Thanks for posting these – great to see. I spent a week at Coltishall c.1963 on summer camp with the A.T.C.

Roger Smith

I’m sure RRHT (Bristol) have a Bristol liquid-cooled radial on display – it may be the Hydra from c.1933 – based on the Jupiter???

Roger Smith.

Yorkie – going back to the initial post about acquiring an A-7.

If you are really keen I would suggest a course of action something along the lines of:

1.Enter into negotiations with a UK Museum who would be interested in adding an A-7 to their collection – on loan from you.
2.You would need a Museum that has some status – ie a Registered Museum and, perhaps, a Registered Charity and Limited Company. You are likely to have to deal with a foreign government at some stage and you ‘partner’ museum’s status will be important.
3. It would be useful if the museum has people around who have had actual experience of acquiring/importing an ex-military aircraft.
4. I guess you would like it to be a museum local to you but that may not be possible.
5. Identify what the museum is prepared to contribute to the project – more likely to be in the form of labour than financial but their possible contribution in phonecalling/negotiations could be important.
6. You would need to set a budget that the Museum agrees with (we’re talking a considerable sum probably).
7. Jointly agree ‘targets’ – ie identify sources of A-7s be they
a) still in military hands, b) with a foreign museum or c) in a foreign scrapyard.
8. Identify UK ex-military aircraft available for purchase – one likely method of actually acquiring an A-7 would be an offer of exchange with another museum. Portugal has been mentioned. A route may be a suggestion to a Portugese military museum that they get an A-7 transferred to them to exchange for something they want that’s available in the UK.
9. Carefully consider what you do – a bad action could foul up future prospects of acquisitions from abroad.

Roger Smith.

[QUOTE=wl745;1406612]Dont forget the Biadecker raids. A firend(now dead)worked at Boulton & Paul in Wolverhampton,he volunteered to drive a truck with parts urgently needed in a factory in Coventry and arrived as the raid that flattened coventry started….. [QUOTE]

Although often included in references to “Biadecker” (Coventry was a, largely, medieval city but the city council had already started ‘slum clearances’ before the Luftwaffe arrived) it was, to my mind, a legitimate target. It’s concentration of industry throughout the city (much smaller area then) the majority of which had turned to military production meant it was not really a ‘civilian’ target.

Roger Smith.

Does anyone know if Dunlop were the first to introduce pneumatics onto an aircraft – brakes on an Avro Avian in 1932.?

Re 2hotwot’s comment about British industry championing pneumatics, Dunlop had a tussle with the Air Ministry in 1939 when AM decreed that all future “large” military aircraft were to have hydraulic brakes. Privately organised trials on a Halifax showed pneumatics to be superior over the low-pressure hydraulics. The later high pressure hydraulics were better. (Info from “We Re-invented The Wheel” by Ron Vice)

Roger Smith.

Aren’t we lucky there wasn’t a 748 preserved by BA at Cosford :dev2::dev2:

Roger Smith.

Just a thought….

Proposals for a race circuit do not neccessarily mean the end of an aerodrome. There are several instances where the two activities seemed to exist side by side – Brooklands, Silverstone, Thruxton, Brands Hatch…..

Roger Smith.