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abadonna

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December 30, 2018 at 4:49 pm in reply to: Decoding a Bombing Plan #828048

abadonna
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I would have thought Angle might be the Bombing Angle i.e. the angle between vertical and the target at moment of bomb release.

August 14, 2018 at 9:26 pm in reply to: Javelin gun sight ? #788252

abadonna
Participant

JEK – thanks.

January 12, 2018 at 4:47 pm in reply to: Variable incidence tailpane on Canberra #778773

abadonna
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Richard,

the overrun accident could have been WD998 (9 Sqn) on 10 August 1953. Landed at high speed, no flap and high weight. Despite heavy braking ran off end off end of runway, across overshoot and beetfield and came to rest on bank. Pilot Officer T G Murphy. Cat 3R. Pilot error.

Just found the other incident. WD946. 9 Sqn. 20 September 1954. Battle of Britain display. “At Church Fenton, Flg Off T G Murphy was unable to do a high-speed run due to his tail trimmer sticking in the nose down position”. No fault found in subsequent examination of aircraft.

January 9, 2018 at 12:29 pm in reply to: Variable incidence tailpane on Canberra #780138

abadonna
Participant

A friend of my father was flying a Canberra in 1954 or 55 at the Biggin Hill airshow (I believe) when he suffered a tailplane actuator fault.
Apparently, during a flypast, the aircraft climbed and disappeared from view…shortening his routine somewhat.
He did manage to land the aircraft, with great difficulty. I believe, as a result, Canberras were grounded whilst the fault was investigated.

Richard,

there were a number of Canberra tailplane incidents and accidents going back a number of years. Unfortunately there was little hard evidence as to the cause(s), and a bit of “burying head in sand” by the authorities. Finally came to a head in March 1956, by which time the the growing number of reported malfunctions (and fatal crashes in which tailplane was implicated) could not be ignored. So the incident you mention was really just one several. Several fixes were proposed (since the root cause was not 100% understood) before a series of modifications were developed and applied.

December 6, 2017 at 12:17 pm in reply to: Another Mystery Object! #796440

abadonna
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James,

the range and orbit meter was a rebecca 4 add-on, additional to primary CRT display. Developed in late 1940s. Not completely sure if it went into production, although AP2276A, May 50, notes rebecca 4 has “provision” for operation with a meter.

December 6, 2017 at 10:41 am in reply to: Another Mystery Object! #796504

abadonna
Participant

I wondered whether it could be a Rebecca Mk 4 range and orbit meter ? However, the only description I have is of an early model, and that doesn’t seem to fit the photo.

August 9, 2017 at 10:47 am in reply to: Penzance blitz, 8 June 1941 #780069

abadonna
Participant

Thanks. I’ve seen the excerpts on the BBC web site. Getting hold of a copy is more difficult – not available via the usual second-hand book sources. Might try the library in Penzance. Not even sure that it would contain the info I’m after though – I guess I was hoping there would be some sort of Luftwaffe war diary that would list targets attacked by date and unit.

February 3, 2017 at 9:28 am in reply to: Canberra losses at Marham 20/09/1954 #807044

abadonna
Participant

I’m pretty sure Flight is mistaken. Two, possibly four, Canberras were rendered Cat 3R, but all were later repaired.

November 18, 2016 at 11:41 am in reply to: Canberra WH949 – Maralinga Atomic Test Connection?? #837645

abadonna
Participant

WH949 was used by 542 Sqn in Australia on a nuclear intelligence sampling programme. It was briefly assigned to 76 Sqn when the programme terminated, but never saw service at Maralinga. The full story of 542 Sqn operations in Australia is described in “Sniffing and Bottling: 1323 Flight and its successors”, available from lulu.com.

August 28, 2015 at 1:46 pm in reply to: Iron Bombs – Time of Fall #897997

abadonna
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1,000lb Mk.6 with No.100 tail. (Note the Mk.6 was a high-speed/high-altitude bomb, so probably aerodynamically cleaner than a 500lb bomb). Release height 35,000ft/220mph TAS, trail 1,185ft, time of fall 49.15sec, air range 14,664ft, striking velocity 1195f/s. Release height 20,000ft/220mph TAS, trail 361ft, time of fall 35.81secs, air range 11,190ft, striking velocity 1,110f/s

March 18, 2015 at 4:07 pm in reply to: Avro Lincolns into preservation in 1963 #876975

abadonna
Participant

The last RAF Lincolns were operated by 151 Sqn in the ECM role, retiring in Mar-Apr 63. They were all in standard black/grey scheme and I’m pretty sure that they all had their top turrets and guns removed.

December 13, 2014 at 10:54 am in reply to: British nuclear test in Australia 1953 #874256

abadonna
Participant

At the risk of sounding droll, and to use your uncle as a prime example, if you are still alive by this stage of the game you probably don’t have much of a claim. All the potential claimants must be in their seventies and eighties by now? :very_drunk:

A rather crass comment in my view. Exposure to radiation can leave a person with long-term health issues. And cancers can be operated on. So just because someone has made it to relatively old age, doesn’t mean that they have not had significant health problems.

December 12, 2014 at 9:54 am in reply to: British nuclear test in Australia 1953 #875003

abadonna
Participant

Regarding the RAAF aircraft during Hurricane. It’s well documented that the RAAF did not initially appreciate the dangers of contamination (little info from UK scientists), and some “hot” aircraft (Lincolns) remained in service for days (possibly weeks?) afterwards. I believe the aircraft were all disposed of once the issue was understood. Asking what happened to the aircraft seems like a perfectly reasonable question. The Australians had a big public inquiry into UK nuclear trials back in the 1980s (Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia) which looked at the issue in some detail. I’d assume the fate of aircraft might have been recorded there. (The inquiry proceeding are contained in DEFE 16 in the National Archives – unfortunately un-indexed, so not that easy to work through)

If you search on the web for “Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia” you will find the report of the commission in PDF form. Includes details of RAAF operations during UK tests. No serials that I could see though.

October 26, 2014 at 4:04 pm in reply to: Sywell Aviation Museum acquires Canberra…. #919457

abadonna
Participant

WH887 has an interesting early history: it was flown through two H-bomb clouds during the Castle thermonuclear trials at Bikini and Eniwetok in May 1954.

February 8, 2014 at 10:38 am in reply to: Gloster Meteor F8 crash 25th Feb 1953 RAF Stradishall 266 OCU – David John Pointer #986261

abadonna
Participant

The following is included in a Martin Baker summary of failed ejections:

25.2.53 The pilot of Meteor WH311 ejected from his aircraft successfully, separated from it and pulled his ripcord, but struck the ground before his parachute was completely developed. The ejection height was not known, but it was believed to have been low. Mk.1 type seat used. Cause of failure: Lack of altitude with Mk.1 seat.
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