I saw your Chipmunk at White Waltham in October 65, and again a year later. It was WP836, and on both occasions was derelict in one of the ‘tent’ hangars in the London UAS area, I noted that it had scorch marks on the fuselage, with very little fabric covering remaining on the wings . By my next visit, in Nov 1967, it was lying where you saw it.

I have the Vampire noted at WW as derelict in Nov 1966 on the fire dump , where you photographed it, with serial XD589.

Seeing the picture brings it all back!

Vindication!

Of sorts 😀

Well, yes, of sorts…bearing in mind that the image quality he bought would probably have been superior to Google Earth.

Well thanks chaps…really, I just came across it by chance but made a note of it anyway.

As to why it came from Leconfield, some MU’s were/are ‘parent’ units for any airframes or cockpits issued to ATC and CCF units in their area ( and that area could be a large one), so it’s possible that it was returned to 60 MU after it was no longer required – but this is just speculation.

I knew that this one rang a bell but didn’t want to post until I had dug out the information that I knew I had – somewhere.

Last year at the PRO I was looking at the 229 OCU Chivenor ORB, and among the entries for May 1967 is the following:

” The cockpit of Hunter 7407M was transported from RAF Leconfield to RAF Chivenor by Chief Technician Wooley accompanied by a small working party. On arrival here this team spent one week from the 1st May to 8th May modifying the cockpit in accordance with the instructions issued by Squadron Leader J.R.Norris the Chief Ground Instructor. This sectioned cockpit will in future be used to instruct and check student pilots on their ejection drills.”

This suggests that the work was carried out by a party from 60MU, but gives no indication as to whether 60 MU had previously ‘owned ‘the cockpit, or had collected it from somewhere else. Perhaps Wrecks and Relics has the answer?

HTH

PS While on the subject of cockpits, an entry for December 1966 states:

“Cadet Flt Sgt AG Cole, Marlborough College CCF, visited the Hunter Simulator 4th-7th. He is attempting to build a crude simulator in the forward fuselage section of an old Hunter aircraft.”

There is a fairly recent thread about ‘High Flight’ (1958) on another forum. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of a student pilot progressing from the Piston Provost, to the Vampire, and finally the Hunter. A cheesy plot but some excellent flying scenes, apparently.

Much of it was filmed at Cranwell, though I believe that at least some of the Hunter scenes may have been shot at Chivenor.

It’s not available on VHS or DVD, so if anyone sees it coming up on TV, please let us all know!!

Actually, at present it doesn’t have one – it’s back on the military register as XF995.

Presumably when the contract with ETPS finishes, it will revert to G-BZSF.

Although the RN never mentions it for some reason, Lt Cdr Dave Morgan DSC RN (rtd) was Flt Lt Dave Morgan RAF at the time of the Falklands. It now appears to be generally accepted that he had four kills from the conflict, and was thus highest scorer.

The RAF provided about a quarter of the SHAR pilots and they scored about a quarter of the aerial victories.

The official position is that the last ‘enemy’ aircraft that the RAF shot down was in 1948, and it was Israeli in the series of engagements that took place at that time (the RAF maintained its neutrality by shooting down some Egyptians, as DD notes).

After that, despite the banter, the RAF hasn’t had the chance to engage in air combat. RAF fighters weren’t deployed to Korea and the next major conflict in which the RAF participated in which there was air-air action was the Falklands. If you read Jerry Pook’s recent book, you’ll get an idea of how effectively the RN used the GR3s (as a hint there are two chapters called ‘#More Navy C*ck Ups’ and ‘Yet More Navy C*ck Ups’ ), which were (mis)tasked purely on ground attack and recce missions.

During Desert Storm, the F3s didn’t push into Iraq because of IFF issues, and they flew defensive CAP. Two were pulled off an attack against Iraqi Mirage F1s that were running towards naval assets to allow them to be engaged by Saudi F-15s, much to the RAF’s irritation – not least since there are strong suggestions that the F-15s, faced with several F-1s, bodged the attack which allowed at least one Mirage to escape.

Unofficially, there is some fairly strong circumstantial evidence that an Indonesian C-130 was brought down by a Javelin during the Confrontation and slightly less robust evidence that a Hunter gave an Indonesian MiG-17 the good news in another engagement that was hushed-up.

Finally, there is disupte over whether a Tornado GR1 ought to be credited with a kill over a MiG-29. The MiG was hit by a JP233 munition, and there is some evidence that it had just taken off when it was hit, and thus counts as a kill. The consensus seems to be that it is technically an air-air kill, but not in the spirit of air combat (aircraft needs to be brought down by something being aimed in his general direction, not by colliding with incoming ordnance).

DJJ,

I’d like to take issue with a couple of points. According to the book that I quoted previously, any engagements with the Israelis in the late forties were entirely one sided, and not in the RAF’s favour.

The circumstantial evidence of the downing of the Indonesian C-130 is exactly that – circumstantial. I recall that this one was laid to rest a while back on another forum by someone who was on the Javelin QRA that night. Stooging around at low level at night where they weren’t supposed to be, the Indonesians probably didn’t need anyone else’s help in losing an aeroplane. I hadn’t heard of the Hunter v Indonesian MiG17 story, though there is a similar tale from Aden, concerning the North Yemenis, IIRC.

I agree with what you say about Desert Storm, and I would venture a guess that the F.3 crews would have acquitted themselves well in the Iraqi turkey shoot, had it not been for the very real danger of being shot down by friendly forces. I have also heard that the Saudi F-15 crew you mention were talked through the whole engagement by the USAF.