It is a shame to see F-BGNX like that. When I was a mere 15 years of age I joined MAM (as it was then) as a volunteer and spent all of my weekends and Bank Holidays at Salisbury Hall (courtesy of my parents who very kindly drove me the 30 mile round trip each day!!). ‘NX was “my” project, and over the winter of 1989/1990 I spent many a cold, windy hour couped up inside her with nothing but a can of paint, a brush, a rubbish stereo and an electric fan heater for company, painting the floors, bulkheads and cabin interior that lovely “cockpit green”. I managed to get some of the external cocooning off (a job in itself!) to expose the Tricolore, “Air France” and registration markings underneath and painted them back in. When the Museum opened to the public in the spring she was opened up and people could walk through the fuselage in which we had put display cabinets of Comet memorabilia.

Unfortunately I had to move from Herts late in 1990 and shortly thereafter the fuselage was closed to the public (probably on safety grounds) and she was, I believe, used to store various Museum items. The repaint of the nose to represent G-ALVG was done to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first flight of the Comet. Unfortunately, in doing so, this obliterated the very stylish Air France winged horse on the stbd side.

Happy days!

Very sad to see what remains of Hatfield, though. Especially the art deco main building, which must surely rank as being one of THE most recognisable pieces of British airfield architecture?

This bit of information came from the Aviation News Mini-Monograph on the Brigand written many years ago by the late great Chris Ashworth.

Don – well done on the advert for A-B! 😉

Some general observations from an author, editor & publisher:

Finally, it’s inevitable that the willing author is eventually sucked into areas of lesser expertise by virtue of the need for ‘fresh’ articles, while the ‘experts’ sit on the sidelines safely criticising but never producing.

There’s always a demand for more authors, aviation writing doesn’t pay well enough to retain more of those with a good grasp of English, sadly. Still… Don’t beat ’em, join ’em. 😉

Whilst there is truth in that, there are often “experts” out there who are very good with the facts and figures, but who find it quite a difficult process to produce glossy articles for use in magazines. As a result those with the “gift of the gab” tend to get asked to write something on a subject they know very little on, and the subject specialists seldom get consulted to ensure what they are churning out is in any way accurate. Ironically that information then gets feted as being “gospel” and the author becomes the “expert in his field”.

It’s a sad fact that there does seem to be a “clique” of correspondents that are always used by magazines, and that good material – especially photographic – is often turned away from publication in favour of someone coming along with both words and pictures, regardless of whether the image quality is less than those submitted by themselves.

Guys,

Nothing to do with the Sea Vixen. It was RNHF’s Sea Hawk which got airborne for its first post-winter maintenance check test flight but then proceeded to disgrace herself by having a hydraulic failure, necessitating a perfectly-executed emergency landing with emergency services in attendance, as per the norm.

Glad to report, however, that both aircraft and pilot are fine. One of those things, especially when you’re dealing with a 50 year old jet.

Lee

Although some examples of this type carried roundels and serials, they were all unpainted.

Not quite. At least two of the Eagle-powered TF.1 prototypes (TS378 and TS380) were painted in the early post-war EDSG upper and Sky-S lower scheme complete with roundels and fin flashes, whilst VR 131 and another of the TS38-serialled aircraft received the same later scheme (Sky-S with EDSG upper decking) as applied to VR137 during her early days at FAAM.

In truth VR137, VR138, VR139 and VR140 only carried the last three digits of their serial, exactly as VR137 is depicted at FAAM now. Unfortunately, though construction was well advanced, VR138 – 140 were never completed.

Hope that helps.

The photo of XJ481 is indeed taken at Ocean Village, Southampton, before she was moved to RNAY Fleetlands in time for the Yard’s 50th Anniversary in 1990. When it was at Fleetlands four of us spent several months repainting her BY HAND (!!) in preparation for the 1994 Open Day. Painting the Forth Bridge comes to mind, but I look back on those long, late evenings covered in Extra Dark Sea Grey paint with fond memories, especially as one very good friend who helped out is no longer with us (Melvyn – you’ll remember Mike Groth). Those of you who may have been there on the Open Day will probably have seen us doing wing fold demonstrations behind J Shop (Flight Test hangar), and will testify to how good she looked back then, despite having been kept outdoors for many years by that stage.

Sadly the “Fleetlands Museum” curator wasn’t interested in doing any of the work on her (though very happy to take all the credit!), and he put so many noses out of joint in the upper eschelons of management that she was unceremonially booted out of B Shop before we could finish the job. Thereafter the good ole British weather, and the fact that we received no official help or materials, put pay to any hope of us doing any more work. Thankfully the aircraft’s owners, Fleet Air Arm Museum, agreed to take her back and she is safely tucked up inside Cobham Hall here at Yeovilton.

Yea, only a minor snag. Should be up and about this coming week.