WJ244Slightly off topic but I remember seeing a report and a photo in Air Pictorial of a Lincoln (I think it was RF533 from memory) with a modified nose in the fire dump area at Stansted in 1968 or 69. It was in a sorry state and may not have survived for much longer (although many of the derelicts at Stansted in thoise days seemed to stay around a long time) but other than the RAF Museum and Southend Lincolns it must have been about the only other UK survivor at that time.
Didn’t Cranfield have a Lancaster at about the same time as they had RF342? If so this could well have been one of the last to go.
WJ244I think I posted this story before but it seems relevant to this thread so I apologise to anyone who has read it already.
During WW2 my grandfather decided to evacuate the family from London and rented a cottage at Appledore in Kent. My father would have been a teenager at the time and said he went to an ATC squadron at Ashford, which I think he said was based in a school, and they had a Hawker Nimrod. He reckoned they had the complete airframe although it was dismantled with the wings stored along one wall.
What intrigues me is that the Nimrod that is now flying was apparently discovered on a rubbish tip at Ashford and I wondered if it was the same airframe. It does seem possible that at some point the council took it away for the ATC and years later it was unearthed again.
I can’t get any further details as my dad passed away over 10 years ago but if anyone has any further information it would be good to hear it.
WJ244So pleased to see the picture of 9089Z that I didn’t notice the Tomtit next door. Thanks for the pictures of 7614C (exactly as I remember her on countless visits to Luton) and 6578D. They brought back some happy memories.
WJ244Jetflap – Thanks for the picture of B-25 N9089Z which is of course Bedsheet Bomber. The picture seems to be Biggin Hill where she was abandoned after duty as camera ship for 633 Squadron and probably just before she was acquired by the British Historic Aircraft Museum.
She lost the camera nose when she was at Southend. I do have a black and white photo of her at Biggin which I bought off someone at school about 40 years ago but mine is a bit out of focus so great to see a clear shot of the old girl.
Many thanks for posting it and while it is nice to see warbirds in representative markings I too am a fan of the civilian schemes. I don’t have pictres but no one so far has mentioned the Shuttleworth Tomtit which carried civvies for some time or Swordfish LS326 / G-AJVH when in Fairey house colours of Blue fuselage and Silver wings and of course there is always the Science Museum SE5A in Savage Skywriting colours.
As an afterthought anyone got pictures of B-25 N7614C at Luton before she went to Duxford or probably the ultimate civil B-25 scheme N6578D – The Psychedelic Monster from the B of B film..
WJ244Bertram Ardens barn was legendary and access was supposedly impossible. The building that houses the AL1 could never be described as chink free so presumerably actually getting near to the building was the real problem. I do remember mention of it being surrounded by barbed wire.
Thanks for publishing the pictures I have always wanted to know the state of the aircraft it housed. Lets hope the AL1 and the others finally get to fly again one day.
WJ244If they manage it to raise the funds, do the work and get CAA approval then I will be very happy to see a Shackleton in the air again. I always had doubts about the viability of returning the Vulcan to airworthiness but the fact that they managed it is impressive and I hope it will return for the 2009 season.
Presumerably once flying a Shackleton is a good deal simpler and therefore cheaper than a Vulcan to maintain so lets hope it gets into the air and stays there within the proposed time scale.
Just one other thought. I understood that the US Shack went to Pima with a possible view to flying it again at some point in the future if that ever became possible. Would it have been cheaper to recover a virtually airworthy aircraft from the USA rather than work on one that has been static , albeit well looked after, for a long time?
WJ244Can confirm that Revell measured the Mossies at both Salisbury Hall and Hendon a few years ago. My good friend Ed Sexton was New Products manager at Revell USA at that time and I was asked along to help hold the tape measure.
Everyone at Salisbury Hall was friendly and helpful and the visit was a real pleasure.
WJ244I always understood that the B-25 was owned by Stephen Grey when it was at Duxford and was stripped of many parts for possible use on Grumpy.
The story I heard was that the aircraft got to look pretty scruffy and Duxford wanted it out of the way so it moved on to Aces High at North Weald.
When I last saw the aircraft at North Weald it was pretty clear that she had been stripped since her Southend days and I was shocked at how little remained inside when I looked through the nose.
WJ244In April 1972 the museum newsletter says that the Fiat had been laying around for 18 months so presumerably it had only been at Southend for 18 months at that point. I think the delivery into Northolt was around 1968 but that is only from memory.
