G10’s were older air-frames re-manufactured to and supposedly fitted with the DB605D but many were fitted with DB605AS engines.

Here is the said aircraft and the landing during the incident. Note the prop pitch and note the interested onlooker in the 4th photo.