Hi Matt

I have some service photos of this T7 somewhere.

How soon do you need them?

From memory, a few are colour in-service shots, one is a BW in the 60’s, and another taken in the 70’s at the ATC unit itself. The colour ones show a silver aircraft with a dayglo nose. I have a dossier on the a/c’s history too.

As for its condition, I’ve seen worse Meteors outside, and I know the unit have worked on preserving it over the years, but it does need some attention to ensure it lasts the distance. It carried a fairly authentic colour scheme until the late 80’s, but for some reason it has taken on a strange mix of inapropriate markings during its last repaint? The good new is that it is on a hardstanding, and not sinking up to its axles in mud!

I pass it on my way to work every day, and for the brief seconds I queue past it, it makes for a very interesting sight.

^^^^^ seconded.It is only up the road to me and I have left it until late in life to visit this place and like you said it is small but very comprehensive.As far as I know they acquired a fair bit of stuff when Blake Hall closed a while back including the Merlin engine.I became a member there for the princely sum of £10 and now have access to the treasure trove of a library upstairs and to other activities involving the museum.
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly say that the staff are some of the warmest people I have met and have made me so welcome during my membership especially Bill Aitken who enrolled me and I take my hat off to them for all the hard work they have done fighting off the threat of the site being redeveloped by this moronic government and their obsession with building over everything…..but that is for another forum:D

Hello Paul
Is my Blue RAF bicycle still in the museum? I must admit to not having dropped in for a number of years. If they are interested, I have another relevant aircraft exhibit they may wish to display. Send me a pm/e-mail for details.

“…. I didn’t get where I am today!”

Well its really a case of horses for courses! What do you want to do?

If you want your day job to be maintaining aircraft then clearly going via the route of apprenticeship-work experience-licences is the choice for you.

If you want to design or develop aircraft, then you go the A-Level/OND -HND/Degree/Masters route.

Personally I have a foot in both camps, because in all engineering disciplines, theory can fall down with lack of hands-on experience. I’m a degree qualified engineer who designs engine components, but have been a Formula One engine builder, and currently have two aircraft projects.

Your future carreer won’t be entirely one or the other either, as a degree qualified engineer may start in a paper office, but if you go into test or development engineering and prototyping etc. and you show a flair for hands-on engineering too, then you will broaden your opertunities in the future.

Equally, I know several licenced engineers who have gone onto paperwork or design office jobs.

The strength of any company is in the mix of its staffs capabilities, so its not always so black and white.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Yep, I did mean Hendon’s Typhoon. It’s pretty convincingly done, but then it becomes obvious when you look hard enough. A big give-away are the pretend exhaust stubs which are actually attached to the cowlings themselves.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/2526391474_2e23854767.jpg?v=0

The engine from this example was removed in the US shortly after it ceased flying, and it’s never been complete since as far as I’m aware.

Well I take my hat off to the craftsmen who put this tiffie’s front end back together then. Its had me fooled for years!

I understand the only two engines that could be runnable are owned by Kermit Weeks to support his Tempest MKV rebuild.

The only other complete one, that you would assume is in good condition (?) is in Hendons Typhoon.

Hawker Tempest II restoration

I would suspect the best candidate for seeing an example of a Hawker Tempest II flying in the future, could be the Ezell Aviation example based in Texas, USA.

If no major corrosion snags are encountered with the airframe itself, I suspect it would receive a US radial engine and systems fit similar to modifications made to many US Sea Fury’s specifications.

total of 10 complete survivors.
4 restored on museum display.
4 projects being re-built to fly.
2 stored.

It would be a personal favorite of mine to see one of these flying.

Vulcan

I was amazed to see that as many as 600 were built, why was so much effort put into an obvious loser when resources could have been put into it’s contemporary, the worlds apart Mosquito, instead, it smacks of political intrigue. It couldn’t even be compared to the usefullness of it’s predessesor, the Whitley and wasn’t much faster either.
If any aircraft should be confined to history and forgotten about, it has to be the Albemarle, lets confine ourselves to supporting better causes and send the surviving bits off to the smelter, the cash might pay to ressurect something more worthy of reconstructing.

Hi Peter,

Its easy for us to comment on the success/failure of a type 60 years after it went out of service. With hindsight, yes I agree much resources were probably allocated to the less worthy types, but the Albemarle still represents an interesting project for an individual to progress. If a cockpit is eventually put together then it still represents a memorial to those who served in them.

The fact that 600 were made, still makes it a relatively numerous type that is now extinct. (Thats 200 more made than the Hornet BTW, and although the Hornet is much lauded and desired by many in comparison, it still had its faults. Numerous undercarriage failures, and a fuselage construction not ideal for its intended operational theatre of use in the Far East.)