Shoreham does ring a bell and makes me think that maybe the original museum owner did get his hamds on her for a while and would tie in with older museum members stories that he had other plans for the Fiat which didn’t involve her remaining with the original museum but I am not sure that I should make further comments as I can’t substantiate the stories passed on to me and the people who told me the stories have all passed away.
Perhaps I can just say that I was told there was allegedly a plan for the Fiat to lead a lively but probably very short life a long way from England.
WJ244Really pleased to hear that she is back in the UK.
When I was at the Southend museum I was told that she was originally gifted to the museum when it was the BHAM and delivered into Northolt but not released by the Italians as by then the museums future was looking rocky.
After the museum was bought by new owners the Fiat was kept dismantled in one of the light aircraft hangars at Southend along with our Proctor restoration and I often used to open the Fiats cockpits for a look inside.
She was eventuallt reassembled and was originally kept in the museum building but moved outside as other airworthy loan aircraft ( like the Haydon-Baillie Collection and the Tony Haig-Thomas Moth collection) took over the hangar space.
The last museum newsletter in 1983 stated that she was sold to Visionair ( wasn’t that a company associated with Jeff Hawke) for £3400 along with B-25 Mitchell N9089Z (£6200). The latter price seems a lot of money for an aeroplane with a cut mainspar and engines which hadn’t been run for at least 15 years but maybe it reflected the scrap value at that time.
Best of luck with the restoration but regret I don’t have the time or the skills to be of any real help.
WJ244[QUOTE=xtangomike;1321368]2)A Tiger/Gypsy Moth come down behind some trees at Biggin Hill airshow.
This was probably Gipsy Moth G-ABYA but I can’t remember the year. The aircraft spun in. I am pretty sure both the pilot and passenger recovered from their injuries probably thanks to the fact that mainly wooden aeroplanes seem to bounce rather better than all metal ones.
As already mentioned the 1984 inverted Channel Crossing was almost certainly Nigel Brendish. I was never fortunate enough to meet Nigel but Bill Gent told me that he did a lot to help with the Southend museum including arranging the loan of the Leisure Sport WW1 replicas for a while.
Bill always expressed concern about Nigels low level beat ups of the museum when returning to Southend in Super Chipmunk G-IDDY and I believe that the tower eventually told him that it had to stop.
Bill told me that Nigel hatched a plan to fly through one of the Dartford Tunnels and was pretty miffed when the tunnel authorities faltly refused to even consider the idea. He was apparently a real character and well liked but Bill and others always thought that an aeroplane would get him one day and sadly that proved to be true. As the old saying says “There are old pilots and bold pilots” etc
WJ244Sorry to hear she got damaged but very pleased to know that she has been repaired so quickly. Another great job from the Shuttleworth engineers!
WJ244The Yak at Bari looks like the one that was in my fathers picture but I think his was a port side view from a lower angle. Still great to see another picture after all this time and have it confirmed that it was definitely a Bulgarian AF machine. Thanks for posting the photos.
WJ244Sorry but I haven’t seen the photo for 15 to 20 years. It is possible one of my sisters still has the album but we parted on , shall we say, less than friendly terms after events which followed my parents death so I don’t feel inclined to try to track them down.
All I remember is that the markings didn’t appear to be RAF and that my dad always said it was a Bulgarian AF aircraft. He said that the Yak was inspected to gain as much info as possible about the type and then burnt and dumped in the quarry at the end of the runway at Bari.
He had other photos of Caproni Ca311’s in RAF markings and said that the downdraught over the quarry cuased them problems on take off particularly when fully laden.
Sorry I can’t be more help.
WJ244Don’t know if this is any help and I think I may have mentioned it elsewhere on the forum before.
My father was stationed in Italy with the RAF about 1944/45 onwards. He was stationed at Bari and Brindisi and Fayid in Egypt. He used to have an album of photos which included a rather distant shot of a Yak 9 which he always told me was in Bulgarian AF markings. He said the pilot defected and landed at Bari. He thought the aircraft was burnt and the remains dumped in a quarry at the end of the runway to hide the evidence. Unfortunately the photo album disappeared after he died otherwise I would have gladly posted the photo here. It is interesting that you also refer to a Yak 9 at Bari and I would have thought it unlikely that two turned up on the same Italian airfield.
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