Have you got your memories mixed up, i.e. Kew’s copy has the photos, Hendon’s doesn’t?

Mmmm. I visited Kew three or four times about five years ago to copy parts of the Welkin AP, and there were definitely no cockpit photos in it at that time. Perhaps they hold more than one copy? They certainly have multiple copies of some other type APs.

It was due to not being able to get cockpit illustrations from Kew, that I emailed Hendon, who sent me a photocopy from the AP. I have no idea why someone would say that they do not have any illustrations of a Welkin cockpit, maybe they have lost the AP?

The main Welkin test report at Kew can be found in AVIA18/2541. It is about 40 pages so a photocopy might be quite expensive.

I have been trying to find out for many years if Pilot’s Notes were ever written for the Welkin. It doesn’t seem so and neither Westlands nor Hendon has a copy. I assume the type must have gone through Handling Squadron assessment so perhaps there may be Flight Testing Reports hidden in some archive.

Kew have some handling and test reports. Their copy of the Welkin AP is, sadly, incomplete, though Westland have a complete one. If anybody has a copy of the reports concerning boosting the Welkin’s engines with nitrous oxide to give it a bit more oomph, I would love to see a copy.

I have always loved the clean lines of the Welkin. As the RAF’s first pressurised cockpit fighter, and the world’s largest production single-seat fighter in its day, its a pity that the type has been allowed to slip into obscurity.

How many aircraft stow their bombs vertically nose up. It seems a strange idea to me.

I think that the Russian Dakotas that were converted into bombers had vertical bomb stowage

Out of curiosity, how did the 109s of the Condor Legion get to Spain?

Airfix Saunders Roe 53. It came in whit plastic so that you didn’t have to paint it!

http://www.hyperscale.com/2010/galleries/vindicator48ep_1.htm

Chesapeake to the Royal Navy – long take off run and not used “Front line”, the model here has a two blade prop like the one in the picture, FAA had three blades but it could be – wings look a tad short though to be 100% certain ? Plus, is there a tail strut on the aircraft ? Hard to see, but the Vindicator didn’t have one.

The thing that gets me is the constant dihedral from the wing root. Dihedral only occurred on the outer wings of the Vindicator. The undercarriage looks correct and that tailplane strut could well be a dive brake or flap that is in the process of falling off.

Several years ago I was told by an ex Sunderland pilot that the RAF operated HE 115 seaplanes on clandestine flights to Norway. He had known pilots who had flown the sorties. I am pretty sure that he said they operated in German markings.

There is a poor quality photo of one such aircraft in the Action Stations Scotland volume. There is also a fairly well known photo of a He 115 at Woodhaven at some point during the war. I have seen this photo incorrectly captioned as being at Invergordon, but Dundee is clearly visible in the background.

Although the SIS files are still locked away, there may well be other sources of info that could shed some light. Dundee City Archives have poor photocopies of some of the agent dropping flights undertaken by 333 (Norwegian) Squadron, so its perfectly reasonable to assume that others may have been released. If it was a Coastal Command pilot doing the ferrying, the there should be a record somewhere in the Coastal Command records.

I am puzzled by a lot of things in this story. The choice of Inverness as a departure point for the flight is a strange one. There are other places that are a lot nearer to Southern Norway. as has been noted above. Wasn’t Inverness a training airfield with runways? I would have thought it more likely that an operational one would have been used, and one that could handle floatplanes. It just doesn’t make sense.

I would go for France as #1. They set the ball rolling with their balloon ascents. and pioneered the monoplane.

Lovely though it is, I cannot think of anything about the Mosquito that can be called innovative.:)