WJ244According to info on the internet the last time DPR flew was 1996 to mark the 60th anniversary of Jean Battens flight. From memory the Gull had hardly flown since arrival in NZ probably 3 or 4 years earlier and developed engine problems soon after take off. I think the problem was probably a lack of maintenance and a lack of preparation for the flight most likely because it was difficult to find engineers in Auckland with the appropriate experience at that time but it seems that instead of addressing these problems it was decided to ground the aeroplane. I still think it a shame that it wasn’t able to stay at Old Warden where the knowledge and expertise was available to maintain and operate DPR safely.
Sadly Jean Batten is a bit of a lost soul, her ashes having been put into a paupers grave in Palma but at least DPR does survive (thanks to the care it received in the UK) to preserve her memory.
WJ244I am sure that the publicity at the time said that the collection needed to raise funds to have any hope of continuing. The option was to sell several comparatively low value aircraft or one higher value one. The reasoning was something along the lines that Jean Batten was not British so the Gull had no direct link to UK aviation heritage and the sale of one comparatively high value aeroplane wouldn’t leave the same huge hole in the collection as disposal of some of the lower value aircraft would.
I was very disappointed to see DPR go and felt it was wrong particularly as the funds for restoration had been raised at least in part by donations from the public.
I do appreciate that at the time selling DPR was probably the lesser of many evils, one of which would have been closure of the collection, but I still miss the site and sound of the Gull at Old Warden and somehow acquisition of another Gull still wouldn’t make it right.
I believe that the original intention was to keep DPR flying in NZ and after spending a long time in a hangar it was flown at some kind of anniversary. Very disappointed to hear it now hangs in the terminal when it should really be gracing the skies over Old Warden.
WJ244First C-46 I saw was a Fred Olsen one as it touched down at Southend 40 plus years ago. A great looking aeroplane full of character but unfortunately I believe that you are in serious trouble if one engine gives up the ghost. I think I am right in saying that the Dak is less of a handful on one engine.
Thanks for posting the link to the museum pictures. It looks an amazing place with very well maintained exhibits.
WJ244Thanks for posting these. My first visit to Coventry must have been 1973. There wasn’t anything like as many disused aircraft by then although I do remember a Midland Air Cargo Bristol Freighter and a Shackleton which I assume miust have been WR963.
WJ244I can’t paint to save my life but I have been on a few of the Guild of Aviation Artists visits simply because I have friends who belong to the Guild. I have sat in on the appraisals at the end of the day and pretty much everything that has been said here mirrors what has been said at those appraisals.
If the Guild have an active section in your area your sister would probably find it useful to join. I have always found them to be a pretty friendly group even though I don’t paint. I know the local section here have been discussing a teaching day where the better known artists will assist and encourage others to further develop their skills.
Incidentally Charles Thompson is a great advocate of using unpainted models to get the angles right for subjects in paintings.
WJ244According to British Homebuilt Aircraft since 1920 by Ken Ellis and published by Merseyside Aviation Society in 1979 (2nd edition), the Storey Wonderplane was designated TSR-3 with TSR standing for Tom Storey Racer and the ‘3’ as it was ‘one up’ on TSR-2. By implication, he had not built any predecessors, at least not of his own design
Thanks David – That is what I suspected. I also understood it was built to comply with the Goodyear / Formula One air race rules, although it never actually raced, but with a cruise speed of 95 mph it wouldn’t exactly have challenged the Cosmic Winds, Cassuts and Rollason Betas that were competing in the UK in those days unless it has a much smaller engine up front now.
WJ2441984 Wrecks and Relics lists 3 Prentices with John Coggins. These were G-APJB under restoration to fly and G-AOKO (C of A Expired 23/10/72 and ex Southend – presumerably with Bob Batt who owned G-AOKH for a long time) and G-APIU ( C of A expired 23/3/67) as spares ships.
Midland Air Museum also acquired G-AOKZ around this time but this was minus outer wings so the photo is almost certainly OKO or PIU.
John Coggins also had a Percival Prince but other forum members know more about that than I do – don’t they?
WJ244At least there doesn’t seem to be any doubt about the source of the designation for the TSR-3 but what were the Tom Storey Racer 1 and 2 or did he just continue on where others had left off?
