GREENWICH STATIC AIRCRAFT
I have just returned home from Greenwich where I helped put together the static display aircraft. Points of note are that both the Sea King and the Lynx are still active airframes the Harrier and the Gazelle are training aircraft only. All were supplied by the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at HMS Sultan Gosport. The Lynx has a borrowed undercarriage from one of HMS Endurances Lynx hence the red paint. The display will be at Greenwich until monday when they will return to Sultan, that is except for the Lynx which will transfer to Windsor for another display. All of these aircraft should appear again on the 26th May at the Royal Bath and West showground. I hope this is of some use to other forumites.
XG 730
Here is another shot of XG730 sitting on top of an Elizabeth trailer of MARTSU at Lee-on-The-Solent. Thanks Lee for letting me know the final destination of Salisbury Hall, I worked there in the late 1960’s at weekends really must pay a visit some time.
My father worked at Hatfield from the late 1960s until moving to the Stevenage plant in the late 1980s. Here is a photo he took of Blue Streak engine testing (I’m afraid I don’t know the year):
This is one of mine, of Hunter F6 XG210, which was being used at Hatfield in trials of some sort, during the 1979 open day:
And XG210 again in 1981:
Thanks for posting the photo of the test tower, I went to school just down the road from there. My memory of it was a good one as when they were having a test we all had the day off as all the school windows would rattle violently. The sound of it was amazing as well, in truth we all thought we were still in the space race, oh well childrens dreams! I also remember a hunter that was pegged out along the back fence for some reason, it sat there for years not sure why?
Loss of Buccaneer from Ark Royal
I hadn’t realised that the Bucc move by Martsu I posted earlier was the one used for the Flight Safety film from the Ark Royal. I cannot remember watching the completed film when I was in the service ,maybe because I was on Hermes at the time. (Inter ship rivalry and all that) However the story certainly went round the ‘Bazaar’s’ about a certain plane captain(maintainer) tried to explain to the watch chief that his aircraft wasn’t where it had been the night before! Explaining that there was a large space in the deck park where an aircraft should be. Hence the flight safety film. Im not certain if these details are sound or not but as the saying goes why let truth get in the way of a good Dit (story)
MARTSU move
The following pictures are of an S1 Buccaneer being moved by the Mobile Aircraft Repair Transport and Salvage Unit in the mid 1970’s. The vehicles used in the move are a Bedford Utilicon van (Tillie) a Seddon Atkinson tractor Unit with all wheel steering draw bar trailer (originally designed to transport the Scimitar) a Triumph Tiger 900 motorcycle and a Naval staff car complete with bonnet mounted flag holder which is a Wolseley 2200.I served with this Unit and it was a great shame to see the staff cars replaced by Hillman Hunters. Oh well at least they had overdrive unlike the Mk 3 Cortinas with low compression heads which then replaced the Hunters.
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