Woomera Swifts burnt and buried

A work collegue/aviation enthusiast who is a keen researcher of the Woomera and associated A Bomb tests has just returned from the public records office in London and advises the 6 Supermarine Swifts were dumped into a former ground test hole in the late 1960’s, set on fire along with other rubbish (including buses, and then buried with a concrete cap laid on top).

……and he had photos to proove it

(makes for an interesting morning tea chat at work!)

Regards

Mark Pilkington

Simon

you are the proud owner of an Armstrong-Whitworth manually operated “Dorsal” Turret, as fitted to early Ansons and many Oxfords, commonly referred to as a “birdcage” turret.

This turret was manually rotated by the gunner through use of his feet, and carried a single lewis gun.

It may also be identifical to the Armstrong-whitworth manually operated turret used in the nose and rear positions of the Whitley mark I and mark II.

Later models of the Anson were fitted with various Bristol Electrically operated turrets.

congratulations

regards

Mark Pilkington

I am not aware of any fly off trials of the CA-15 against the Mustang or other aircraft, the RAAF was alewady operating NA built P51’s and CAC was already producing its first Mustangs when the CA-15 finally flew, so there was already sufficient P51 performance details without the need to do a “fly-off”, the CA-15 underwent testing to confirm its design performances but these were on an unarmed prototype aircraft and not directly related to combat comparision with other aircraft as it was known at time of flight that the aircraft would not enter production and was already obsolete with the pending introduction of jet aircraft.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

Originally Posted by DAVESODA
As much as I wish I has the money myself, I would love to see a project like this donated to the RAAF Museum so they could finish it as the one and only RAAF Hurricane V7476. Oh well one day it may happen.

Dave,

It would be nice to see a Hurricane in Australia but V7476 is not of any particular significance, dispite being the only Hurricane to make it into Australia and official RAAF service.

A far better identity to represent a Hurricane in Australia would be that of William John Storey – Australian Ace – 8 victories – No.135 Sqn.
Hurricane IIB Z5659 XK – C of No 135 Sqn, Mingaladon, Burma in February 1942

Regards

Mark Pilkington

The Bristol Freighter is indeed a design development from the pre-war Bristol Bombay Bomber/Transport, an idea that didnt really catch on.

Interestingly the dimensions are encouragingly similar but not identical, (obviously height is a function of both undercarriage and nose length in this case):

Span Length Height Wing Area
Freighter 32.9M 21.1M 6.6M 130.5 SQM
Bombay 29.7M 21.1M 5.9M 124 SQM

Other than the wing, little else (fuselage/tail) appear in anyway similar and the wing centre section may need work on the narcelles to suit the Pegasus engine installations if two could be found to fit in the first place.

Even the wing appears to have undergone significant changes to appear more inspired by the Beaufort wing than the Bombay in terms of the outer panel profiles?

There are 12 complete Freighters existing in the world with none surviving in its country of origin the UK, a better focus would be to fill that void than to create a replica of a type that is only really remembered as the pre-war bomber that the Freighter was based upon?

Regards

Mark Pilkington

Paul,

thanks for the invite, I would be pleased ot come and look, by the way when are you getting the rest to bolt back on behind it? smiles

byw you may be interested in bringing it to our museum in October for our members cockpit open day?

regards

Mark Pilkington

davesoda

try this barnstormers advertised site as well?

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regards

Mark Pilkington