Many Thanks for the Photo of the Whirlwinds, VX927 ..

very interesting, I did email the scrap yard, but as of yet I have not recieved a reply .

but the photo is great VX927.. Hmm, wonder what is in store for these to old birds

The fact they are in a scrappy may suggest a future, but of course isn’t necessarily final….

Kind Regards
Scotty

Re 24

VX927 Yes, Miss Stewart as you rightly claim, has the qualifications and met the selection criteria exactly as, no doubt, five hundred or whatever number is applicable, of her male colleagues.

That means that she was selected more because of her gender than anything else. By applying logic, it is impossible to see it any other way.

You’re not Mr. Stewart, are you ?

John Green

I’m sorry to say this, and it adds little more than what has previously been said, but I have to say that John, your views are little more than prehistoric. If she has the qualifications, what does it matter that she was selected over other equally qualified men? To suggest that she has resigned because she was emotionally weak due to the loss of two of her comrades is ridiculous. I think it shows great professionalism to know when it is best to back down when the situation isn’t right. Something it appears you could take a lead in.

What’s more, the attitude you seem to hold smacks of that it is not correct to show weakness. Would you have held the same line had one of the male pilots taken the same path?

In my industry, people who have bottled things up, or not had their mind on their jobs have caused accidents that have killed or injured themselves and / or others. Knowing when something isn’t right and could affect the safety of yourself, workmates or even the general public is the correct, safe and brave thing to do. Gender has nothing to do with it.

She had the qualifications, she had the bottle to get into fast jets, she had the bottle to join the Red Arrows, and the bottle to know when best to call it the day. She is every bit as brave and professional as her male counterparts. Case closed.

I know that this is a historic forum, but try and join the modern world. It is less about who or what you are, but what you can do. Accepting people for their abilities and not just because of their gender is the way forward.

I don’t think Ms Stewart has anything to prove, do you?

I bet they’ll find a few remains from WW2 as well – such as the odd UXB and may be bits of aircraft too. Not heard of using a drilling rig for dredging before, though:D

Whilst on the subject of catapulting things over the ends of carriers: where were they moored when they fired off the wingless Seafires whilst doing cat testing some time (I think) in the sixties?

There’s some great film of them doing it. The poor old Seafires, engines roaring – and wingless – splashing down into the water a few hundred yards ahead of the carrier.

Anon.

The company I work for are quite involved in digging big holes in the seabed to bury pipelines and cables. In 2010 I was involved in a project to bury 2 interconnect cables between the Netherlands and the Isle of Grain..despite us being within an area of heavy activity for ordinance (bombing , anti aircraft shells and mines) we’ve not come across anything yet. The upsurge of offshore wind farms is only going to increase the chances of finding something. We’re pretty well briefed on what to do in case of ordinance coming up with the machinery.

Despite the large amounts of stuff landing in the North Sea and channel, I’ve yet to hear of anybody finding anything – one has to assume anything is now buried or dissolved. However it does happen, as the crew of the Maarten Jacob found out off the coast of Gt Yarmouth in 2006 – they landed a Jerry Bomb in their nets, and it detonated as it fell onto the deck. And indeed, ordinance is still found….

I’d imagine that any approach to a naval dockyard has been fairly well investigated prior to dredging, as the last thing a dredger would want is a nasty surprise. Due to the process being pretty destructive, I doubt much will be found when they dredge….

kind regards,
Scotty

……assuming that the British – or will it, by then, be the English, Welsh and Northern Irish – Navy then has any aircraft carriers in service. There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip!

:rolleyes:

That’s a bit of a cheap shot…. the UK will still be the UK if Scotland gets independence, only it will be one Kingdom down.

Yup, and by time the carriers come into service, 2020 ish, it’ll need dredged again probably….. You can get a lot of silt in 6 years….

Kind Regards,
Scotty

If the Wessex suffered a fire and then turned over and sank to the bottom I’m not surprised it looks like that. Bear in mind the fragile nature of the front of a Wessex, lightweight panels and frames and plenty of perspex already seriously weakened by the heat would have offered little resistance to any impact -especially the rest of the aircraft bearing down on it when it hit the bottom. The rear fuselage probably tore off on bottom impact or separated on recovery – broken main rotors may have also caused structural damage aiding the separation.

Usually when a chopper goes to the bottom, the tail comes off when the crane lifts the airframe up through the water too fast. The tailplane / rear structure was never designed to take the load of water flowing past. Add to the fact the structure could have been weakened by the sinking.

Also, depending on the depth of water it sunk in, any space that is relatively water tight but filled with air is subject to hydrostatic pressure crushing it, further weakening it, although I doubt this was the case in this instance – I don’t think the coastal waters of Malta are that deep for it to happen…

I’m starting to move away from the fire damage idea due to the relative lack of structural deformity in the nose area, and in the area of the gearbox. Nearly every chopper I’ve seen on the seabed lands on it’s side or upside down due to the weight of the engine and gearboxes, but depending on the depth of water, I’d say it is possible the chopper has impacted the seabed in the area of the cockpit, and rolled onto its port side – hard to say without another view of the other side.

The rotors played no part in the tail damage judging by what was left, and the story of the accident, I’d say that they were not rotating when the aircraft sunk…

I’ve plenty of experience of seeing stuff dropped, or being dropped on the seabed; unfortunately some of that have been aircraft….

Kind Regards,
Scotty

Weren’t they used as a designater in GW.1 though? The mission profile would be different.

High, straight and level perhaps? Just as easy a target? Albeit a bit further away from what was being targeted, the Buccaneer was still in a war zone and no less prone than the Tornado…(?)

Kind Regards,
Scotty