WJ244Just dug out my old Historic Aircraft Society newsletters again and thought th following may be of interest.
According to the newsletters Cornell C/N 53299 was built 1943 and allocated USAAF serial 43-4361. Used by RCAF as FH768 and sold post war to become NC9606H amd subsequently N9606H. Last flight was apparently October 1972 when she was ferried to New Jersey to be crated for shipping to Southend museum.
For some reason she doesn’t seem to have arrived at Southend until 17 April 1974. When the crate was opened it was found that the Cornell hadn’t been adequately secured and had sustained damage as had the replacement nose for B-25 N9089Z/HD368 which was also in the same crate.
It was decided to store the aircraft until time was available for repairs.
As far as I remember the managers idea of storage was to leave the aircraft outside in the shipping crate and the crate gradually filled with water causing further damage.. By the time Bill Gent was appointed manager the aircarft had deteriorated badly but work was started in the winter of 1981 to restore her for static display. I remember seeing one wing with parts of the structure repaired with just about any wood that was around (including bits of packing case simply because funds weren’t available to use better materials.
Stan and David Brett had done a lot of work at Southend during the earlier days of the museum including spending their holidays camped in a tent in the museum compound to be able to spend longer hours working on the Mitchell.
When Southend closed the Cornell went to Rebel Air Museum along with Pou Du Ciel G-ADXS and I never saw either aircraft again.
The photo posted by moondance brought back some memories and I believe the crate covered in plastic seen behind the Cornell fuselage is the original shipping crate or it may be the crate that contained Rapide G-AIUL? that never saw the light of day at Southend and moved on at some point. I have a vague memory of a Dragon mainplane as well with the registration G-ADDI on it but DDI went to the USA years before as N34DH so maybe this was an old mainplane.
WJ244Aircraft Illustrated was publisheed by Ian Allan at that time. Don’t know if it is any help but I gave all my copies (No1 through to about 1980) to North Weald Museum for their library so they should still be there.
WJ244I too was a witness to the Mentor crash at Mildenhall. I didn’t see what went wrong but I heard the engine surge and looked round as the aircraft hit the ground. It seemed an age before anybody got there.
I was also unfortunate enough to witness the mid air collision between Tiger Moth G-ANDE and a Bell Jet Ranger at a Biggin Hill Air Fair.
As far as I remember the Tiger was approaching to land part way along the runway when the Jet Ranger took off into the underside. Neither pilot could have seen the other. The Jet Ranger fell to the ground killing all on board and the Tiger (now minus undercarriage) made a wheels up landing on the grass. It was a sad, shocking and probably avoidable incident which I have never forgotten.
I believe a DH60 Moth also crashed during a Biggin display in the late 70’s early 80’s (G-ABYA?) but fortunately both occupants survived although they were injured.
Does anyone else remember the incident at a late 60’s early 70’s Air Fair when a member of the Falcons parachute team landed in front of Mustang
N6356T and his parachute became entangled in the prop. Fortunately the pilot shut down very quickly and I believe the parachutist was comparatively unharmed.
There was also an incident at a PFA Rally at Cranfield where a Percival Gull dropped a wing on take off and hit something like a Cherokee that was taxying. Apparently the Gull involved had always been known to have a tendency to drop a wing and I remember reading that the subsequent rebuild showed that at some time during its life it had landed up with one wing a bit shorter than the other and restoring the correct span cured the problem.
I was standing beside the fire tender when I heard “crash, crash, crash” over the tenders radio at which point it headed for the far end of the field as quickly as possible.
There was also the fatal landing accident at Shuttleworth where a Beech Musketeer hit Fox Moth G-ACEJ which was (I think) already parked on the field. I believe the Fox Moth was all but destroyed in the ensuing fire.
WJ244Personally I accept that a rebuild to fly inevitably means that substantial parts of the original structure will have to be replaced. I would like to think that any useful parts will then be passed on to static restorations but there should be a record of the provenance of these parts so that no one can use them to create a “fake” real static aeroplane and pass it off as a “new find” with an original identitiy.
