Originally posted by ken_murray
Alistair, methinks you confuse me with someone else, not sure which bookseller you mean.

Ken

Alastair was right, but you’re the wrong Ken!:)

My parents are, or in Dad’s case were, the same sort of age as Kev’s Dad. Both families lived in Watford, where I was born in 1952.
Considering how close Watford is to London, it seems to have got off relatively lightly. Like Steve, the house at the bottom of my Dad’s garden was destroyed, I think by a bomb although it sounds a bit odd if it was just one. Half a mile or so down the road was the worst incident in Watford during the war. A V1 came down in Sandringham Road and apparently careered along the road before exploding. The street was virtually destroyed and a lot of people were killed. A mile the other way Leavesden was turning out Halifaxes and Mosquitos.
There were 3 bomb craters in a park a few minutes walk from the house that I remember seeing well into the 60s.
Both Mum and Dad said one of their clearest memories was the sky going dark with aircraft for the Airborne attack on Arnhem.

I thought the Flypast article inferred they were virtually identical. Wasn’t it that the RAAF had previous Supermarine Seagulls so they just gave it another number but the RAF hadn’t had any before.
I’ve got the Putnam Supermarine book. I’ll look later and see if it’s explained any differently.

Just looked at the book.
The prototype Seagull V was also the prototype Walrus. Can’t get much more identical than that!
There are slight dimensional discrepancies listed which seem unlikely, possibly transcription errors.
The only real difference was the model of Pegasus fitted. Seagull V had 625hp and the Walrus 750hp.
The Walrus was originally ordered as the Seagull for the RAF but it was amended before deliveries began.

Discovered the other day that a friend in my local played drums on “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma”.

He’s obviously doesn’t publicise it as he wants to carry on living.

Originally posted by Janie
HP57
I really like old Winkle’s answer. However, maybe my brain is out of gear here, but I thought Griffons swung to the right on take off and the bridge is on the right! Am I misunderstanding something here?
J.

I thought that too but as I’m not a pilot and can never remember which way the effect works, or work it out, I thought it was brain failure on my part.

Janie

As Mark12 said, we should be talking about crankshaft rotation.
The Griffon runs backwards.

Strangely, the ‘R’ apears to have conventional rotation (can’t find a picture of a Buzzard) so it was obviously a conscious decision to reverse the Griffon.

Just had a glance at Bill Gunston’s Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines.
Looks like the Sabre had epicyclic reduction too.

Myself and Mrs (sort of) Dhfan are still coming.

The only problem is my propensity for being late everywhere, made worse by the 2 hour drive involved.

Doesn’t sound a particularly briliant idea to me either.

Originally posted by SteveYoung
If it’s the former, phew! Although I have to say I’ve never heard of an aeroplane called a crane.

Smart-a**e mode on:

http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/crane.html