The Nordavia shot with the lights on and rolling hills behind is particularly attractive

Heres the link to the Google LIFE story ‘Daylight Fighter Sweep’ by William Vandivert
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/2c4034e8f6abbfa8.html

and to the earlier Key thread on same
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=100703

conniefreak….Sorry, lost the thread a bit there! 🙂

Got the Green Dragon pic, now….think its the one which went into Air Pictorial a few years back, and I think the sunlight streaming in is why it’s not how I remember the Dragon….couple of budding Buddy Holly’s there with the specs!

As I recall it VHF Supplies were still operating out of the premises opposite LAP North till 1969…I remember it because I bought myself an airband radio there whilst recuperating from a car smash…the move to noble Corner (Lampton) must have been in the very early Seventies.

If you talk to Ms Fostekew at White Waltham ask her if Blossom Miles was into plywood furniture…FG and Blossom Miles had a stylish 1930s (‘Art Deco’) house called Land’s End near Woodley airfield and they used a lot of plywood in the Miles factory…….

I logged a visit to BigginHill 6Dec59 and of those on your list I there recorded EI-ALE, WD302, NP179,G-APUR, ‘PCS, ‘PCT…..so I reckon you visited Biggin hill (and maybe Croydon same day?)
There’s a nice photo of N2718A (with spotters?) on
http://airteamimages.net/aero-commander-500_N2718A_-private_106521.html
I didn’t see F-BJAH Viking but on 16Jun1960 at Biggin logged XB-FIP Viking which sounds exotic (presumably later ferried via PWK see
http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1027977/ )

Can’t remember taking the Greenline to Biggin Hill but I did one or two heroic Green Rover (London Country Bus)trips Staines-Reigate-Gatwick-Redhill- Biggin-Reigate-Staines….could be regarded as M25 survey expeditions, I guess, and possibly beatnik duffle coat rather than anorak.

There is no mention of locations on the previous diary page either (18 April 1960) but it starts with four detailed entries: WP-KCV Rapide wing red reggie, N2718A Aero Commander, F-BJAH Viking, EI-ALE SCAN 30.

Below that is a section of 18 RAF Tiger Moths, starting with N6457 and ending with T6103.

Below that is another section of five Chipmunks: starts with WD302 and ends with WZ 854 (I think).

Then a set of 4 “Procters”, starting with NP179.

Below that is a long list of about 30 civilan registrations, all with the “G-A” bit missing. Most are not identified as to type but the exceptions are: “PUR” (?) and “PXR” Tri Pacers and “PCS” and “PCT” EP9s.

Can anyone suggest where I might have gone on Easter Monday, 18 April 1960?

I think you know more than most, skyscooter! The two Aeroplane Monthly articles, the first by Bill Gunston and the second , some corrections, by a gent who was actually involved in the project are as good as it gets, really.

What’s your source on the Second Racer standing outside Napiers? Not heard that one before.
There is still a chap around in the Thames Valley area who was a young mechanic at Heston when the Racer flew, I’ll see what I can find out.
I’ve never seen or heard of photos or newsreel of the short first flight.

Does anyone out there know more about this ill fated but glorious 1940 contender for the world absolute speed record other than the same publicity photographs and basic gen which has been published over and over again in countless magazine articles since 1943?
Flight printed a cutaway in their issue dated April 15th, 1943 but omitted the Napier Sabre engine which was still top secret. Indeed this was probably the earliest mention of the aircraft even though it had first flown and crashed nearly three years earlier. A second prototype was abandoned.
Aeroplane Monthly came up with some excellent photos of the aircraft under construction provided by a reader in their issues for June and August 1976.
National Archives at Kew has a file No. DR 1/61 from Heston Aircraft which contains lots of useful data and some very fragile drawings.
Do you know of any other sources? There must have been photos taken during engine test runs, first flight and post crash. Any cockpit photo? What of the unfinished second prototype which apparently stood outside Napier’s Acton works until the 1950’s.

Croydon closed October 1959 (though a lot of aircraft were roaded in and out afterwards)….my guess for the Scan 30 (Widgeon) EI-ALE is Biggin Hill. How about Wisley for the Vickers new-builds, though the TCA c/ns suggest a production line visit (to Weybridge)?

There was an article in the Croydon Airport Soc Newsletter about the servicing of Catalina N5593V in 1959….the brakes had seized solid due to sea water corrosion
N5593V was being used by an American businessman and his family, there were some weapons brandished in Saudi but AFAIK nobody was killed…there was a LIFE photographer present
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/57b1d7ccb6554008.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f264419b15b1d965.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/4f51cb0f56df6950.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/e9f312a5139f3bf8.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/fdf7acee5a9e0e94.html
http://juliansmith.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/abandoned-flying-boat-on-a-saudi-beach.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kendo1938/sets/72057594081556662/detail/

Well composed shots! I like the way you are allowing more space round the nose than the tail/wingtip of the aircraft. airliners.net might have issues with that but I think they’ve got it wrong. Are you cropping much or are they ‘straight from the camera’?

Well there’s 18 on G-INFO
http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=summary&aircrafttype=walrus&dereg=true

Edit G-AIIB first choice (Navy bods in North Wales)
G-AIWU second choice (Vivian Bellamy’s…surely not!) ????