WJ244The blue blouse and black tie in the pub bedroom scene made up for that!!!!!:diablo:
As a 13 year old at the time I could have forgiven her any inaccuracy after seeing the blue blouse and black tie scene.
I remember the first warbirds display at West Malling where it rained very heavily while the cast of We’ll Meet Again were being paraded along the crowd line. I think they were on the back of a lorry and Susannah York was looking very bedraggled but was still smiling and waving enthusiastically to the crowd.
WJ244I think he TSR1 was the original designation for the Fairey Swordfish.
The TSR2 is well know and the TSR3 was built by Tom Storey who along with Martin Barraclough first rebuilt Mew Gull G-AEXF and I believe he was involved in Airmark who built a small batch of Cassut racers in the UK in the late 60’s.
I think I have got the TSR prefixes right
TSR1 = Torpedo, Spotter, Reconnaissance ?
TSR2 =Tactical Strike Reconnaissance
TSR3 = Tom Storey Racer
WJ244Out of interest what are the oher options to ebay ?
The other options are to use one of the other auction websites. Ebid and Specialist Auctions are probably the next biggest to Ebay but in reality they seem to be way behind and I have listed on both many times without ever managing to make a sale.
The other alternative is your own website or Eshop. Both require a lot of work to set up and it is largely down to you to put in the work to promote the site although with many Ecommerce packages the Ecommerce provider does do some of the promotion for you although you may find at times it is better to do this yourself.
Bruce I will send you a PM.
WJ244Just seen this one on Ebay. It isn’t military and is a bit obscure so probably won’t interest too many on here except possibly Avion Ancien.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TSR3-Monoplane-/250756679485?pt=UK_CPV_Aviation_SM&hash=item3a6243473d
I think I’ve got a picture somewhere from the one time I saw it fly but there is a fair chance the listing will end before I ever manage to find it! Could even have been one for the WOT thread.
As regards Ebay fees. I sold new diecast on Ebay for some time but when they bought in the new fees structure I found it just wasn’t viable. The Ebay fees and Paypal fees were taking at leat 50% of my profit so I walked away and went with a website. I pay the same monthly hosting fee as a basic Ebay shop. I admit that I do more work in terms of getting keywords right and promotion than I did with an Ebay shop and I sell fewer items but I keep all the profit (except the paypal fees) and I have less work packing fewer parcels to land up with much the same net profit so overall I am no worse off.
WJ244Don’t know if this is of any help but according to my old Historic Aircraft Society newsletters the Typhoon and Wellington turret both belonged to a Ray Harvey and came to Southend in 1982. The museum auction did include lots entered by others as well as the items actually owned by Historic Aircraft Museum so presumerably Ray Harvey agreed to their sale.
WJ244F1 show cars are often built from parts which have been found to be out of tolerance and from damaged monocoques which can’t easily or safely be rebuilt to race again BUT there still shouldn’t be two cars sharing the same chassis number.
I believe there is a Ford GT40 which has been resurrected comparatively recently that burnt to the ground at Nurburgring in the mid 1960’s. Everyone in historic racing circles knows the provenance of the car so it doesn’t matter but it does show that it isn’t just aviation where rebuilds have, on occassions, contained little but the constructors plate.
It is just inevitable that anything which gets used will eventually get damaged and at the same time parts wear out so replacing parts and carrying out major repairs/rebuilds is something which can’t be avoided.
WJ244It does seem to me that we have a generation or two currently aged between 12 and 30-35 ish where an awful lot of people have little interest in anything other than drinking or possibly going to the gym to get a great looking body to attract the opposite sex. Anything remotely technical or historic seems to be instantly labelled as boring. Many of these people seem to have little knowledge about anything and little or no respect for anyone or anything.
My partner has a 15 year old grandson who is intelligent (when he wants to be) and for the most part well behaved but he has no interest in anything whatsoever other than some types of modern music and computer games / Xbox. In the past I have taken him to motorcycle and car events and air shows but none of them have kindled any real interest.
In many cases these people had parents who failed / couldn’t be bothered to teach them values or respect and didn’t encourage them to take an interest in the world or in history. I don’t think we will ever reach these people so we can only hope there are sufficient others out there who will continue to visit museums, become involved in their development and safeguard our history for the future.
Sign In
