The model should go to central London somewhere. Perhaps Red Ken would be interested. Then again, perhaps not.

Bri;)

CIG1705: Sorry, no, I don’t know what happened to the Mossie. She was a beauty!

By the way, further to my previous post, I worked on Mk 31s, carrying out major inspections at Amberley, and then looking after our one and only SAR Lincoln at Darwin.

If the resored aircraft is to have instruments and ‘systems’, the Mk 31s originally had the weird and wonderful DRC (Direct Reading Compass) and the even more weird and wonderful Wartime auto-pilot which used only one gyro for sensing all attitudes (work that one out!).

They were later retrofitted with cheap gyro compasses made by Smiths (GM-2), which I think the government bought at a car-boot sale, and Smiths auto-pilot (Mk 8 I think). Other than that, all instruments were as they were in wartime.

Bri:)

As an instrument basher in the RAAF back in the late 1950s, I had the unenviable job of helping to destroy several Mk 30 Lincolns at Archerfield, Qld.

I removed the instruments and oxygen bottles – using bolt cutters because we were given only one and a half days for each aircraft. The other fitters chopped the wings and fuselage up with axes. One of the saddest jobs I ever had o carry out.

One aircraft had only 18 hours in the logbook, only having been flown up from Victoria. We tried to stop destruction of that one, but the Flt Lt in charge insisted we continue, so she went for the chop. He came back later and said he wanted us to stop (officious b—-d)…

Incidentally, there was a brand new Mossie hidden in one of the hangars.

Bri:(

You reminded me of another story about dumped WWII equipment, although I’m fairly certain this was true.

A WWII digger (Aussie soldier to UK readers) told me many years ago that a USN aircraft carrier, anchored just off Sydney Heads, was loaded with hundreds of brand new aircraft engines (probably radials) and they were going to dump them as the war was over.

But the Australian government intervened and asked if they could ‘buy’ them. This was refused by the US government, so the captain ordered them shoved overboard anyway!

Brave the sharks and have a look…

Bri:cool:

Some construcive comment for you:

Don’t forget the disabled for access and facilities. And please make the text on your boards big enough for people with imperfect eyesight.

Food at museums can be provided by outsiders (burgers stands etc) but make sure they don’t gang up to make prices high. That happens at some UK venues.

Your website looks good, but the ‘tour’ of the museum should have a way of pausing or cancelling the tour. I needed to but had to shut down my browser.

Other than that, the best of luck to you with your museum. And how about an Avro Arrow!

Bri:)

XB-70

Thanks for that, Bagger1968. Amazing that the pilot survived such a terrible thump on the ground.

The late, great, LIFE magazine published pictures of the XB-70 going down. At the time, I was overawed by one picture that showed the great bomber falling backwards, minus one of its fins.

Another escape system that wasn’t too good was the one used in the Sabre. In the RAAF, we lost a few pilots from our Avon Sabres before it was found that the front of the sliding hood was hitting them on the forehead.

Then the North American seat wasn’t exactly good at getting people out safely in flight. Also, in Australia, the fire services were warned to cut the pipes on the side of the seat if they were rescuing a pilot from a crashed Sabre or the initiating system could set the seat off.

Bri

TSI

I still think it’s a Turn and Slip Indicator – if it was made by Reid & Sigrist. But with some internal parts missing.

Check out the photos in the Spitfire 400MPH… thread.

The other item looks like some kind of radar display.

Bri:)

TSI

Reid & Sigrist (Segrist?) Turn & Slip Indicator, as fitted to many British aircraft of the war years.

Bri:)