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adrian_gray

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Viewing 15 posts - 2,791 through 2,805 (of 3,057 total)
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  • September 9, 2005 at 12:09 pm in reply to: Airfield Memorials. #1403418
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    There used to be a most impressive memorial at he entrance to Earls Colne airfield in Essex, back in the mid-90s. However when I went there a couple of years ago there was no sign. Did I imagine it?

    Adrian

    September 6, 2005 at 12:51 pm in reply to: Terror in the skies! Airliners just feet apart! #1409087
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    The best bit he said was when they peeled out of the formation in a fighter like break…. 😀

    Aaaarrrgh! You are making me drool! 😀

    Adrian

    September 6, 2005 at 9:36 am in reply to: Terror in the skies! Airliners just feet apart! #1409267
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    I wonder what the tabloids would have made of this one…? 😀

    Now that I’d like to have seen! And likewise the VC10 making up the lead of a vic that slipstream mentions. Doncha just love the differences in definitions?

    Adrian

    September 2, 2005 at 4:36 pm in reply to: B17 #1413888
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    My father grew up in Essex during the war, and as a child (still do!) I would listen to his tales of seeing the great formations of B17s heading out, and then back again, of the stragglers with engines out and great chunks missing, the gaps in formations. Coupled with growing up under the flightpath into Stansted airport which anything flying into Duxford had to fly below – right over us! – it was inevitable that I’d be interested in old aircraft.

    IIRC from an earlier thread of yours, Jules, you flew in Italy and North Africa – both theatres where my ignorance of the USAAAFs role is almost total – so Dad would never have seen you, but nonetheless as a representative of those flyers thank you getting me interested, even at such a long range.

    And thank you for sharing your time with us who are grateful that we (hopefully) will never have to do what you had to. Do please continue to share your experiences with us!

    Adrian

    September 2, 2005 at 10:37 am in reply to: Battle of Britain books #1414600
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Hmm, a good selection of fact books there. I’ll try to plump for a next three examining people who took part – not answering your question, I know, but…

    “The Last Enemy” – need I say more?
    “First Light” by Geoffrey Wellum
    “One of the Few” by Johnny Kent

    Adrian

    September 2, 2005 at 10:27 am in reply to: Liberator crash at Fairy Lochs, 1945 #1414605
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    The last three. The second engine on site, the second main undercarriage leg.
    Finall, the memorial to 15/16 men whose job was done and were going home. All the more tragic for it. What surprised me most was the amount of money that people had left in a pile at the site – a strange thing to do to my mind. I did toy with the idea of taking it and donating it to an appropriate charity who could use it for those who lived rather than those we cannot help anymore. However (a) I couldn’t think of an appropriate one for American airmen and (b) it seemed as wrong to take it, for whatever purpose, as it did to leave it in the first place. Illogical? Probably, on both sides.

    I agree with you Jim – it is a very strange place, so peaceful and yet with the debris of one terrible moment spread around like confetti.

    Still hoping someone has that Flypast – I had the blessed thing myself until about a month ago!

    Adrian

    September 2, 2005 at 10:18 am in reply to: Liberator crash at Fairy Lochs, 1945 #1414624
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    A few more: The island in the lochan,with engine sat next to it, one undercarriage leg, a panel that looks identifiable, a panel stencilled “wing vent” and another view of the wing(?) wreckage.

    Adrian

    September 2, 2005 at 10:15 am in reply to: Liberator crash at Fairy Lochs, 1945 #1414645
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Unexpected free time last night, so here are the rest of my pics. I’ll post them in batches so that they are easier to caption.

    These are: Alclad stamps still visible on the inner surface of a panel, the well known propellor, a panel stencilled with “ground line” and “liferaft” and a section of wing(?) embedded in the hillside. Given that there is almost no soil, it gives one a very scary inkling as to the sort of forces involved when something as deformable as this can be rammed into the ground so far.

    Adrian

    September 1, 2005 at 9:28 am in reply to: ACAM gives their V-1 a fresh coat of paint #1417115
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    That sounds about right to me – I seem to recall that the Germans were being fed information supposedly from spies that the V-1s were overshooting – when in fact many were undershooting, and they kept shortening the range until some never even crossed the coast.

    Wish I’d had my camera the day I spotted the one in the hedge – surely somone here remembers that yard? Way out in rural Kent, had a small steam engine with a very tall chimney in it and, later on, an engine and prop from a B24 too. Towards Tenterden, perhaps?

    Adrian

    August 31, 2005 at 4:12 pm in reply to: Blackburn Firebrand #1418330
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    In the 1990s Aeroplane Monthly ran a series called “Tested and Failed” on various aircraft that did not perform as planned (eg Miles Monitor – tendency towards massive fuel fires exacerbated by being made of wood…). I’m fairly crtain that the Firebrand was in it – looked mean, mean to fly.

    Adrian

    (Two tailwheel tyres at Millom? Spitfires have been rebuilt to fly from less, y’know!)

    August 31, 2005 at 10:13 am in reply to: If you had one pilot which one would you choose? #1419030
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Geoffrey Wellum – good enough to answer my letter kindly and modestly.

    Perhaps kindness and modesty are not the best qualifications as a pilot, but look at what he did and where…

    Adrian

    August 31, 2005 at 9:21 am in reply to: Liberator crash at Fairy Lochs, 1945 #1419062
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Some piccies – I have more, but not a lot of time to scan ’em in. Will appear in due time, especially if anyone else looks interested… SOMEONE must still have that article?

    EDIT: For some reason on my PC I cannot see the thumbnails. However if i click on them I get the full size picture. Bizarre…

    They are:
    A part number on some kind of control – appears to be attached to the edge of a moveable surface. Can anyone read it, and tell me which one? Sorry about the quality – no zoom!

    Said control in situ

    A piece of wreckage that must be easy for someone in the know

    A general view of part of the wreckage. This part of the debris seems to be approximately in situ (ie where it fell) – it seems to be part of the flying surfaces, perhaps one wing, but I don’t know enough about Liberator construction to be sure.

    Adrian

    August 30, 2005 at 8:42 pm in reply to: Blackpool Vulcan,still for sale? #1419467
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Oh no, Trumper, what are you starting?! Time to climb under the armour plated bit and hoik the flak jacket on methinks…

    Adrian

    August 30, 2005 at 5:14 pm in reply to: ACAM gives their V-1 a fresh coat of paint #1419802
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    I would have just cranked the Ramjet, to the MAX and gone for it!….YAAHHHOOO!!, If you live…a great story for the grandkid’s.

    No choice, Phil – with a pulsejet (not quite the same thing) you have two speeds. Stopped, and flat out! Apparently if you put some petrol in a test tube, shake hard and ignite you get an identical effect – it goes bangbangbangbangbang until the petrol runs out. Not one I’d try at home…

    The Lashenden Air Warfare Museum in Kent has a manned V-1 in it’s collection. It apparently shows evidence of a very heavy landing (could there have been any other sort?) and they suspect it MAY have been the one that nearly did for Hanna Reitsch. It was used in the 1960s film “Operation Crossbow”, for which purpose it was fitted with a calor gas burner in the exhaust that gives a most impressive tail of flame. Shame about the movie, really!

    In 1992-3 there was still a chap with a collection of junk somewhere in the weald of Kent, not that far from Headcorn, who had an “as found” crashed V-1 under a hedge. Anyone know more?

    Adrian

    August 30, 2005 at 3:59 pm in reply to: Liberator crash at Fairy Lochs, 1945 #1419844
    adrian_gray
    Participant

    Looks like two of us want a copy, then! Would it post on the forum I wonder, or does that create copyright issues?

    Adrian

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