A few points (from someone who works on the north side at Duxford):

1) There is normally no access for the public to the north side at Duxford (apart from car parking at airshows) This is not to say that if you want to visit the north side something couldn’t be arranged by contacting the Museum in advance, but please don’t just wander over the Bailey Bridge willy nilly. Another way of seeing the north side is on a Friends of Duxford north side tour, held most years now (not a member of FoD? It’s worth it if you visit Duxford on a regular basis :))

2) What’s on the north side? Well the north side is the home for a very substantial part of the Museum’s Collections – The Film and Video Archive, Department of Printed Books and Documents, the Photo Archive, Exhibits and Firearms and the Art Department all have storage and offices on the north side (the Sound Archive also uses Duxford as a storage facility, but access to their stores is via the Film and Video Archive) The Film and Video Archive alone stores something like 130,000 films at Duxford, so I am sure you will agree, we take up a bit of room doing this! Several of the private operators have storage/office space over here too, and occasionally space is leased to ‘outsiders’ such as Sawston Police while their new station was being built a year or so back.

3) Alexis – I think the fair sized hangar is a little bit full at the moment (both halves of it ;)) As far as there being plenty of space, where would you propose putting new buildings (without losing airshow parking areas?) Answers on a postcard…;)

And don’t forget the Conference Centre! I relish the opportunity to fall asleep in lectures to the sound of Merlins overhead 🙂 Many of the rooms have aviation-related paintings as it was the Officers Mess so there is lots to see and hear instead of the speakers!

DS

All the above – plus the opportunity for a visit to the BBMF 😀

DS

I’ve always found this to be quite an odd attitude for a local council to take.

The lake supplies drinking water for the local residents, but there is an old aeroplane in it, which is full of oil, aviation fuel, ammunition, ordnance, and possibly human remains. Now I don’t know about you lot, but I’d prefer NOT to have that lot in my drinking water!

But oh no, we can’t get the thing lifted out of the lake, think of the contamination!

Err… :confused:

We can only hope that recoveries such as the He111 and Ju88 out of Norway last year will show that technology has moved on, and that these wrecks can be salvaged with minimal environmental impact. And that the remains of crew members, should there be any, can finally be repatriated.

A crumbling, oil and grease soaked WWII wreck would probably make my drinking water taste better 🙁

DS

See the Video here!

http://img-nex.kongisking.net/kong/movies/day118-240×135-mpeg4.mov

Good grief! Hasn’t Peter Jackson lost weight-I only recognised him by his voice. It looks like he has applied the same level of detail to the props in Kong as he did in LOTR.

DS

Even more interesting, Doc Stirling!

I don’t disagree with you or Cees at all. Just interesting to see the reference to the 8,000 lber with direct reference being made to that particular Stirling. Also, 15 sq didn’t use Lancs until the very end of ’43! So the date conicides with their use of Stirlings :confused:

Wish I could scan the pic for you, but scanner gone TU! 😮

Will try at a later date to get this image. 🙂

Regards

Graham

I would like to see a picture of that. ‘Midgley’s Flying Circus’ was certainly a Stirling – named after Flt. Lt. D Midgley DFC, whose plane was the basis for her picture ‘Take Off, Interior of a Bomber aircraft’. Afterwards, she painted a large pierrot on the planes nose with the ‘MFC’ logo.

DS