The bases on both are hollow and have clear perspex holding the looms in, the one on the right only has a chopped loom but it is there and the one on the left has a complete loom with the terminals, I made the bases myself too from some spare lumps of mahogany.

Regards,

John

They certainly ‘look’ American to me but they distinctly lack any military attire, surely if it was an official thing then the people involved would display a military air about them.

Regards

John

Hi there,

As an armchair pilot/runway repair man I would say without any doubt that the entire runway would need re-surfacing in a much better fashion than has been done prior to this incident, that is of course if the airfield wants to operate this type of aircraft again, it certainly was from my point of view very toe curling to watch, firstly the take off roll was indeed very lengthy (but of course that is an illusion of not being able to see the runway in the film), and secondly it was by some sort of fate/miracle that debris did not damage the airframe in a terminal manner, the consequences of which do not bear thinking about.

I wonder if the crew were aware of what was going on either by way of rear view mirror or tower radio traffic, lets not also forget that concords demise was brought about by runway debris puncturing the fuel tanks, one hopes that whatever investigation is done will bring about positive measures to prevent this happening again.

Please not all comments are made without malice or education, just thinking out loud with a sensible head on, the pilots did a sterling job of seeing the take off roll through and getting aloft in the face of deteriorating circumstances.

Regards,

John.

Tony,

Yep will certainly be at cockpitfest along with all my others 🙂

GYD,

A plug of wood turned to the exact internal dimentions of the swan neck was carefully friction fit internally so that allowed me to put two nice big long screws securely in the base.

Thanks for all your kind comments gents.

Regards,

John.

For anyone interested on regular updates or helping out then here is the facebook group run by the current owner and restorer of XN728……

https://www.facebook.com/groups/205368676297107/

Regards,

John.

The road isn’t closed and there is not really any policing of this area on airshow days (they have their hands full with the show itself), if the gathering public caused an obstruction and it was reported then it would be dealt with.

I will say that the camera angle coupled with the ‘ooos’ and ahhhhs’ of the crowd make this clip seem more dangerous than it is, it’s an active airbase and it is airshow day, don’t complain or say things are dangerous when it is you putting yourself in danger!!.

It is similar to standing close to the edge on a train platform, there are no safety barriers or men in yellow jackets to stop us from doing it but its our own in built self control that does, these people clearly have no fear of risk so I say its their fault if anything goes wrong.

Not only that they are at greater risk from cars and lorries passing on the road only inches from them and the kids running about!!!!!!!

Regards,

JB.

Why on earth have they got it so wrong????, main engine tests resulting in cracked turbine blades?????

The Challenger main engines never had any blades!!!!!!

John.