I still want to see a growler flying in th UK again. I can hope anyway though I doubt it will happen.

Keep your eyes peeled in the next few months…. Air Atlantique’s ex-chief engineer (Lead eng on the Lanc….) told me this year that he and another engineer were going to Texas with a view to return the Shack to the UK. Obviously there are problems – the CAA will not grant a permit to fly (yet) so it will be a one-off ferry flight to the flights base. Naturally, plans change at the drop of a hat, so don’t be surprised if this turns ot to be false hope. At the time (March) it was being planned to fly the shack down the east coast and follow railway lines to Deenethorpe – which was the alleged choice of a new base for the flight. The plan was to ground the shack but keep it in ‘airworthy’ trim, maybe offering punters a ride down the runway…

The shack association (Coventry) was still in talks with BAe Systems last I heard to do a limited run of Shackleton/Lancaster spars…. maybe there is hope yet….

Tornado F3 mock up. Due to the number of Tonkas diverting in there with bird strikes and fires and the air force does some of its training there I beleive…. along with some trident 3’s and a shorts 330. Also somewhere are two viscounts…. also might have something to do with the fact that it is the CAA’s preferred site for fire fighting training… run by Serco I think. International Fire training school. some pics on http://www.airliners.net. run a search for Durham Tees Valley and the keyword ‘fire’.

Look at the Google East Yorkshire thread for more googling IDs….. have you spotted the airfield which never existed at Spadeadam yet?…..

The difficult balancing act to make is how long you actually keep an airframe as a billboard. Essentially preservation should be about doing that – house her and your doing that but you loose the billboard appeal . However are the public savvy enough to either appreciate the benefits of keeping a Vulcan inside or does the draw of outside display outweigh that. Certainly if she has helped in the long term preservation of other aircraft it has been to the good – however even as a billboard she needs some kind of maintainace
and keeping in some kind of presentable order – that costs with an aircraft of the size of a Vulcan .
As for other machines – preserving in numbers was seen in the 1960’s as a means of ensuring that we didn’t end up in the same position of having no representative types such as the Whitley and Hampden . It has in a number of cases had a negative effect – resources have been spread on types which are duplicated to a large degree such as the Mystere while pertinent home grown types have suffered.

Just launched a new thread to deal with this sort of thing… leave this thread for the Vulcan fanatics…. (and roof enthusiasts….)

Hangar 4 was riddled with bullet holes. I managed to find out the aircraft which did it, (a Ju88, I think) but that information was passed to E Flight archives. The metal main door post at the end closest to the pan was also riddled. One bullet hole being at head hight, and from the damage to the metal frame must have gone straight into what became the ground crew’s crewroom. There is a story relating to an aircraft beating up the control tower (a german aircraft) during a Baedekker raid, and from eye witness accounts, it is thought that that is when hangar 4 was hit… (I forget the author’s name, but it was a book about 640 Sqn – apologies).

I bet my goldfish in the pond outside E-flight are dead too….:(

Hmm… I think some of my comments about ‘culling ‘ have been mentioned here. The North East Vulcan (NEAM) may end up under cover along with the Canberra……. can’t say more, cos no one tells me anything! Lets just say, that NEAM is expanding and the plans include a new, big hangar with a Vulcan in it. Never scrap an aircraft unless it has to be.

Imagine 50 yeras from now when privately owned aircraft of any complexity can be flown……. someone, somewhere will say, “Damn, I wish they kept a few Vulcans – the only ones left will be static forever…”

Oh and there’s Leconfield… one of my heles…. and hangar 4…. I need to cry now….:(

Elvington looks good.. even pictures of Lindy herself….

How about the moustachioed Week’s Sunderland?

B29…. soonish (any updates on the engine changes? – forgive my ignorance)

wow.. things have developed…. It will be a shame if they do demolish the hangars – my guess is the control tower will be next. Sadly the Army can do what they like…. and a once proud Bomber, Fighter and SAR station will be gone. I’m going to go and cry now….. Leconfield will always be my second home…..

The old station cinema still exists at the end of Grange Road (I think its part of a stable complex)…… My wife saw two WWII pilots walking back from there past our house one night…….. she wasn’t drunk either…