Old XK-Es

Ah, brings back fond memories …

It was in June 1967 when I flew to the UK from our Canadian Army base in Germany to pick up my brand new Jag XK-E at the factory in Coventry. The Jag had 12 test miles on it.

I’d lusted after the coupe since ’61, but on the pay of a lieutenant the extra five hundred and some bucks for the coupe over the cost of the roadster just wasn’t there, so I settled for a German-spec, (bought through a German dealer) silver roadster with black interior.
And painted wheels. There was no extra money for chrome wires. (But it did come with radials instead of the normal cross-ply tires.) The original speedometer that was calibrated in klicks was replaced with one calibrated in mph.

My choice was black on black, but it wasn’t available, so I ended up with one of the last covered headlight, silver roadsters with black leather. No radio. The plan was to buy a Becker at the CANEX.

Looking back, it’s easy to laugh, but it was some tight budgeting to pay for the Jag. For me it meant saving up half the $4200 tax/duty-free cost just so I could afford the $67 a month payment!

I recall there was a major disagreement with the clerk in the Jaguar showroom at Coventry (where a beautiful BRG D-Type was on display). He insisted that I not only pay for, but have them bolt on yellow rimmed export tags – I’d brought my Canadian Army Germany license plates with me and did not want the yellow tags. The compromise was that I drove out of the factory with the export tags which were then immediately replaced with the Canada tags.

And I got ripped off in London. Two Talbot racing mirrors were purchased from an auto supply store in London, but I got ripped off. Maybe it was my very un-British accent, I don’t know. I paid for two mirrors – he wrapped them up in a box behind the counter, and took my bucks, (pounds) but when I got back to the car and opened the box, there was only one mirror in it. I immediately returned to the store but the guy refused to give me a second mirror. Swore he’d put two in the box. That’s the reason there’s one Talbot on the left side of the hood and none on the right! I got ripped off.

The trip back to Germany was frustrating – no speed limit. I could have had the Jag up to a zillion mph except for the break-in period specified by the factory. It was a max 2500 rpm which was around fifty-odd mph in fourth, for the first thousand miles, and 3500 rpm for the second thousand miles. Sheer frustration. There I was, top down, creeping along in the slow lane with everything including VWs passing me! Imagine being passed by a VW Bug which maxes out at about 70 mph!

It wasn’t until a later trip, returning from Amsterdam, that the end of the break-in period was reached. That’s when I redlined the tach and pegged the speedometer. What a rush!

The front end got awfully light at anything over 135 mph. 125-130 was comfortable cruising – all day long. 140 was work. I only redlined the tach that one time but there were many occasions when I’d downshift, accelerate, shift up, pass ten to fifteen cars in a row, then downshift and brake to get back into the lane before oncoming traffic. Yeah, that made up for the break-in period. You could throw it into third at 120, step on it, and just be pushed right back into your seat. Skinny tires and all.

Total production of Merlins was 168,000 with Packard building about 50,000.
Hucknall was not a production facility, they were made at Derby, Crewe and Glasgow, plus Ford at Trafford Park and Packard in Detroit. Some were also put together by Continental and Commonwealth Aircraft, but I don`t know if they had full manufacturing facilities at either of these.
All the larger components were made on specifically designed machines which typically drilled all the holes in a casting in one hit, much like a transfer bar in a car engine plant does nowadays. Only the smaller parts were made manually from bar stock, but even some of these parts were made on semi-automated machines which could be operated by semi skilled or unskilled labour. Rolls-Royce time served engineers were employed as machine setters.

I too would like to know how long it took to make one.

The paperwork associated with provision of materials for airworthiness hasn`t changed much since WW2.

Pete

What happened to all of those thousands of Merlins? How many survive today?
Kermit Weeks had a hangar at his Fantasy of Flight stacked to the ceiling with row upon row of Merlins and Allisons … where are the rest?

It’s a bit sad that my old friend, Steve Snyder, who was tragically killed in the crash of his
F-86 back in 1998 isn’t around to see his project take flight. It’s also a shame that Steve is rarely, if ever, given credit for being the one originally responsible for the Me 262 project.

He was the brains, the inspiration, the one who thought of modern day replacement engines, and the one who convinced the Navy to lend him their Willow Grove Me 262 to use as a pattern. He also was the one who raised the money to get the project started, first in Texas, then in Washington state. The Me 262 project was his dream.

Steve was not only an aeronautical engineer, he was a prolific inventor. For example, all present day civilian and military skydivers have him to thank for their square parachutes. That was Steve’s work. He did not invent the square parachute, but he made it work and was first in production with one. And the small wrist altimeter … that was Steve.

He loved aviation and loved to share the joy of flight. He once mentioned to me that the downside to flying his F-86 was that he was unable to share the thrill with anybody else because it only had one seat. I’m sure the Me 262 replica he’d planned to keep for himself would have been configured as a two seater.

Reserves

I read the story of a ww2 paratrooper who during training would always deploy his reserve as well as his main chute. So they packed his reserve with sawdust. Didn’t do it after that!

I don’t believe Brit paratroopers, unlike their Canadian and American counterparts, used reserves until postwar, like around 1949. Canadians attached to the British 6th Airborne jumped without reserves in Normandy and the Rhine but not back home during training in Canada at Rivers, or in the US at Benning and in Helena, Montana with the 1st Special Service Force.

There would be the risk of main/reserve entanglement if the reserve were deployed under a full main canopy, just as there is with a malfunctioned one. Regular paratroopers/static line jumpers, unlike HALO jumpers or skydivers, do not jettison their malfunctioned main prior to deploying the reserve. The (postwar) Capewell releases were designed to allow the jumper to release one or both sets of risers/suspension lines in order to collapse a parachute in strong winds, thus preventing the jumper from being dragged on the ground. They were not meant to be used by jumpers to jettison a malfunctioned main. Granted, skydivers from the ’60s to ’70s used the Capewell releases for jettisoning malfunctioned mains, but that’s not what they were designed for.

It’s extremely difficult to maneuver a round main parachute with a fully deployed reserve interfering. There’s also more likelihood of injury upon landing as the jumper is suspended at an angle, no longer directly beneath the suspension lines of the main, so I’d venture to say that the related account of the jumper firing off his reserve on every jump is highly fictional.

Re: Bleep. Bleep

Looking forward to the second series, but I’m surely not alone in finding the dialogue hard to follow with these Canucks’ every (bleep) other (bleep) word being a (bleep) swear word !

Be interesting to see if they are still getting a (bleep) supply of the (bleep) fuel for the C.46 and DC.3 :diablo:

You guys get the language bleeped on TV over there, like in the US? Or do you get the pure, unadulterated dialog like we do back home? How, besides the strange accent, do your aviators talk? :)-

Great Photos

Thanks for posting them.
Interesting airplanes … like French automobiles, French airplanes appear to adhere to a different styling school.
The Storch with a round engine was “different” too.
Thanks.