L4433 is a Miles Mentor I. According to Air Britain it flew with the Station Flight at Manston, It was taken for repair (no reason given) on 18/10/40 and there is no further trace of the aircraft.

Regards,

kev35

The above info is from Air-Britain’s RAF Aircraft L1000 – N9999. Peter Amos’s simply fantastic Miles Aircraft – The Early Years, also from Air-Britain, adds a little more…

c/n 475 L4433 To 19 Maintenance Unit, St Athan, 9/5/1939. To Station Flight Manston, 7/6/1939. To Phillips & Powis Cat. B 10/10/1940. Upgraded to Cat. E, 18/10/1940. (Cat.B = Beyond repair on site; Cat.E = Write-off)

Many thanks for that – happy to have been of help.

The consensus seems to be two per wing, so I’m guessing the text in question is wrong. As usual a big thanks for all the help.

I wasn’t aware that torpedoes were carried, that must have been an interesting sight.

Although a load of four DCs (2/side) was the norm, lighter DCs could be carried in order to increase the number of rounds which is why ‘inkworm’ will have read of, for example, a stick of six DCs being dropped.

On the subject of torpedoes, these were not carried routinely by RAF Catalinas although they were trialled.

At least there doesn’t seem to be any doubt about the source of the designation for the TSR-3 but what were the Tom Storey Racer 1 and 2 or did he just continue on where others had left off?

According to British Homebuilt Aircraft since 1920 by Ken Ellis and published by Merseyside Aviation Society in 1979 (2nd edition), the Storey Wonderplane was designated TSR-3 with TSR standing for Tom Storey Racer and the ‘3’ as it was ‘one up’ on TSR-2. By implication, he had not built any predecessors, at least not of his own design

Thanks for the info David, I assume it wore this because of being evaluated by a British firm?

Correct.

The correct term to describe such identities is “markings used for flights under B conditions”. The oft used expression ‘Class B registrations’ is incorrect. ‘B conditions’ markings have been used in the UK since before WWII by manufacturers to test fly experimental and production aircraft before the allocation of formal nationality marks. They are still in use, albeit by a somewhat smaller industry. I can recommend the excellent article by Phil Butler on the subject in Air-Britain’s Digest magazine for Summer 2002 which gives a great deal of historical and present day information on this fascinating topic. Many years ago, the same author along with D S Revell produced the book Under B Conditions for the Merseyside Aviation Society

Hi Moggy,

The crew casualties were:

F/O M J French
Sgt E McKim
P/O G E McNaughton RAAF
Sgt C Field
Sgt G J Orton
Sgt G T W Gibson
Sgt E J Smith
F/Sgt R J G Campbell
Sgt E H S Marsh
Sgt I L MacLean

Regards
Ross

Ross – although I do not know which details are correct, I merely point out that the book I mentioned states that the crew members as recorded on the Air Force Memorial to the Missing at Malta differs slightly to your list above, namely that Sgt E McKim was Sgt E Makin and that Sgt I L Maclean was Sgt I L McLean

Moggy – FP154 was a Catalina IB built by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation at San Diego. It initially served with 212 Squadron before passing on to 210 Squadron. The excellent book To the Ends of the Earth – 210 Squadron’s Catalina Years by Mike Seymour and Bill Balderson confirms that FP154 got airborne from Gibraltar at 08:12 on 22nd March (1943) on A/S patrol SV8. At 14:45, base recalled the aircraft to base by 19:15 and received R for this signal at 15:23. The Catalina had to take avoiding action to miss high ground and houses near the town of Sagres in misty conditions. The aircraft stalled and crashed into the sea very close to the town. Of the ten man crew, all died but only two bodies were recovered.

If you need more information such as delivery details to the UK prior to service and more details of the deceased, let me know.