Brian could the Commando have been N68852 which was abandoned on Heathrow for weeks around 1955….I remember it near the Northern Tunnel mouth but this shows it by Fields….Mick(on the Air -Britain site abpic)

http://www.abpic.co.uk/popup.php?q=1016976

My main reason for joining as a new boy to the forum is to find out if anybody can tell me what happened to Brian Stainer and also his photo’s. I started spotting at LAP (as was) in the early 50’s first from North Side at the end of the Nissen Huts, sitting on the base of the stairs watching connies come into the bay in front of me, turn & shut down – nobody bothered us, there might have been 6 in total in the bays. Central did not of course exist. When it did moved to Queens building & got to know Stan the commentator and Elizabeth his assistent and stayed in the box with them & their classical music.

Anyway got into photograpy and got to know Brian Stainer, joined BOAC & ended up in the photographic unit darkrooms in Piccadilly, even owned the Imperial airways photo collection for one time. spent more time photographing light stuff around – but does anyone else remember a C47 commando landing on No 1 runway, coming to a halt and the crew jumping out & running away. Anyway I am now scanning all my negs into the system, which made me wonder about Brian – so any news would be welcome.

Tin Toy Comet I

Made in Japan about 1960? Ebay purchase About 20inch span. From my museum 🙂

BOAC Mosquito

Excellent…do you have more early BOAC photos?

WWII Gothenburg Sweden on http://esgb.se/esgb_start.asp?xKat=flygpl39-45

PM for you (top right your Key forum page)

Thanks Mick, you have some fantastic sources! As with Pagen01 I had not realised that the RCAF was still flying the Comet 1 in 1960, I was’nt aware that they had modded any either. I wonder if there is a list anywhere ………

Cheers Brian.

Brian/ Pagen01 et al…..I just spend too long on the net!!….the RCAF site came up on Google images but not till the 9th or 10th page! There is a colour shot by Charles E Brown of G-ALVG in bare metal at altitude in vol3 of Camera above the Clouds. The RCAF continuing with the Comet I bears out Bill Gunston’s line that the Comet I could have been fixed and gone back into BOAC service instead of being treated as a National disaster (and metal fatigue being presented as a newly discovered phenomenon)….guess the PR mountain would have been unsurmountable, though.

Hi Simon,

Serendipity!! – I am in the process of scanning my old negs into the system, last night the final strip was 6 negs of this, LAP around 1960 I would guess. The quality of the photos is not any good as too far away, scratched and raining. I must go to your website and peruse.

Cheers Brian. 😉

Brian….can you read the tail number on any of the shots….it did appear at Heathrow with TWA as ET-T-12 before becoming N9701F…

Simon….the C-82s used to photograph the Farnborough airshow in 1951 and 1952 are covered in these threads

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/search.php?searchid=1908669

Fastest Subsonic Airliner

Has anybody considered the Boeing 720B which Boeing marketed to hit the CV-990 market….I’ve just flipped through John Stroud’s JETLINERS (in Service from 1952)….full of techie details…. and he was lucky enough to ride on the record-breaking PIA delivery flight of their first 720B London-Beirut-Karachi recording Mach nos 0.86-0.89 averaging 665 mph (they had a 100knot tailwind later on)…if there are no 720Bs still flying maybe Travolta’s 707-138B is a candidate, heavier structure than the 720B but almost identical aerodynamically.
(Stroud also records a London Munich flight in a BEA Trident 1 doing Mach 0.865)

Caravelle freighter, DC-7C AMOR Le Bourget….G-ANBG LHR(LAP)

LBG 1972 …. LHR(LAP) 1956

Land’s End threw out the resident private flying types end of last year and the Choxaway cafe has been shut for years so its probably a no-no. Perranporth is still general aviation friendly, I believe