There is an old story in historic motor racing of the man who found a derelict Bugatti T35 and had it rebuilt to race. The car had deteriorated so badly that all the bodywork and much of the chassis had to be replaced. Someone visiting the restorer showed an interest in the discarded parts and eventually bought them. Shortly afterwards an article allegedly appeared in a classic car mag heralding the discovery of a previously unknown Bugatti T35. The car was incomplete but part of the original chassis and amost all the original body were intact but in poor condition. One original chassis plate and a new body and chassis later another Bugatti had been added to the historic racing grids. I am not saying this is wrong provided the car is sold on (and continues to be sold on) with documents explaining the history of the rebuild. I can’t speak for the aviation world but it does appear that in the car world this hasn’t always been the case and there are some cars out there (both racing and road cars) with very dodgy provenances. I am for instance aware of one car which was burnt to the ground in a racing accident in the 60’s but someone kept the chassis plate and the car is still around now after a “rebuild”.
Please don’t think I am deriding the restorers. That is far from true. I have derived great pleasure from seeing many aircraft fly which have only got the wind under their wings again thanks to the dedication and efforts of owners who are prepared to pay for the rebuilds and skilled restorers who have taken on the work. We should all be able to understand the reasons for replacing parts but when it comes to reusing discarded parts it would be good if everyone involved kept things honest so that we all know source of parts for any static restoration.
WJ244Tried GINFO and couldn’t find anything ending XA which could look remotely like a VP2 but it could be VP1 Srs 2 G-BHKA which was deregistered 18/5/97 and is recorded as destroyed.
WJ244Buxey Sands makes perfect sense as this JU88 was the one excavated by Stan and David Brett along with Bill Gent in the 70’s for the Southend Museum. I always understood that the aircraft was off Southend but could never find Buxey Sands on the map I had. It didn’t help that I was young and didn’t have the right spelling.
I remember Stan saying that there was a lot of bombs etc in the mud when he first visited the site and I believe the dig was quite difficult. As I said in the earlier post I know they recovered an emergency surgical kit in a sort of wallet which was displayed in a showcase in the museum along with some of the smaller parts from the Canvey B-17 but I am not sure what else came back from the dig.
Went on the web to find out more about Dengie marshes. All I have found so far is in this link.
http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/custom_pages/monument_detail.asp?content_page_id=89&monument_id=41790&content_parents=48,175&monument_type_id=&monument_name=&search_related=&admin_area_id=&period_from=&period_to=&selPeriod=&selStatus=&evidence_type=&media_type_id=&media_what=&easting=&northing=&grid_square=&freetext_content=&smr_number=&name=&email=&address=&q1=&q2=&q3=&q4=&q5=&q6=&q7=&q8=&q9=&mailme=&comments=
WJ244Not quite the Thames Estuary but very nearby – I remember Stan and David Brett during their days at the Historic Aircraft Museum, Southend coming back from a trip to Bradwell and discussing with Bill Gent that there were aircraft visible in the mud off the end of the old Bradwell airfield.
They reckoned there had been some kind of practice range in the river off the end of the airfield and several aircraft had come to grief whilst using the range.
I know a large part of the airfield was taken over for Bradwell Nuclear Power Station so I would think access to any wrecks would be restricted and possibly damgerous as I assume that there must have been some radioactive output from the power station into the river over the years.
Just wondered if anyone knew anything more about the possibility of wrecks in that area.
WJ244Ozplane I notice you mention a Drover at Blackpool. I just wondered did you ever see it fly? I understood that the Southend Museum Drover VH-EAS (now at Lasham I think and painted as VH-FDT last time I saw it) was imported (for Air Navigation and Trading?) and never flew in the UK although it was allocated G-APXX. Tony Osborne of the original BHAM rescued it from Squires Gate around 1967 so it looks like your Drover is still around.
WJ244ozplane – I think you have got your wires crossed.
The Owl racer G-AYMS was built by Farm Aviation and I believe it was based in Norfolk. Its first and only race appearance was in a Formula One race at North Weald on a bank holiday Monday and it crashed into the Thames at Greenwich on the way back to base. Sadly I believe the pilot was killed in the crash. Newspaper reports at the time suggested that the engine had departed from the airframe in mid air but I have never seen the crash report so I don’t know if this was the case.
When I was a volunteer at the Southend Museum a party recovered some parts of the B-17 which crashed off Canvey Point including some engine cylinders and a complete UC leg. I think the leg was sold in the auction when the museum closed. Another expedition recovered parts from a JU88 from a sandbank in the Thames estuary. I remember we had a complete first aid kit which included some nasty looking saws but I can’t remember what else came back and I have no idea what happened to the parts after the museum closed.
