It’s true. You DO learn something new every day (IF YOU CHOOSE TO)

I’ve worked on the 146/RJ servo tab system so understand the mechanics, and on 73/74/76 and just assumed that all of Boeings 7 series had been powered flight controls.

When I was in the RNZAF we were doing engine runs on the SAR bird one night abou 10pm when we recieved a phone call with a noise complaint…….. from the married patch on base.

The only people who got those houses were the officers so apparently we were keeping some wifey awake with our continued noise (the were Hueys so I suppose they do make a bit of a racket :diablo:)

Just goes to show – it takes all sorts.

The Nose U/C does have a set of doors but they open inwards so you don’t see them too easily, look closer at the third picture from last and you can see a nose door inside the bay – Mike

Thanks for that Mike.

The sequencing on them must be quite slow as there are a couple of shots with the main gear up and locked and the NLG doors don’t appear to have started closing.

Rick

What is the blue in the intake? Just vapour or have the installed a set of neons in there?

Remebering it is about people in the gate at the end of the day, how about a mixed event? When I was in the airforce we used to do Wings and Wheels weekends on base every couple of years. Not being invovled in the organisation (just a foot soldier parking cars) they certianly seemed very popular as you got both the motor racing crowd and the aviation people (often the same person, so the draw was double as strong for them).

From what I recall they had numerous static displays (both aircraft and cars) and then mixed racing and air displays throughout the day. That helped keep a range of people entertained.

When looking at photos like that I never know what to feel.

The serviceman and aircraft tech in me is saddened by the destruction of these machines.

The businessman and realist in me accepts that it is a necessary act, but the true reality had never struck me.

one of the comments on the photos made me think.

I remember discussing photos like these with my grandparents. I was aghast that beautiful airplanes like these would be wrecked. Their response was they were sick of the war. If they never saw another warplane again it would be too soon.

That was humbling for me………… ……… It is fun and interesting when it is a hobby. It is another animal entirely when you lived thru it.

These days there is always talk about closure around an incident or loss, I guess in some way the destruction of the war machine helped put the war behind them and provide some guarrentee that these weapons couldn’t be used to harm anybody else.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget