Count me in, just name the date and time.

Can I be your ‘second’?

Wow, there seem to be a lot of fatal airshow crashes in Britain, and over the past few years a load of top pilots have been lost too. Very sad. Terribly sad.

Was that Biggin Hill Vampire crash mentioned here the one where Sir Kenneth Hayr was killed? That was big news here as he was a Kiwi legend. I never heard about the P63 the next day though. What was the third incident you mention Stewart? Did something else crash too?

Yes that’s right, de Havilland Aviation’s Venom G-GONE landed at Biggin Hill with its undercarriage UP, then Ken Hayr was killed in the Vampire and I was there the following day and witnessed the P-63 Kingcobra crash – an awful weekend! It tried to do a loop at low altitude and ran out of speed, stalling at the top I think and dived and crashed in a ball of fire, thankfully on the opposite side of the airfield.

Albert I remember ‘Whirlybirds’,I was a ’60’s child!Ididnt realise it was from the 1950’s though!What were the characters names and what organisation did they work for or was it a private company?

It was made during 1957-59. Everything you need to know is here:

http://cellmath.med.utoronto.ca/B47/history/wbGuide/wbLaunchIt.html

Thanks Albert,they brought back some memories!Also happy days spent playing ‘whirly birds in the back garden wearing headpones,dads sunglasses and using my mates brothers electrical switchboard as a dash!) 😎 !

Actually, reading Andy-in-Beds posting about a Saturday morning TV series, I wondered if he meant the US TV series ‘Whirlybirds’ which I can vaguely remember being televised on a Saturday morning in b/w featuring LA Police Bell 47Gs. Probably neither of you are old enough to remember that from the’50s? Anyone else remember it?

These shots are extremely interesting, as I have no record of Eagle ever operating a Lincoln(did you log the serial-looks like RF333 under the wing?). They first operated 6 Halifaxes and the Lancaster would have been G-ALVC which was only acquired for spares use for the Yorks. However, the Lincoln is still in RAF colours and I am almost tempted to say that insignia on the nose may be that of 23 Squadron? Perhaps Steve Bond might read this, as he probably knows?

I think the weather has played the most part in doing its best to ruin many air shows here in UK. The worst shows I can remember include Biggin Hill Air Fair in May 1967, when we had thick fog, torrential non-stop rain, thunder and lightning…ALL AT THE SAME TIME! 😮 Not only was all flying cancelled, but you couldn’t even take any photos, for as soon as you backed away to get a large aircraft in the photo, it disappeared into the fog! I remember sheltering inside a USAF C-124 Globemaster, which was the best thing about it all.

I agree, it’s owned by the RAF Museum and on loan to the Manchester museum. XG454 was the machine displayed in the static park at Abingdon in June 1968 for the RAF 50th Anniversary celebrations.