I had a fascinating conversation with Nat Somers some years ago, and the SK.1 came up during our talk.
Nat was a well known racer during the early 50’s with his Gemini. Also a member of the ‘Throttle Benders’ club, along with Ron Payne and maybe Fred Dunkerley (Miles Sparrowjet amongst many others). The SK.1 was the result of a collaboration between Nat and Hugh Kendall in around 53/4

I received a piccie of the SK.1 fuse from Nigel at Breighton via Peter Amos and sent it down to Nat, who was suprised that it had survived. He was led to believe it had been destroyed by fire during an engine failure on the ground. Maybe the wings were lost at this time.

Nat was a canny business man and had a reputation for being difficult. I always found him a fascinating and an enthusiastic gent. I had the pleasure of being flown down to his home on Jersey on a number of occasions to gather anecdotes etc with a view to putting together a biography. Sadly Nat died in 1990 with very little (printable) work done.

I believe the Hunter mentioned in an earlier post by Firebird was(is) WT555 ‘State Express’ . 1st Production Hunter F1 and one time resident at Cosford as part of the RAFM Collection. Did it have BAPC Benchmark status ?

James, PM sent

Not sure whether this pic has ever seen light of day.
Mk VII at Samlesbury Jan 1945. The gent is George walker who was Airfield Superintendent at the time.
Sadly no details regarding the aircraft serial number

Just dug this out of a private collection donated to the BAE North West Heritage Group archives.

Just wish there was a shot of the Mk XII Anson as well

I remember seeing LZ in Johns compound at Coventry some 30 ish years ago along with other Percival types, and then looking for some TLC. Saw her again whilst at a VAC meet at Caernarfon in 2001 or 2.
On both occasions she was well past her best. Who would have thought she would scrub up so well!!

A credit to all involved.

Misleading info for which I apologise.
The info was applied to the rear of the photo some years ago when the originals first came into the archive.
Thanks for correcting it, I can now make the required corrections.
Thats what makes this forum such a useful tool, errrors and mistakes made earlier can be addressed and corrected fairly quickly.

As regards the name of the company, I mentioned this place to my boss, who has lived in the area far longer than me, who said they were known as “Castings”. For those that know the area it was (and may still be) on the left hand side of the B4155 (Lichfield Road) leading out of Brownhills, with the Anglesey Branch of the Wyrley & Essington Canal bordering it on the eastern side. I’ll have to make a point of going over there one day and checking if it has been built on since – although the current AtoZ lists the site as the Gatehouse Trading Estate

Mark The Company name was Super Alloys. Castings is the Factory alongside. They purchased the site late 70s early 80’s for expansion though it seems that did not go ahead. I went over there every sunday as a kid in the mid 60’s and foraged for hours amongst the vast piles of ex RAf/Army scrap.
For certain there where Meteor sections (small by this time) as well as Boxes of spares. The site was ringed by mobile searchlights. Toward the beginning of the thread on scrapyards are a couple of pics taken around 1962 of Javelin fuselages at the front of the offices, along with Meteor F8 fuselages. I seem to remember a large white rear fuselage under a lean to. If memory serves me well I used to sit in a Tempest or Typhoon cockpit playing at fighter pilots. I am sure that particular cockpit was removed and is now preserved.
Sadly nothing left of the site and all was cleaned out many years ago.
Would be nice to see if anyone else has pics form there though.