RE: Hendon

Both the 190 and the 410 were fantastic to see/hear in action, even though it was ‘only’ on the ground. They only used to run them fairly early in the morning of a show day so you had to be prompt, but you could get amazingly close to them and watching these poor RAF guys trying to coax the things into life was often quite amusing! But once they had splut…splutter…spluttered INTO LIFE, THEY WERE INCREDIBLY LOUD!!!

Also at dear old St Athan, they used to open up their Vulcan for visitors too-all you had to do was queue for a few mins for your turn, and you could clamber up the ladder into the cockpit for a while for a look! One great year a ground power unit was plugged n and all the electrics were humming and the lights twinkling, great stuff!

Happy days…

RE: Hendon

As far as I understand it, the hangar WILL be moved onto the main Hendon site as part of the new redevelopment plans going on ther enow, which include the huge new third building which will link the exisiting two.

I don’t think there’s any way at all that the entire museum could be moved-that’s just ridiculous, the idea of having to strip all those aircraft down for road transport.

However, it is a nice ‘pipe-dream’ thought to have a ‘working’ RAF Museum, with some flyers based there. If only Hendon had the ability to wheel some planes out to run now and then!

RE: BBMF other types ?

Ant, you are of course right about the larger rudders being better-and as every single landing ‘474 makes is a risky thing, greater control can only be for the better.

Didn’t all Lancs built after a certain point with no H2S fitted have that ‘dustbin’ lid under the fuselage?

RE: Hendon

Philo, if you can, see the presentation in the BoB hall more than once, it’s superb.

I forgot to mention also about the restaurant, they only serve food for a few hours now, it’s pretty grim. The guy at the desk there was laughing his socks off when I asked him about the food! There is also a coffee bar there now too, behind the simulator in the main hall, though it was full of little kiddies from a school party when I was there so I didn’t sample it.

(overheard from aforementioned kiddies-‘The Lancaster is the BEST plane there ever was!’ Made my day that!)

I also have to say that I think the Barnes Wallis office mock-up is looking pretty redundant in the corner there now.

Good signs were plenty of work going on on various planes-the Southampton was having a viewing platform finished off/carpeted, the Lanc had an elevator off for work, things like that.

I’ll definitely be back in ’03 when the new hall opens!

RE: BBMF other types ?

Of course, the BBMF name was adopted AFTER the arrival of PA474-prior to that it was just the Battle Of Britain Flight.

There’s no way any German aircraft should fly with the flight, and even operating a Dakota is a bit suspect in many ways, apart from Lanc crew currency flights-and that’s more paying lip-service to the rules than anything else.

What should happen with the flight is the increased moves towards authenticity-years ago the Lanc was supposed to get a fibreglass bombload and properly operating turrets, but it never happened-big shame. At least now they are toning down the gloss paint-‘474 was starting to look like she was in a Dulux advert or something!

We should be very, very thankful that we still HAVE the BBMF-though I bet you that the penny-pinchers will get rid of it in the end. First of all they’ll have less fighters, then gradually it will all be grounded. Whitehall will get ‘474 before old age does, you just wait and see.