WJ244There are two possibilities that I could think of for this one.
There was a POW camp which I think was for Italian POWs ar Rawreth. I believe it was roughly on the site where Macro now stands in Rawreth Lane. This could be that site and the rising ground in the background is Rayleigh.
The other possible is that there was an army camp complete with AA guns[ on the Salvation Army land at Hadleigh and the shot could have been taken from the marshes near the railway line somewhere east of Hadleigh Castle. This would make the houses in the distance thise on the London road A13 and the church could be Leigh Church.
I think the first option is more likely as I think there would be high ground closer to the huts if it were Hadleigh.
Hope this helps a bit.
WJ244I have built plenty over the years from all sorts of different makers including one of the old Inpact 1/48 Avro Biplane kits. I also built (and usually crashed within days) a good few Keilkraft flying models.
In the early 80’s I got into the 1/43 resin and whitemetal car kits and had my own model shop for 7 years from 1988 to 1995 but haven’t really found time to build anything for a long time now although I still have a few kits (mainly air racers) and 2 or 3 of the LDM metal kits which I have been promising myself I would build for the past 30 or so years .
Apart from the time factor I find my eyesight isn’t so good now so I tend to buy diecasts which, largely thanks to Corgi, have improved massively over the last 10 years.
WJ244The Southend Storch D-EKMU was definitely the one which landed up with Paul Raymond. It was a lurid orange with black stripes when it arrived at Southend but I think we repainted it in a desert scheme (It was a long time ago).
Unfortunately I don’t know what happened after Paul Raymond sold it on.
WJ244David I can confirm that you are quite right about the identity of the Newark Anson as G-AGPG was still flying at Southend when G-ALIH was destroyed at Newark.
When G-AGPG arrived at the Historic Aircraft Museum, Southend she was still airworthy and it was planned to keep her that way but a member of the museum management refused to allow checks, maintenance and engine runs on both the Anson and Dragon and the Anson landed up outside permanently where the fabric was slashed on the underside by a vandal. As a result the wind got inside and slowly tore off more fabric which probably led to the rot problems in the tailwheel bay and the rot in the fuselage stringers.
Had a certain member of the museum management team spent more time running the museum and less time locked in his office with his secretary then much of the decline at Southend could have been prevented. I was there at the time as a teenage volunteer and also as a full time staff member in school holidays. I was aware that the office door was nearly always locked since I could never get access to get the manager concerned to answer the telephone which was in the temporary workshop next to the office. It was only years later that the late Bill Gent (eventually appointed curator at a time when the many of the aircraft were almost beyond saving) explained to me why I got such a frosty reception when I did finally get an answer after knocking on office the door. I could probably write a book about some of the back stabbing that went on amongst the commercial management (not among the volunteers) which resulted in the museum losing some good and capable people. I haven’t named names partly because of possible repercussions and also because at least some of the people involved have since died and are therefore unable to defend their actions even if they feel they have a defence).
WJ244Unfortunately the prop guard is probably a necessity simply because many members of the great British public will mess around with things that they don’t understand.
I remember that even 30 odd years ago when I worked in school holidays at the Southend museum virtually every idiot that walked into the display hall insisted on playing with the wind driven generator on our Messenger (which was on loan and still, in theory, flyable although I think it was beginning to suffer the effects of glue rot) and any request to leave it alone was usually met with a hail of abuse. Many also insisted on trying to swing the prop. I remember one particularly obnoxious individual who was extremely rude when asked to leave the prop and generator alone. He was in the curators office a few minutes later with a very nasty cut across the palm of his hand. The Messenger had got its own back and bitten him when he tried (yet again) to swing the prop after winding up the generator. His threats to sue us for having a dangerous aeroplane fell on deaf ears and the curator gave him directions to the nearest hospital to get his hand stitched and pointed him in the direction of the exit.
The other frequent complaint was that we should cut off all the pitot heads because the punters used to walk into them even when we put red flags on them.
I think it was Fox Moth G-ACEJ used to have a sign in the cabin saying “Aeroplanes bite fools”. It is a shame that many members of the public fail to heed this advice and force museums to take such steps to ensure safety.
WJ244It would hav to be either my Gee Bee R2 or Gee Bee Z in 1/48 by Union or my LDM Rothmans Pitts S-2 which is actually a handbuilt white metal kit which I bought off Ebay a while ago from Mike Stephens of Western Models.
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