Instead of warbird – rawbird (retired airborne warrior)

Roger Smith.

What does that leave there now?? Shackleton, ??

Roger Smith.

This is great news.

Looking at your forum I liked the bit about the Barracuda attracting a different type of anoraks 😀 Anyway what is a “type 3 idiot” I’m sure we can come up with some of those :diablo:

Also interested to see the Scottiah wreck – let’s hope it can be retrieved.
http://www.scottishhills.com/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1633

Roger Smith.

Thanks Tim!!!

I have now put captions with the photos a couple of posts back. Just to add to Tim’s pic (taken at Baginton 25th July) – my transference into baldness wasn’t helped by holding the silver plastic curtains up with my head whilst trying to extract the bits from behind them 😀 The aircraft at the rear is, of course, Twin Pioneer G-APRS.

Re the Tawny Owl Drawings. Barry has emailed me what he has been told and I have to be a bit diplomatic but won’t use that favourite word of news bulletins “allegedly” :p
The previous owner of the nacelle/centre section (Mr. A) said the aircraft had been promised to two different people (Mr. A and Mr. B) which is how the components got split up. However the drawings somehow got to a third party (C – an organisation not a million miles from Thurston’s works). C offered to sell the drawings to Mr. A who was angered and, believing they were rightfully his, contacted the Police. C panicked and destroyed the ‘evidence’ by burning it (ie the drawings) 😡

Eric Thurston is believed to be unwell and not able to contibute to knowledge of the aircraft.

Mr Creedon, the Tawny Owl’s designer, is a bit of a mystery as no info seems to exist about him or where he went after his Technical Directorship at Thurstons – anyone know?

Mr. McDonald, the pilot on the first flight, worked later for Rogers Aviation at Cranfield.

Harry Ratcliffe was a former 607 Sqdn Royal Auxiliary Air Force member and is believed to be still alive.

Roger Smith.

Photos – yes, sorry, I’ve asked Barry to resend them to me in a different form in the hope I can transfer them 😮

Barry does seem fairly certain, from fairly extensive enquiries, that the drawings no longer exist – I’ll ask him to relate again what he told me about them.

Roger Smith.

A progress update on the Tawny Owl. The aircraft (or most of it) is now in the safe/skilled hands of Barry Clay.

It had been in store with Classic Flight at Baginton and had survived all the moving around and preparation that went on for the opening of Airbase earlier this year remarkably well.

Removed from store on 25th July and moved to Barry’s new workshop in The Old Fire Station, Bishops Tachbrook airfield, Warwickshire on the 25th and 29th July – he is proceeding with a rebuild at a cracking pace.

Barry has been carrying out research into the aircraft’s history and the (possible) whereabouts of the fuselage/centre section. After being stored in a builder’s yard in Herefordshire it was donated by it’s then owner to a Technical College for use in a flight simulator project. Barry is trying to make contact with the college to find out if they still have it. Amongst the photos and references Barry has unearthed is some cine film showing the Tawny Owl being prepared for it’s first (and only) flight – then the flight itself – the cameraman being onboard a blue Miles Messenger. It finishes with a short clip of the Tawny Owl after it’s “crash” – to my untrained eye it looks more like it overturned during a forced landing damaging the roof of the cockpit and the two rudders. The booms (said to have been destroyed in the “crash”) look intact/undamaged.

Barry has been sorting through what there is – and there is a suprising amount. Both wings and ailerons, one rudder, both main undercarriage legs/yokes/wheel/tyre and nose yoke/wheel/tyre, full set of engine bay cowls, the three-part flaps from under the centre-section and lots of brackets and small components – some, Barry thinks, from the intended second machine.

The plan is to build new (non flying) structure/components to represent what is missing and use/attach as much original material as possible. There are no drawings so Barry is working it all out from photos, ‘Flight’ sketches and the cine film. He would like a Porsch 678/4 engine (as fitted to Mooney M21) to install/to have as a side exhibit but, if he can’t find one will make a wooden replica with an electric motor inside. Progress is rapid and with the two outer wings and centre-section flap unit jigged up a new centre-section and fuselage are well advanced.

Barry is hoping to acquire a trailer and then the Tawny Owl, when completed, might become a road-travelling exhibit serving in an educational role.

He has received various offers of help for bits and has an ex Beech Musketeer instrument panel plus a few instruments promised but would like two sets of (small) rudder pedals, a pair of small control spectacles, further u/s standard instruments, small wheel spats, a couple of door map pockets, a nose cone that could be fettled/modified (or any dome shape panel), “steal, beg or borrow” a pusher propeller and the afore-mentioned Porsche 678/4 (or ANY Porsche) engine.

Barry will be happy to receive visitors (I think by prior arrangement though) and I’ll pass on an email address to anyone interested or for offers of help.

Hopefully are attached some photos Barry has supplied.

Roger Smith

I had been holding my piece (or should that be peace?).

I appreciate Hugh Spencer’s post. I think too much of history is determined by hindsight and too little attention paid to first-hand accounts.

However it is VoyTech’s post that touches on my thoughts. Hatred/dislike of other nationalities (not just Germany) has always been there, it is part of nature, part of our instinct. The Frankie Goes To Hollywood song “Two Tribes Go To War” illustrates this (or, at least, the title does). Animals in the wild have and fight for their own territory we, as humans, jaw, jaw to avoid war, war (most of the time).

The bombing of Dresden was a product of our hatred of Germany and the Nazis at that time and at it’s worst (not that I disagree with what happened and I am an ‘admirer’ of Harris), the teenager’s threat were bad and the comments made on sunny beaches about towels and sunbeds are ‘hatred’ in it’s mildest form.

The thread has well and truly drifted so I will conclude by saying of a deep-down fear I have for the future of Europe. I believe the merging of many nationalities into one large state is fraught with danger. Despite (perhaps because of) the drift of populations from one country to another there will always be a core of people (in any country) who see themselves as ‘pure’, and are fiercly patriotic/nationalistic. It’s happened before and could happen again. I hope my fears are unfounded.

Roger Smith.

What, the T.R.3, T.R.6, the Stag, the Spitfire – there I knew there was an aviation connection somewhere 😀

Roger Smith.