🙂
As a spin off from the Bader thread i wondered if people could recommend honest,accurate auto/biographies from both the Allied and Axis side.

It would probably be easier to work the other way around!

We assisted Colin Cruddas with his ‘Those Fabulous Flying Years’ (Air Britain 2003) with material from Pauline Gower’s ‘Harvest of Memories’ which we have just put back into print in paperback form.

As usual – not going to say more because of ‘advertising’

I just wonder if anyone here has thought that Mr Weeks might actually be reading this thread – which bring the question what would you think if I started discussing in great negative detail which is only your business?

I guess you would not like it, and probably I would get into trouble from the moderators…

So come on guys….

What he does with his aircraft is for him and him alone!

And in closing, I would say

GOOD LUCK TO HIM IN ALL HIS ACTIVITIES!!!

Agcat. We’ve been at
this for quite some time, hence our fantastic strategic partnership with Cherwell District Council.

but you still cannot tell me who the Trustees are?

May I ask please, who are the trustees of this organisation?

The original question was from UK to India in 1968 – if we refine that to say London Heathrow to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Mumbai, that gives a distance of approximately 4450 miles, well beyond the unfuelled range of jet airliners of the 1950s.

Other aircraft types and periods have been mentioned in these fascinating replies. In the early 1950s the DH Comet 1s – although operating the route can be discounted because that were not capable of operating that range with three stops listed.

Likewise the early Boeing jet products of the mid-to-late 1950’s can also not be really considered (Boeing figures quoted):

The 367-80 had a range of 3530 miles with reserves and cruised at 550 mph.
The first re-design – the KC-135 had a very similar cruise speed, but a range of only 3000 miles.

The second re-design – the 707-100 had a cruise speed of 571 mph and range of 3075 miles with no reserves.

It is not until the arrival of the 707-300B in 1962 that we start to see unrefueled ranges that are possible over that distance – 607 mph cruise over a range of 6160 miles.

To put that into context with today’s services – a Singapore Airlines A380 cruises at around 500 mph which is a fairly typical speed. A 100 mile-per-hour speed difference then to now is considerable but then, as Viscount says, ‘block speed’ needs to be taken into account.

Looks like it’s from the MJ or MU block of serials

I have no inside information available if the Comet is to fly – but commonsense suggests that those at Old Warden know both what they are doing and the timetable for it – and this includes drawing up and publishing the timetable. Sure, a word error can slip in anywhere, but that advert is well planned and clearly well thought out. Obviously with any airshow there is the proviso of ‘all things permitting’, but right now I believe the advert, especially as this thread has been running for 48 hours and there has been no official contradiction!

Also… If they are planning a public flying on 7th October, then that schedules private test flying the at least the week, if not two weeks before. So the aircraft is stilling on jacks right now with the undercart in bits right now – that means nothing for there is still a month for the engineering team to get everything re-assembled and checked, plenty of time, even considering the complexity of the modified system.

I’m certainly going to be there on the 7th!