Fascinating stuff!

I spent my youth messing around with planes at north weald, in the 80’s. I was amazed at the items we found that were left over from WW2, littered around the airfield, without us even looking particularly hard! Especially as the site was only de-comissioned in the late 60’s.

In the programme, they found the contents of a medical kit, and half a pilots goggle, and live ammo.

My collection of North Weald stuff includes an electrical connector from a rocket rail, 1ft of spitfire mainspar, avon turbine blades from a crashed 111sqn hunter, several aircraft oil and fuel tank screw caps, and several bullet shells.

Elliott

A lot of the airframe parts were “contaminated”. I certainly wasn’t going to chance it!

cheers

a glut of hastings wings!!

A little known fact!

There was a place between waltham abbey/waltham Cross originally called the gunpowder factory. They developed explosives there for our armed forces.

When the place was cleared in the early 90’s to make way for re-development, i gained the opportunity to visit their test site. I noted the following (unfortunately no photographs):

-TSR2 fin and tailplane
-crated hastings wings
-folland midge wing
-piston provost fuselage (now with local collector)
-piston provost wings (from same aircraft)
-harrier
-crated varsity access doors/undercarriage bay doors
-buccaneer u/c doors
-hunter fuselage
-high test peroxide fuel bowser from Saunders Roe mixed power interceptor.

apparently it all came from foulness, and much more has been through here over the years.

I checked my hornet air britain file last night, and the hornet wing pictured in the failsworth yard is from an NF.21 night fighter.

there were only limited numbers in their serials used after the VZ prefix. sea hornets were scrapped mainly from st.david’s, abbotsinch, lossimouth, and Hurn. I guess that the failsworth yard would have catered for the aircraft scrapped in the midlands and south, with elgin for scotland?

Over the years i have seen numerous photo’s of “lost” aircraft that languished in scrap yards for many years. I’m sure that i am not alone in finding these pictures fascinating?

Has anyone ever thought of putting a photographic book together on the subject? This would clearly appeal to only a limited readership, but it would probably have enough to justify a print run or two.

Firebird

It’s a CAD system called SDRC Ideas. It’s a very expensive unix workstation based programme! I usually design all sorts of machines on it. (That’s what pays the bills anyway).

dh hornet

Steve

thanks. the gremlins now seem to have been fixed!?

Anyway, i hope to strike up some interesting hornet discussions from now, including pictures showing my build progress.