Another idea is to telephone Sywell Airport and ask them for a contact number.

Roger Smith.

From Bob Ogden’s “Aviation Museums and Collections of Mainland Europe” (Air Britain, 2006) there is:

Fliegergruppe Rot-Wiess-Rot, Langenlebarn;
Flugzeug-Oldies, Wien – you know of this but Bob said “closed for building development”;
Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Wien;
Technishes Museum Fur Industrie Und Gewerbe – you know of;
Wien-Schwechat Sammlung, Schwechat.

Hope this helps.

Roger Smith.

I was there volunteering today (and tomorrow) – hope you enjoyed your flight Rob.
I was mainly escorting persons into the other side of the hangar but one group stopped for quite a while looking at G-AKRP in pieces. One chap (who had just flown in ‘IDL) seemed to find it hard to believe the wooden bits and pieces he was looking at – the same as the bits and pieces of the aircraft he had flown in – weren’t metal!!
Later the Chief Engineer gave me (and some interested visitors) some information on the restoration of ‘KRP. The three, linked, steel tubes that form a main spar running under the fuselage and through the inboard lower wings are having to be replaced with newly manufactured items. The original spec/size of tube is no longer available and a special 500m run would have cost £10,000 (I think he said). Luckily one steel supplier had a guy who had returned to employment after retiring and his contacts were able to suppy enough tube of the required size and to an equivalent specification that the CAA are happy with.
The reason the original is not fit for flight anymore? The original design had two parallel flanges for a pair of bracing wires to bolt to. There is a gap between to two flanges and a gap in the tube were they are welded to it that allows rainwater to ingress into the tube, then no way for it to get out. After all these years it’s got rusty and no good for flight anymore.
Thought I would share this fascinating mini-lecture with you.

Roger Smith.

I have Bob Ogden’s “Aviation Museums and Collections of Mainland Europe” and will have a look for Cameri – if you tell me where it is! (and, ideally, what some of the exhibits are).

Roger Smith.

Were there two aces named Mike Crossley from Lancashire?

Thunderbird lists Lt. Cdr. Mike Crossley (Lt. Cdr. R.M.Crossley – author of “They Gave Me A Seafire”) but there was also an RAF ace Mike Crossley who may have come from the county.

He was a son of the Crossley Motors (of Manchester?) family and although the family home when he joined the RAF was in Banbury I suspect he was born in Lancashire. A BoB pilot he rose to the rank of Wg. Cdr.

Crossley Motors owned Avro for a while until they sold it to J.D.Siddeley – I think marking the start of what was to become Hawker-Siddeley.

Roger Smith.

I think the company name is Kigas and they still trade in Warwick.

Roger Smith.