Stupid thought.
Why not prop it up permanently in that position, looks much better than just standing there.

I still don’t think you could get it airbourne in a hurry.
PS kg per cu metre has this old fool totally bewildered.

For Merkle and anybody who is interested.
After a short Valetta course at Dishforth ,my father soloed Bristol Brigand RH769 on 8/8/56. Serials flown : RH766,767,769,771,775,801,805,806,808,858
WA560,562,563.569.
3 Brigands and 4 Balliols were detached to N. Germany Wahn and Alhorn 01/11/56 for 3 weeks using Brigands 801,806,858 and Balliols 159,522,525 and 990. My father last flew a Brigand 563 on 04/3/57,he was loaned to the unit as he was now with 228 OCU at Leeming on Valettas.

He flew a total of 376 hrs on the Balliol and 74 hrs on Brigands.

Hi T21
I was at Leeming from August 1951 to Jan 1952, and did some 44 hours on the Brigand, then we went on to the Mosquito NF36. The Meteor NF11 was introduced later in 1952. I did 5 hours in the NF11 while our unit was awaiting the NF13. I also served on the NF12 and 14. I also had one trip in a Brigand T5, WA566 in July 1956 being trained on AI Mk21, I had only been using it since Oct 54 😡

With regard to the rear cockpit layout on the radar trainers T4 and T5. There was a shelf along the starboard side on which the boxes were arranged and ISTR a bench on the port side for the pupil and instructor. I attach a poor copy taken from a PRO file

There were all sorts of lash ups made to counter Operation Sealion. How about Tiger Moths with bomb racks. Anything to frighten the horses which the Germans proposed to carry across the channel on their river barges. It is a great pity they never attempted this mad scheme.

Don’t forget they had beancounters in those days. Standards of maintenance I would say were very good. BUT the aircraft were very often tired second rate machines, some with poor flying characteristics, just waiting to turn round and bite the inexperienced, and often overconfident, eager young men flying them.
The same “Press on regardless” attitude pervaded the whole of the RAF, so flights would not be scrubbed for trivial reasons.

Kev35, that is a very interesting set of statistics and points the finger at the most complicated part, the engine. At a guess the Blenheim and the Whitley could not be flown successfully on one, does anyone know? The Wellington also I would suggest was marginal. I recall that loosing an engine in a Brigand resulted in an extremely relieved crew when we landed shortly afterwards.
As another aside, that brings to mind an incident in a Meteor with a very experienced pilot. He demonstrated to me a single engined overshoot, allowed the speed to decay perhaps 3 knots too low. We lost directional control and also had not the power to gain a lot of height. I clearly remember having a very close up and personal view of a hangar roof. Not an experience to be recommended.

And Bravo 333, in the early 50s I would hazard that there were more NCO than officer aircrew.

AlertKen, you make a very good point. When people talk to me about the numerous accidents with fancy aeroplanes, I say, ” Give an 19 year old a sports car and what is the first thing he does. He finds out how fast it goes and how well it corners. The same applied to pilots, but some of the aircraft he was called upon to fly required to be ‘flown’. Mishandling, or exceeding the limits laid down in Pilots Notes, could be very sharply punished.
As for cockpit layouts, the Mosquito had its quirks. My pilot was short and retracting the undercarriage required the pilot to take his left hand off the throttles/pitch controls and transfer to the stick. This was in order that he could reach across and down to operate the undercarriage lever with the right hand. My pilot would have to duck his head below the coaming so could not see out during this hasty job. It was essential to retract the u/c ASAP because the a/c could not be accelerated to safety speed with the gear down. In addition the flap lever sat beside the u/cart lever.
If an engine failed switches and throttles had to be done, and fuel shut off using the cocks BEHIND the pilot. And then the vital feather button had to be operated, shielded by a flap and right over on the navs side of the cockpit, above the radar. How many pilots hit the wrong one at a critical moment, I can recall two in my short experience of the type. Not when I was in them I hasten to add, I am a devout coward and always kept well away if anything dangerous was likely.