super siouxWhich maker?
I served on Jet Provosts at Syerston 63-67 as an airframe mechanic on first line servicing. When checking the engine bay on turnrounds you noticed the different makers plates i.e Armstrong Siddely and Bristol Siddely. I wonder if they were all radioactive? The engine originally had been designed for one trip use, so when they were put into aircraft did they add the radiation source to increase life?
super siouxA trip to Liverpool ?
In a few weeks time its the two day Southport airshow. Is the usual base for the display items eg BBMF, Reds,Stearmans etc Blackpool airport?
I am hoping to get some landing, take off pics .
Just ordered my tickets from the web and it seems that the John Lennon Airport will be the groundbase for the aircraft with less endurance and some with the need to keep flying hours down.
super siouxThe end is nigh!
Having just bought the penultimate ‘Air Enthusiast’ I was amazed to see on the cover the words ‘LAST OF THE LINE’. Surely they should have kept this article for the ultimate issue!
super siouxMany thanks indeed for that.
The door I was referring to is on the upper undercarriage leg (i.e. the outboard end of the well) and forms part of the engine nacelle when the u/c is retracted. It seems to disappear on extension – at least I can’t see it on images of the beast with the u/c down.
Any further information on this one anybody?
Further to my previous information I have at last seen the area you decribe at schema-root.org/murr/SACgalleries/B-36/index.htm what I would like to see are some details from the AP to give some idea of the movement of certain panels which seem to have cutouts to enable movement over some fittings on the undercarriage leg!
Ray
super siouxAnybody got any information as to the retraction geometry of this door?
It seems to disappear (inside the nacelle ?) somehow when the gear is extended.
The B-36 main undercarriage leg retracts from an hingepoint just inboard of the inner engine nacelle towards the fuselage. Before this happens the main door hinged at the fuselage end of the wing drops to let the undercarriage enter the wheelwell then the main door retracts. When the undercarriage is extended the main door drops, the undercarriage is lowered and locked and the main door retracts out of the way. Leaving more room when being serviced and armed.
Information from ‘Convair B-36’ author Meyers K Jacobsen printed by Schiffer Military History. The most expensive book I have ever bought at £55!
Further confimation came from ‘B-36 in action’ authors Meyers K Jacobsen (he likes the B-36) and Ray Wagner. Illustration by Don Green, and published by squadron/signal publications at the very agreeable price of £7.99!
super siouxWrong Aircraft!
It appears that father and son involved in air accident.
Link : http://www.nbc26.com
If Tommy looks at the site he mentions again he will see that the aircraft incident involving a father and son did not take place at Oskosh! But a T-6 making for Oshkosh had engine trouble and made an emergency landing on a freeway, with the traffic flow and filmed on the dash camera of a police patrol car which he overflew on landing. On the same newscast a report on the P-51’s interviewed pilots who offered condolences on the incident they had observed and made some observations. This is one of the better news channels and even mentioned a French pilot having to make an emergency landing in Greenland on his way to Oskosh and spending three days for rescue to reach him.
super siouxOxygen!
In a book entitled ‘ The Dangerous Sky, the history of aviation medicine’ by Douglas H Robinson published in 1971 by Foulis it mentions 84 Squadron RFC commanding officer, Major Sholto Douglas who recalled : I found that pushing the Lewis gun back into the fixed position while flying in the open cockpit of the SE5 at high altitude called for an effort that was almost superhuman. We had no supply of oxygen in those days, and I found that my strength at height fell off considerably. It was difficult enough to change the double drum of ammunition on the Lewis gun without having to manhandle the gun into position for an attack and fly the aeroplane at the same time. There were others who had the same experience, and more often than not we had to dive down to a lower altitude before we could reload.
One British fighter aircraft, the Sopworth Snipe, certainly carried oxygen equipment when it went out to France shortly before the Armistice. John Milner formerly of 43 Squadron, RAF, recalls that ‘though we had oxygen bottles and masks fitted in the Snipe (for patrols at 25,000 feet), the cylinder was a very small one and you’d had it after a few gulps’.
Was it worth the extra weight?
The Germans in the last year of the war possessed the Rumpler C VII ‘Rubild’ a fast two seater reconnaissance plane with a service ceiling of 24,000 feet and an endurance of three and a half hours. With a high-compression, high altitude engine, the Maybach Mb IVa of 245 hp, it had good power output at its ceiling, and its crews were accustomed to making long flights deep into the rear of the Allied lines unmolested by enemy fighters. The Rubild, for the sake of lightness, had only the observers Parabellum machine gun and no forward-firing weapon; but liquid oxygen equipment was carried and the crews flight suits were electrically heated.
