Aviatrix’s 1942 Boeing Stearman aircraft is made from wood and plastic

That’ll be easy to fix then… 😉

But seriously, it is good to hear that they walked away from that.

Consequentially he didn’t have fast jet experience in the RAF, his first fast jet experience was as a PPL.

From the report, that certainly seems to be the case. But let’s not forget that his training in the RAF was leading to a fast jet. The hours he flew on the Bulldog and Tucano and all the exercises carried out were designed to prepare him for a Hawk or similar. The Tucano in particular is meant to be a natural precursor to a trainer like the Hawk or Gnat. I would argue that the hours he flew on the JP and Gnat after obtaining his PPL were a natural extension of the training he had undertaken up to that point. The fact that he held a civil license at that point is not all that relevant I think.

Knowing that jet hours are pretty expensive, he does not seem to have skimped on the training he did prior to operating the JP and Gnat on the display circuit. Over the years summarised in the report he flew 218 hours on the Gnat and 39 hours in the JP. It may not have made him the most experienced Gnat pilot out there but to me it seems like a pretty thorough experience together with his RAF hours. Another thing that strikes me is that (over the years summarised) he exclusively flew these jets and therefore would not have suffered from any problems converting between aircraft with a very different performance level.

Just my 0.02.

I visited FAST last October, well worth the trip!

It is worth remembering that the area now covered by Mercedes Benz World was never owned by the museum. They used it for storing two airliners and when needed for fly-ins or car events but could not claim it. In the early 00s the options were therefore limited, and the development of Mercedes Benz world has at least ensured that no more large corporate buildings will go up. Also, the area that was always the center of the site is now again used to play with high performance cars. In a sense it has restored some of the pre-WWII atmosphere of Brooklands.

I know that the museum in its current state may not be to everyone’s liking, but a lot is being done to improve it and has already been done over the past years. Be assured that after the current ‘Re-engineering Brooklands’ project the large airliners will certainly be next in line for some attention. Currently a lot of effort is going into this large project: aircraft in the Wellington hangar are being dismantled ready for moving, the Valiant cockpit section is undergoing restoration, same as the VC10 fuselage test section. And that is on top of the ongoing work on the various aircraft.

Two of the Dorniers are still around actually. Three were built with the second one being a non-flier that did not survive. Both the fliers have been preserved, E1 that only flew with the two Pegasus engines is at the Dornier museum at Friedrichshafen:
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E3, the aircraft that had all the engines installed and performed all the vertical takeoffs, landings and transitions is at the Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleissheim:
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And while we’re at it: here’s the VFW VAK 191B, which is also at Schleissheim:
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And the EWR VJ 101C X2 at the Deutsches Museum Munich:
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Into 1960s UK MoD guessed programme total R&D costs against a formula of £ per pound weight.

Going slightly off-topic, but would you happen to have a reference for that point? Was this on purely experimental projects, military type procurement or also on civil a/c modified for military use?

FD2_Cosford_270216 by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

Still a great looking aircraft.