English Heritage have the national remit for scheduling and listing properties to protect them from demolition and inappropriate development. I believe that this is the case with some hangars and airfield buildings at Bicester and Duxford, and no doubt many others.

There doesn’t seem to be much on their website that’s appropriate though /http://www.english-heritage.org.uk

I guess the people who have renovated the art-deco terminals at Croydon, Shoreham and the Gatwick Beehive will have some knowledge. As far as restored military airfields through, the IWM at Duxford probably is a good source of expertise.

For sale: My house, someone else’s house, my wife, my dog, everything I own, the shirt off my back, anything else I can think of to sell…….darn I still can’t afford to make a big enough offer for that gorgeous Demon.

Sigh….

Sad news. My thoughts and condolences to all those affected.

Forget alfresco. It’s got a skin on it too!

Nice one!

And thanks for the BE pics, TT

Our thoughts are with all those that have been affected by the terrible events today.

I certainly echo those sentiments and hope sincerely that no one in the group linked by this Forum, has been personally caught up in the tragedy.

Here’s a few lines from the CAA Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC 47/2005) which applies.

Note. These are only a few abstracts, not the whole thing. So no-one should blame me if they fly into the airspace and get a £3,000 fine from the CAA!

1 A large formation of second world war aircraft will form the World War II 60th Anniversary Flypast on 10 July 2005 over
Buckingham Palace; rehearsals for this flypast will be held on 7 and 8 July 2005 in the vicinity of Duxford/Cambridge. Due to the large
number of aircraft involved, the Secretary of State for Transport has deemed it necessary to introduce the following Restriction of flying
regulations under article 85 of the Air Navigation Order 2000:
(a) Subject to paragraph (b), between 1255 and 1350 on 7 July 2005 and between 0925 and 1120 on 8 July 2005 no aircraft
shall fly below 2000 ft amsl within the area bounded by straight lines joining the following points (see Annex A):
521342N 0002606E – 521248N 0003318E – 520406N 0003818E – 520100N 0003618E – 520000N 0003212E –
520624N 0001930E -520306N 0

Aircraft Transit Routes
(a) 7 July 2005. Aircraft will commence departure from Duxford at 1305 remaining within the TRA (see Annex A) for the entire
rehearsal and the recovery to Duxford.
(b) 8 July 2005. Aircraft will commence departure from Duxford at 0935 remaining within the TRA (see Annex A) for the entire
rehearsal and the recovery to Duxford.
NOTE: Should the rehearsal on 7 July be successful, the rehearsal planned for 8 July and the associated TRA will be
cancelled by NOTAM.

(c) 10 July 2005

(i) Outbound from Duxford
(aa) A section of 5 aircraft will depart Duxford at 1520 and route to via Ware and Lambourn remaining clear of
controlled airspace under normal Rules of the Air to the ‘Fairlop’ hold within the TRA (see Annex B).
(bb) The remainder of the Flypast (4 sections of aircraft) will depart Duxford between 1522 and 1528 and route to the
East of Stansted remaining clear of Controlled Airspace under normal Rules of the Air to the ‘Motorway’ and
‘Brentwood’ holds within the TRA (see Annex B).

(ii) Recovery to Duxford. After the Flypast at Buckingham Palace the Flypast will split into 3 sections and recover to
Duxford under normal Rules of the Air as follows (see Annex B):
(aa) One section will route: Northolt – M25 Junction 20 – Panshangar – Bassingbourn – Duxford.
(bb) A second section will route: Elstree – Panshangar – Bassingbourn – Duxford.
(cc) The last section will route: East of Panshangar – Bassingbourn – Duxford.
NOTE: Formation aircraft not landing at Duxford will start their recovery to base from overhead Duxford.

Shute, I think flew a Percival Proctor in Australia, until a heart condition prompted his voluntary grounding. It was about that time he put together his memoirs of working at AirCo, on the R100 and founding Airspeed into his autobiography ‘Sliderule’ which is one of aviations biggest ‘must read’ books.

Everyone always goes on about ‘A Town Like Alice’ and ‘On the Beach’ and they’re good books, but if you’re an aviation enthusiast check out these. Mine cost me £1 each in the local Oxfam shop!

When he was setting up Airspeed in York, he wrote two great books, ‘Stephen Morris’ and ‘Pilotage’ which tell a story of early civilian flying in the 1920s. He was never happy with them and they were only published after his death. Don’t know why, they’re brilliant.

‘An Old Captivity’ gives you a great idea what it would be like to cross the Atlantic, via Greenland in a single engined floatplane. It’s so accurate, you feel he must have tried it himself!

The really spooky one though is ‘No Highway’, written in 1948 about an engineer at the RAE in Farnborough who predicts a metal fatigue failure in a new airliner. Less than a year after it arrived on the bookshelves, the DH Comet disasters happened. Apparently Shute was just as shaken as his readers!

I can recommend every one. Happy reading!

JDK- There have been three clear opportunities for interested parties to acquire Walrus/Seagul over the last fourty years to rebuild and fly. Does the fact that hasn’t happened tell you something?

The certification is a factor. How many Walrus have been on a Public Transport C of A in the U.K ? I think the difficulties of operating a Walrus on anything other than a Permit to Fly are obvious. To certify it in a way in which it could earn it’s keep would be difficult and costly.

I think these two items from David sadly sum up the challenge ahead of anyone even hoping to take up a challenge on this scale.

Technically there is no reason why a Walrus couldn’t be rebuilt to flying condition, but the cost of the rebuild and subsequent maintenance will cost an absolute shedload.

Then factor in the certification issues, particularly with a UK CAA Certificate or Permit and you’re looking at a small fortune in cash and a lot of persuasion required. Imagine the panic when the CAA ask for original drawings or stress calculations – and they will!

I would love to see and hear a ‘Shagbat’ in the air, but unless one of us is preparared and able to divvy up half a million pounds or so – let’s be realistic, enjoy what we’ve got and at least congratuate those involved on all their hard work so far.

I’ve never met D1ck Melton, but I take my hat off to him for starting a wonderful project. One thought though. Maybe Solent Sky might ensure that they maintain sufficient paperwork and reporting on their rebuild and parts used, to allow a later ‘retrospective rebuild’ to flying condition sometime in the future?