Simple economics dictate whether airfields will survive or not. Property developers can afford to spend vast sums to enable projects to go ahead. Reality is that the vast majority of airfields in the U.K were developed to meet a need i.e the 1939-45 war . They wern’t designed as long term developments – they served a need. Now we are faced with a public perception of development where it’s far more desirable to build on brown field sites i.e airfields rather than unspoilt countryside.
The difficult balancing act is to ensure that the important buildings survive and the lesser items are seen as ‘expendable’ to some degree.
It’s also worth pointing out that the airfields that survive to this day have in many cases been developed far from their wartime layout. Is the preservation about the very land itself or the buildings that exist on it? North Weald for example does have a number of buildings which are new to the site – in some ways it’s actually preferable to have later buildings which are maybe larger or more usable if it adds economic prosperity to the site. As the size of the population increases and the demands we make of the land also changes
we are going to have to target key buildings of aeronautical importance
in the hope that we can preserve them. Maybe some effort should be made to examine airfields and find undeveloped examples of both ‘Fighter’ and ‘Bomber’ airfields which could be sympathetically restored and used.

Sadly that will never happen the individual planning comittees of different boroughs have their own ideas and agendas little of it with any logic.
The back handers that no doubt take place are also a problem.
Also nothing of any historic worth especially in Kent is safe,what the real problem is, is the decision process of what is saved.
I personally dont agree with not building on countryside, a lot of it is in reality boring farmland. In the Medway towns they have packed in so much development on so called brown field, that this has resulted in Napoleonic forts being destroyed or converted beyond recognition.
So airfields stand no chance.

SUPERMARINE SPITEFUL PROTOTYPE COLOURS

Does anyone have any idea of this aircraft on its first flight? Ive seen referance to it being natural metal but then looking at photos of her she doesnt look natural metal when you compare it to photos of others that where known to be natural metal. Ive also herd somewhere that someone has dug up the crash site and they think it was Light Aircraft grey but from what i can gather that colour didnt exist at that time.

Can anyone provide more infomation or thoughts on this?

I have studied this aspect for some time now and the conclusion I have come to is that the fuselage was PRU blue [ yes I know!] and the wings were
natural metal. The other prototype which appears this colour was the Spitfire
MK 21 and somewhere this is mentioned in the text of a book.
The black and white photos if you compare the two show no difference
in tone.

Graham

SPITEFUL/SEAFANG

Hi ,
Does anyone know if any bits of these aircaft survived.I am wondering because so many parts of extinct aircraft seem to turn up for rebuilding nowadays and a Spiteful or Seafang would be pretty awesome.Over to you.

Hi this is a subject close to my heart as I am producing a resin 1:32 scale
kit of the Spiteful and have studied photos and drawings exhaustively for the
past two years.
The first thing to find would be accurate drawings, I am going to visit the
RAF museums archive at some point as they have 50,000 supermarine drawings and include the correct period, so it would be interesting to prove whether any exist.
I think the chances of finding wings from Pakistani attackers are virtually
nil [ and were they folding or non folding wings?? ]
And did you realise that frame 19 where the tail fits on is the same geometrically as the prototype spitfire!
I think if one were to build one to fly I think you would have to make all
the working ancilleries identical to a late mark spit so that only the external
shape differed to even have a remote chance of it being passes by the CAA.

Graham

SM845

Spitfire XVIII SM845/G-BUOS left Duxford today after being a growling resident since Summer 2000. It has gone to new owners in Sweden, who already operate Spitfire RW386. This leaves just the TFC MkXIV to fly the flag for Griffon power at Duxford.

Yes it is a shame, pity they dont flog off other types in preference, I
would be happy for the Bearcat,Corsair,hellcat to go if it meant keeping the
griffon spits or the Airacobra.:diablo:
I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to the MK 22 when it finally resufaces.:mad:

Graham

Rocket Bases

There is a rocket base in suffolk somewhere, in the nineties I went there to
get some slab perspex as the chambers were being used as industrial units.
I think they were used for testing Thor rockets I was told.
Cant for the life of me remember where it was though!:confused:

Graham

Invader Crash

As both of the previous threads on this subject have been locked, I thought I’d let those that were interested in the details of this terrible accident know of a site that has all the details you probably wanted to know, including pictures of the fatal roll, and a scan of the AAIB report, Hopefully it will clear up some of the incorrect information in the previous threads about Don Bullock’s state of mind, and the history behind the fatal manouver.

You can access it here : –

http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id250.html

I can’t see it linked or referenced in the closed threads, so I assume no one has come across it before.

(Maybe the Mods might want to lock this thread so it doesn’t go down the road of the other two).

Cheers

Paul

Thanks for that Paul, I was there at Biggin Hill [12 years old ]and my second
air show. I momentarily looked down when it stalled and have never had a clear explanation on what happened.
My personal view even today is that I wish the pilots were half as talented
as the crew that restore these aircraft and we would lose less of them.
As a ww2 aircraft buff I am happy the aircraft exists and flies, that is enough!
I dont need a bomber to aerobatics I can go and see the red bull air races.
I am nervous about the Blenhiem being restored at Duxford yet again with the ugly nose to flying condition, the chaps there doing the restoration are magicians but whose going to fly it without spanking it into the ground finally?

Graham

Underwater Shots

Some amazing pictures here…!http://www.forum-auto.com/les-clubs/discussions-salon/sujet221-210.htm

Thanks Peter,
Some amazing shots of planes underwater, they seem to fare quite well submerged dont they? The Japanese planes due to their rarity are also interesting presumably these are all saved now.