*sudders*… reminds me too much of Don Bullock at Biggin

It may not be the greatest release on the planet but it is the official voice you lot have been crying out for, give it a chance before you start your usual ” i hate T.V.O.C.” rants.

It would be nice if someone actually put their name to it – I would find it more believable and credible than just something that could have been written by the office cat!

And before anyone asks – whenever we send out ANY press release there is ALWAYS a point of contact and NAME for editors/sponsors etc to use – it is friendly and shows good manners!

Peter Amos has researched this for over 50 years now, and he along with a fellow researcher (working equally long on the subject) have been unable to establish the true facts behind this cancellation.

Back in 2004/5 my publishing company in conjunction with John Farley’s Aero Book Company down in West Sussex were in the process of publishing Mr Amos’ Miles aircraft book – in fact we did about a years worth of preliminary work designing, editing and general preparation prior to contract signing. This included going through all that he had and was available for publication on the M52.

We offered Mr Amos the use of our contacts in the USA to research what could be available there but unfortunately, just prior to the ‘contract to publish’ was to be signed, Mr Amos removed the title from us, and placed it with Air Britain I believe. We have no knowledge on when this work will come out.

Obviously, I respect Mr Amos’s confidentially as to what was in his files we had sight of and will not reveal any of his work here. However, from what our own contacts later discovered in the USA and told us, there did appear to be some kind of paper trail that linked Miles, at least two USAAF officer ‘observers’ operating out of the US Embassy in London and attached to the Air Technical Section at Wright Field, Ohio. It is not hard to believe that from their office the trail could easily go to Bell Aircraft!

However, there is a big ‘fly in the ointment’ here. The material in the USA is dated July 1946 – the Miles M.52 was cancelled already to my knowledge, and the XS-1 had already flown at Pinecastle – so did this visit to Woodley matter?

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My thoughts would be location Hucknall.

There is an interesting info sheet here!
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g6nhy.uk/rolls.htm

As White 22 of 1 Jagdfliegerschule came down near Lowestoft on 15 May 1944 The aircraft is supposed to have been removed to RAE for examination. Interestingly there appears to be an Italian aircraft wing in the foreground. However, the Service Command Poster on the hangar door is the same as some we discovered in a good number of USA pictures when we were researching our ‘Memphis Belle – Dispelling the Myths’. Was this a/c one of the ones that was shipped to the USA for evaluaton? (I cannot find my FE list at present!)

This is the same for many former airfields, army barracks, ROC posts, bunkers etc that have laid empty for many years…

It does not matter if it’s Faygate, an airfield or a bunker going on land without that land-owner or land managers permission is trespass.

We’ve published over 80 different editions in our AirField Focus series now and in EVERY edition we print the following message

Before we attempt to gain access for the ‘Then and Now’ photographs we use we always make contact with the landowner to get their permission. Very often ‘abandoned airfields’ have other, not so obvious uses – we know of one that is a butterfly reserve and many that are game reserves of one kind or another. At least one is regarded as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

We’ve been refused access on two occasions – both as it turned out through the previous idiotic behavior of the so-called ‘urban explorers’ who seem to think they have the god-given right to go where the hell they like. This type of reaction by the land-owner/managers to trespass is totally understandable – I have to wonder how these ‘urban explorers’ would feel if I turned up in their back garden and started rummaging through their sheds, garages and patios helping myself to stuff!

There are others far better placed to answer the finer details than myself Jenna, but when we (that is a group of enthusiasts – too many to mention here – who formed themselves into the East Anglian Aviation Society, the Cambridgeshire County Council and the Imperial War Museum – and please note, despite what a lot of publications say this pre-dates the Duxford Aviation Society by a good number of years!) started the outstation at Duxford back in the very early 1970s, one of the members was Captain Mike Russell, who used to fly with Tradair, Channel Airways and at the time was a pilot for Brittannia Airways.

Mike’s aviation connections went back a long way – his father used to own Harliford Publications which created (or ran) a number of aviation-related publications. Mike himself was into gliders and also owned a number of De Havilland products, including DH Rapide G-AGTM which he bought from Martin Barraclough to use on what I believe was the first pleasure-flying contract at Duxford. All Mike’s aircraft were operated under the AOC and trading banner of Russavia Ltd. He was one of the pioneer historic aircraft collectors – at a time when very few were really interested in anything other than Spitfires, Hurricans and Mustangs. In some ways Mike was a latter-day Richard Shuttleworth!

Over to the others!