I remember going through this exercise with little success, with Mr Charles Day, after I met him at Middle Wallop, he tested gliders in the US during WW2 and has since written the book ‘The Silent Ones’.
Tow ropes were Hemp or Nylon with the Hemp ones being larger in diameter (without proof I won’t state the sizes).
Nylon is more elastic and as you say can make things interesting but its elasticity is also its strength in that it absorbs shocks that would snap a hemp rope.
The Snatch launch recoveries of Waco and Horsa gliders relied in part on this elasticity along with a slipping clutch (think fishing reel) on the winch within the towing aircarft (Dakota) to take the glider from stationary to flying within a few seconds.

My point was that the Concrete was used as structure NOT ballast. Ballast can be any old thing so long as it has the right mass and fits in the space available, it is rarely structural and more often than not is human!
As an aside, an ex FAA observer I used to work with insisted that there was once a Sea Venom that fabric repair patches refused to stick on the fuselage pod. The solution was to strip all the fabric off and varnish the wooden structure underneath. This aircarft was then used to visit US carriers with the obvious (incredulous) reaction of “You guys fly wooden jets!”
Can anyone confirm this story, or is it as I think, just the result of too many pink gins?

Made a visit to the Submarine Museum at Gosport today. From what I overheard the programme was a spur for some of the visitors to make their visit – not a bad thing then. From what I saw of the programme they had made a passible attempt at making a replica U boat look like an S class boat, certainly around the conning tower. Any other moaning would be like complaining that the Battle of Britain was only fought by aircraft powered by Merlins – must be true coz I saw it in a film.

Sandys also killed the Blackburn B107 (Beverley development), the specification for which looks very much like that of the A400M!

And then of course there’s the ASTRA Hawk from Boscombe Down which those who saw it arrive at RIAT last year would have seen it to have only one occupant and he was in the back seat!

Suez was notable not only for the last mass para drop into action by UK forces but also for the first occasion when Helicopter air assault took place (Not as the Americans claim a decade later in SE Asia).
Choice of method depends on range although these days concentarion of troops on the ground is also a factor, modern tactical transports have too fast a drop speed and the result is a long DZ with a thin spread of troops. Add to this the fact that large Helos are expensive and it might be time for the Assault glider to make a comeback.

During 1980 whilst gliding with the Air Cadets an RAF Sqn Ldr who was filling his weekends by flying gliders kept us entertained with his stories of being a Phantom pilot out in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion.
He claimed a Turkish F100 as destroyed. This F100 had flown over the SBA during the Turkish invasion and the Phantoms had chased it away (without firing anything) but only after it had ditched its external tanks. Later they heard the Turkish rescue service looking for the pilot who had run out of fuel and not made it home. This being as good as a kill to a fighter pilot
He also described doing a similar thing (Buzzing it at high speed) to a Cypriot spotter plane, although he couldn’t hear (those on the ground could) the pleas being screamed over the radio by the Cypriot pilot to leave him alone.

I too remember these ruins although they were always refered to as “the MU” I don’t think they were ever airfields
As I remember it there were three such sites relatively close together, the first I knew was a small one off Outwood Road in Heald Green, now houses. The other was on the other side of the old A34 and is now covered by the new A34 just to the north of where the road crosses the railway between Cheadle Hulme and Handforth. Then there was the one I think you’re talking about which I think was RAF Handford which the last time I heard of it had the Civil Service pay office as the last remaining part. There was also a RAF Wilmslow which I think was a WRAF basic training camp.
The closeness of all these sites may suggest that they were all part of the same camp. I like you would love to know more.
Now just to get the denizens of this site excited. Growing up in Heald Green in the early sixties I also remember the farmers fields having fences made from propellor blades (Rotol?). These were a wooden core covered in a plastic type material. The Farmer had planted them hub down and knailed barbed wire to them.
I’m ashamed to say that like most of the local kids I took delight in setting fire to the plastic coating on the blades.