55 Squadron of the Independent Force possessed two special DH4 reconnaisance aircraft with larger DH 9a wing panels. No bombs were carried, and ammunition was much reduced. An engine- driven generator heated the crews flight clothing, camera and guns. Compressed oxygen was breathed above 15,000 feet.
super siouxPolitical choice!
The Handley Page HP111 was a transport based on the Victor which the Air Staff wanted but the government cancelled it two weeks before a general election and ordered the Belfast. Northern Ireland had high unemployment!
The HP111 had a double deck was capable of carrying 200 troops using both decks and cargo of to 24 tons could be carried on the lower deck which could be lowered to the ground for loading. It was 200 MPH faster than the Belfast and had a range of 3300 miles and the ability to land on 1000 yard grass strips! This undoubtably was another factor that caused Handley Page to collapse. These facts are from “Handley Page A History” by Alan Dowsett
printed by Tempus.
Ray
super siouxOf the four Fokker F.XXII produced two served with the RAF. C/N 5357 first registered to KLM as PH-AJP on 27-03-35 and named “Papegaai”. Sold to Scottish Aviationand registered G-AFZP on the 25-08-39. Impressed on the 00-10-41 as HM160. Regained its civilian reg. in 1945 with Scottish Aviation named ‘Highlander’. Scrapped 00-07-52.
C/N 5360. Registered to KLM as PH-AJR on the 22-05-35 and named “Roerdomp”. Sold to British American Air Service and registered G-AFXR on the 02-08-39. Impressed as HM159 on the 00-10-41 named “Brontosaurus” later”Sylvia Scarlet”. Perished in Loch Tarbert, Kintyre
on the 03-07-43.
HM161 was reserved for the Fokker F.XXXVI but never used when impressed in 1940. It was badly damaged in a failed start at Prestwick 21-05-40 and scrapped. All information from “Fokker Commercial Aircraft” a product of the Pubic Relations Dept. Fokker. A damn good book bought in a sale for a couple of quid!
super siouxRAF first with guided bomb!
The RAF were the first to sink a naval craft by a guided device as stated previously. The Luftwaffe first success was on the 27 August 1943 when the 40th Escort Group RN comprising two Destroyers and three small sloops was attacked by Dornier 217 E-5’s of KG-100 which split into three groups and launched seven Henschel 293 A1 glider bombs at the sloop HMS Egret which shot the first down, five missed and the last hit the munition store which exploded and the vessel sank with all hands. Information extracted from the book ‘DO 217-317-417 An Operational Record’ by Manfred Griel. Published by Airlife 1991.
super siouxI understand that in about September 1964 a Vulcan of A+AEE B Squadron overshot the short cross runway at Boscombe Down and suffered Cat 5 damage.
The reason this happened was that the TSR.2 XR219 was blocking the main runway with over heated brakes followinga taxi run and the Vulcan was short of fuel.
I wonder if any has the Vulcan records which give the date and serial number, I don’t see this anywhere on the web.
Cheers
Steve B
Back to the original question gentlemen please! As has been quoted previously no Vulcan seems to have crashed at Boscombe Down when the TSR- 2 XR219 was doing taxi trials in Sept. 1964. In ‘TSR-2 PHOENIX OR FOLLY’ by Frank Barnet-Jones it quotes that on no. 7 taxi trial the brake chute was selected at 140 knots, the chute deployed but candled. This was an apt time to try the full power of the brakes which became red hot and pieces broke away but it stopped before the end of the runway when pilot Bee Beamont quickly released them to stop them welding together.
Ray
super siouxFirst flight was on a works outing from Blackpool to Ronaldsway in summer 1957. The aircraft was a Bristol Wayfarer (170) of Lancashire Airways. This was such an unusual occurence for the period that we were front page news in the local press at Stoke-on-Trent!
super siouxSuper Sioux:
Do you know if that source gives an exact date for the destruction of a Latecoere on Lake Geneva in 1944?
Hi mhuxt, the Latecoere 631 was the prototype F-BAHG (c/n 01) first flown on the 4 November 1942. It was confiscated by Germany and flown to Lake Constance(Bodensee), where it was destroyed by Allied air attack in 1944.
Ray
super siouxWere the berths along or across fuselage?
Check for yourself ck! I doubt if a king of google could manage to find this pair of photos.
Ray
super sioux[QUOTE=chornedsnorkack;1119965][QUOTE=super sioux;1119666]
Is it then the case that Latecoere 631 is the biggest seaplane anyone has ever had tickets on? It is definitely bigger than Boeing 314… what are the fuselage and cabin like?
How many berths? How are the berths arranged?
Does it mean, cabins on both sides of corridor?
46 passengers = 46 seats = 46 berths. Each 2 seat cabin could be made into a 2 berth cabin one lower and one upper. The same for the 4 seat cabin, two lower and two upper.
Cabins were on each side of the central corridor.
Ray
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