……Am I the only one to see the irony in this statement seen on a recent ebay listing for a Mosquito clock. :rolleyes:

“This one was believed to have been rescued from a downed 1941 De Havilland Mosquito. It appears it was last serviced in 1953 but still runs well.”

Excellent show as usual.

Highlight for me was Sea Fury T.20 WG655 being flown as the “Joker” during the Balbo. From the ground there appeared to be no difference in its performance between the previous years Bearcat. Both types really highlight the pinnacle of piston powered design.

Can’t wait ’till next year! 😀

.303 shell cases found on Walton on the Naze beach

These are the .303 shell cases I found on Walton on the Naze beach in the early 80’s.

I have written the visible text in the image.

Can these be dated from this to a particular mark of bullet?

Are they spent shells from an aircraft, or equally could they be from a soldiers rifle?

Were they wearing the standard flap holster or the cut away tankers one?

Didn’t the Venoms have bang seats though?
As such it might not be such an issue with vacating the aircraft as with trying to get out of a tumbling or whatever piston fighter and getting caught by something you had on. I know how awkward it is wearing a belt n holster just driving a WW2 Jeep or light armoured car let alone wearing one in the confines of a cramped cockpit:eek: That’s why they devised the armoured tankers holster and long strap belt, although that presented another set of problems and wasn’t well liked by armoured troops either, although the cut away holster was.

Again, I’d never say never.

As Mark said – see photo.

Good find Tony!
Just shows that getting to the Aero-boot first can pay off. 😀
Sorry I can’t ID it for you.

Stuart,

I think it was Malcolm Goosey.

Vampire history correction

Hi Matt,

I have taken a look at the Vampire Preservation Group’s website, and like the overall presentation of it, however I would like to correct some of the Vampire History shown. This paragraph describing the NF.10 design is not correct, and has been often quoted unfortunately.

The next version was the two-seater NF10, adapted from the basic design by grafting the Mosquito’s night-fighter ‘bull’ nose onto the smaller Vampire fuselage pod.

The reality is that de Havilland saw the oportunity to design a new two seat fuselage “pod” that could be used as the basis for both a radar equiped night fighter, or trainer. There is no grafting from one type to another, simply a new fuselage to house the required equipment. This new fuselage was mated to the strengthened clipped wings from the FB.5, providing the core of the new type.

I am very familiar with the construction of the vampire and mosquito airframes, and can confirm there is no commonality in the wooden cockpit primary structure used.

Also, it would be interesting to see a little more history on the Goblin engine too as this was a very significant design for DH right from the start. So much so, that the first Meteor to fly did so with an early version of these instead of the Rover engines it should have, because they were underpowered!

Any Sea Hornets lost off Malta??? I don’t think the wood would fair too well though.