Regarding the completion date for all the restoration projects at Duxford, I’m sure the people involved can tell you one thing for certain.

IT WILL FLY AFTER EASTER!

Exactly which easter, is not specified. The bottom line is, all these projects will fly when they are ready. Not before! There are so many things that can (and will, according to Murphy) go wrong and delay the roll out of the aircraft. Giving a timetable for roll out is nothing but an obtimistic guesswork.

Hi Moggy,

I think your friend has hit the nail very sqarely on the head with his theory. This retirement smells like conspiracy agains one of the greatest aircraft of all time.

I think you would be looking at something like 300.000 dollars for something like old beaten up Islander. It is probably possible to get a basket case for less.

What an horrid idea!! The RAFM already has a “half restored” Halifax at Hendon. Who, oh why do it to the Hampden as well? If it all boils down to money, why don’t they get rid of the aircraft and send it to someone who will take good care of her. There are a lot of museums and private individuals who love their aircraft and display them in a manner befitting them.

Shame on you RAFM

Galdri

Hi lancman,
There is some information in the book Flight Fantastic by Annette Carson. On Geoffrey Tyson she has this,

‘Sir Alan Cobham, knighted for his record-breaking flight to Australia, set out almost single handedly to stimulate progress in civil aviation with his National Aviation Day displays between 1932 and 1935: a touring airshow which set up, performed and hit the road again within the space of 24 hours, offering aerobatics, inverted flying, wing-walking, pylon racing and, of course, joyrides for the public. National Aviation Day stars included Charles (“Toc-H”) Turner Hughes (later chief test pilot with Armstrong Withworth) and his successor Geoffrey Tyson, who duplicated Ernst Udet’s trick of picking up a handkerchief with his wingtip. Tyson, Later a test pilot for Short Brothers and Saunders-Roe, made a speciality of inverted flying in air displays both before and after the war, and both men later became regular judges at the Lockheed Aerobatic Competitions of the 1950’s.

And here is a little more, again from Flight Fantastic.

‘…….Geoffrey Tyson used to loop a Tiger around a ribbon attached between two posts. To say that he judged this performance to a nicety is almost an understatement; standing the aeroplane on the ground between the posts, there would be no more than 4 ft clearance between each wingtip and its neighbouring post, and 6 ft beween the upper mainplane and the ribbon.’

As for ‘Bebb’, I’ve been unable to find anything about a name like that in my aerobatic references. I’m beging to suspect it to be an unoffical nick name. Maybe someone can prove me wrong.

Galdri

“Let’s take another. A private owner is taking his favourate aircraft for a flight after a lull in the flying during the winter. Approach is too fast, lands long and looses directional control during landing. Ends up in soft drainage by the side of the runway, aircraft turns over, pilot killed. The pilot was highly experienced in general, having flown a lot of “warbirds” from his private collection, but sadly lacking in recent experince on type.”

I,and I’m sure a number of others on the forum,know which accident it is that you are referring to.The pilot did NOT lose directional control of the aircraft on landing and he did NOT end up in a drainage ditch.The aircraft’s wheels dug into the soft runway surface as it came to the end of it’s landing roll.The aircraft remained on the runway the whole time.There was nothing the pilot could’ve done in that situation.”

Ok…..I do not have the complete report at hand at the moment. From what I remember the pilot landed long. My english is failing me at the moment as I can not remember the correct word for what exactly what it was that he hit. I thought it was a some kind of a drainage ditch by side of the runway. Anyway he hit soft ground on one side of the runway that turned the aircraft over. Maybe he stayed within the boundaries of the runway, but he was not where he should have been. There for I classicified it as loosing directional control.

“Another! A warbird fighter dishes out of a roll and crashes. It was the second time in the same display, the first one leaving the pilot low and slow but he still continues the display. The pilot was highly experinced fast jet pilot with the services, had flown a biplane for the last three display seasons. Time on type, three months but no flight time on type given.”

Again,a large proportion of forum memebers will know which accident you are referring to.I would simply say that nothing has yet been officially released on the accident and that we shouldn’t really comment,particularly when we suggest that someone who was killed in the accident was to blame.No offence Galdri,I just feel that it shouldn’t be commented on just yet.”

I’m taking no offence. Nothing has officially been released. And I respect the fact. Just look at the facts and an ugly picture begins to form. This particular aircraft is a far cry from anything the pilot has ever flown before regarding handling. What are the chances of blocked controls in this accident?? None what so ever. He had already dished out of a roll, so if the controls were blocked he should have stopped the display. Engine failure was not the case, structural failure was not the case…………..what else is left??

“During the summer we lost two twin engined bombers after loosing an engine on final approach. Both were probably loaded well below service standard. Both crashed. How much of a single engine training on type did the pilots have? I don’t know, but it strikes me as kind of strange to crash a lightly loaded aircraft on final. And I would like to say I have the experience to make a comment like that, having hundreds of hours as an instructor on twins and currently flying something a little heavier.”

Again,I would say that the crews of these aircraft are unlikely to be at fault.Many twin engined warbird’s landing speeds are below their single engine safety speeds,so if an engine fails in the final phase of the landing,there is absolutely no way the pilot can counter the asymetric power-he either shuts the good engine down and crashlands as best he can,or leaves the good one going and ends up spinning in.It’s a no-win situation.It’s not about whether the pilot has been trained to handle the aircraft on a single engine.In the case of the Blenhiem,it appears that the pilot did an excellent job under the circumstances.”

It strikes me as very stupid to fly below minimum control speed (Vmca) on final. These guy’s are flying into airfields of more than ample length, so what is the use of slowing down to final approach speed (Vref) many miles out on finals and go below Vmca? The standard teaching in my neck of the woods is “never go below Vmca until landing is assured”. Why should it be any different in the UK? You never know when the phonies are going to quit on you, country is irrelevant in this argument.