N6885D and VT858

In 2006 there was a thread

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=33007

on which I asked about a Vampire F3 N6885D, ex 17062, which I saw at Orange County on the dump, 2 December 1972, accompanied by N6883D (17071) We know about ’83D, but does anyone know where ’85D ended up? According to that thread it went to Mojave after SNA.

Also, what happened to the F3 VT858 that was at Marshalls, Cambridge for a number of years? I last saw it in dismantled state there on 17 September 1959.

Laurence Garey

Ercoupe

Baltimore go-arounds

Duncan:
For your information Tony says thank goodness he never had to test either fire suppression or an aborted landing with one engine out on the Baltimore. Nor does he know of anyone who did. He imagines a go-around like that would have been extremely interesting.

Further, he doubts the Baltimore could have crossed the ditch. To give them the range to go up into the Aegean they welded up 400 gallon ‘tin’ overload tanks, no self-sealing, that they hung in the bomb bay. That gave them about seven hours. There was no contents gauge, so they used them first until the motors faltered, then switched to wing tanks!! Dodgy stuff!

I said before that the Baltimores were assembled at Basra. In fact those were the ones destined for Russia. The RAF ones were assembled outside Alexandria, to where the 203 Sqd boys would fly a used one for maintenance and get into a new-smelling one, “bit like a new car”.

I hope this helps you recreate what it was like in 1943, and maybe gives some insight into the crash in the West Indies. Were they at the extreme of their fuel endurance, I wonder? Did they attempt a “precautionary” landing with maybe an engine out?

Laurence

Baltimore deliveries 1943

I asked a friend who was a pilot on Baltimores in Benghazi in 1943. He tells me their aircraft were delivered by sea, so I wonder if FA314 was on its way to a port of embarkation. According to my informant they were shipped to Basra and assembled there. A hairy story is that one batch came without the upper turrets. When they tried to test fly them without turrets, two pilots were killed in the attempt.

Laurence

Hannibal

Thanks for the link to that excellent site. You probably know about the conjecture surrounding Hannibal’s disappearance in 1940 approaching Sharjah.
http://www.adias-uae.com/publications/hellyergarey04.pdf

As I shall be in that part of the world next week, I shall have a look!

Laurence

Have a look at
[url]http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=N74138&u=reg%5B/url
Flown by Lettice Curtiss. I remember it being parked out at Old Warden years ago.

N74138 ex PL983, became G-PRXI. Last I heard was a crash at Rouen in 2001.

Laurence

Ercoupe ?

Looks like an Ercoupe with a cabin rather than a cockpit. I checked the first production (cn 1), but it had the usual bubble cockpit, now with NASM (see http://www.ercoupe.net/N15692.html).
Otherwise, I am stuck.