Hi George–

I’ve seen this shot somewhere else, in B&W though I think…can’t remember where, but the “squashed” aft fuselage of the Blenheim in the foreground is familiar.

I think the other tail/aft section in the mid-background is another Blenheim, almost completely inverted; the gap between the stab and the elevator takes the same notched inner/curved outer line as on a Blenheim or Bolingbroke. (Being in Canada and gravitating to old airplanes whenever possible, one sees Bolies and bits thereof fairly often!) 😀

Not sure what the other thingy in the righthand background is, though…

S.

…And one of those Battle gunnery trainers is preserved in very nice shape at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa. It has not actually been on display for many years, but has always been stored indoors, and was recently moved to the new storage hangar, of which tours are periodically given. If I remember correctly CAvM’s Battle is R7384 but the “R” is not painted on, giving the appearance of a four-numeral RCAF serial.

S.

Hi all–

This is a real, well, Fokker shocker! Just this past June I finally visited Knowlton (Lac-Brome) to see this mythic all-original D.VII. Am now especially pleased to have done so!

I think Fleet16B is correct, though: the D.VII has been on exhibit since the 1920s in its present location, was a war prize (it is the only survivor of a substantial group of German fighters sent to Canada circa 1919), and will, I don’t doubt, become subject to Cultural Property legislation.

Here’s an idea: CAvM at Ottawa have a fairly-well-advanced (but “on hold” for decades in storage) D.VII restoration project. That could be placed on the market, and in turn the Knowlton Fokker–totally original and, suiting the current trend to conserve rather than restore, not requiring much at all to be displayable–could be purchased for the national collection, and nicely round out CAvM’s war-prize grouping (Junkers J.4, AEG G.IV) into the bargain…Just a thought.

S.

Vultee–

That would be a fascinating, if melancholy, diorama. Haven’t iirc seen photos of the smelting operations at Kingman (or Walnut Ridge, or wherever) in the 40s, but there certainly was TV footage of the “Argus massacre” at CFB Summerside in 1982. They did indeed use giant blades dropped from a construction crane (or in this case a “destruction crane”?) to guillotine the CP-107s into smelter-size chunks. Crude but effective… 🙁 Somewhere in cyberspace I bet there’s streaming video of that operation, which wouldn’t be any too different, hardware-wise, from the smithereening of Forts and Libs circa ’47.

(BTW, the CP-107 Argus was Canadair’s piston-engined ASW/sea patrol cousin of the Bristol Britannia. The scrapping of all but five of the fleet made the TV news because there was controversy over a civilian company’s blocked plan to buy the CP-107s and convert them for firefighting.)

S.

She sure does look great in silver…

I’ve got a bunch of pix of G-AKDN from her visit to the Toronto Aerospace Museum during the Chipmunk 60th-anniversary celebrations back in the spring. No way of posting same unfortunately (my cameras are old celluloid-burners)…But iirc Eric Dumigan’s website has some very fine shots of her including some A2A taken during the same visit. Polished metal/cream/BRG: classiest example I’ve ever seen of what is always a classy type!

S.

…and “Woodford”, too. KB976 was flown transatlantic to Strathallan in the mid-70s, acquired by Charles Church in the early 80s and as mentioned heavily damaged when a hangar roof let go at Woodford where she was being restored to fly. Subsequently a replacement fuselage (from KB994 iirc) was sourced from Alberta, and ultimately much of the project went to Kermit Weeks, with other components finishing up at Sandtoft…

S.

Things historic on airbases in Iraq right now are probably best removed, but in principle I agree with David, once there is a peace to keep…even things like Furies should return where their history is. (Think: Berliner Luftfahrtsammlung. Now reconstituted…but how much better would the new display be had not the original collection been left in harm’s way in time of war).

Re those pix on the other forum, I think the fuselage on the ground and the set of wings on the pylons are likely the same Fury, previously a gate guard and now taken apart. Interesting that the fin is dismembered similarly to the other T61 that appeared in some of the mags earlier. Thanx for the vector…

S. the Fury nut