20 per wing on a Tiger.

Having offered to help a friend, I was given a cardboard template, fabric, pinking shears and paid 0.20p each, to while away those winter evenings!

I guess I am now a sub-contractor in the aircraft restoration industry.

The differences between the Bolingbroke and the Blenheim are so minimal that it is reasonable to consider them essentially one and the same, ie really an issue of nomenclature. Yes, different instruments, ( a small number also had twin wasps engines) but nothing to get too worked up about.

Furthermore, far from being a rarity, it is the MOST numerous British bomber in terms of surviving examples, with almost 50 airframe identities documented.

Some of these very distressed relics/hulks probably have no future as projects in their own right, so if it takes 4 of them to make one good example, that seems fair enough. Nothing is lost, and the completed article will play an important part in presenting the history of the Battle of Britain.

This is very positive news, and all concerned deserve congratulations.

Ollie, would it not be easier to do 10 seconds research and just find out, rather than always posting questions ?

This actual forum had a thread entitled, very conveniently, ‘Cranfields Lightnings’ . Maybe you were put off by the missing apostrophe.

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?71023-Cranfields-Lightnings.

Any other questions, anything at all, don’t. Hesitate to ask.

Now then , now then, let’s not have a big flounce :rolleyes:

Very glad to see you have moved into the new premises at Gainsborough. Hope it works out for you.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=museum%20of%20raf%20fire%20fighting

Richard,

Many thanks for taking the trouble to register, and give a few updates from the ‘coalface’. Contributors here DO need the occasional reminder that these fantastic projects which we so enjoy, come about only because somebody else puts in a shed-load of cash, and huge personal effort. Be in no doubt, though, of the huge support and encouragement that this forum represents.

It would be very interesting to hear your initial impressions of the aeroplane and its handling. The video seems to indicate that the rudder is put to good use on take off !

Thanks again.

Slight thread creep, but it may be that many, perhaps most RAF fire crews may never have tacked a real emergency.

Great for flight safety, of course, but in 2016 there was just ONE military accident, and that was a helicopter which crash landed on Mt Snowdon .

Compare that to 1970, for example (much, much more flying than these days ) and it was carnage in comparison .

Losses are listed on this comprehensive data base http://www.ukserials.com/

This was May 1970 alone…….

05/1970 XN702 H-254 Sea Vixen FAW2 893 NAS Badly damaged during a deck landing accident on board HMS Hermes. Off loaded and transferred by lighter to Limassol Harbour, Cyprus then towed to Akrotiri during August where it was later broken up

01/05/1970 WJ632 Canberra TT18 A&AEE The pilot lost control of the aircraft at 4,000ft during an asymmetric assessment exercise. He used the incorrect recovery technique and it spun into Lyme Bay 3½ miles SE of Bridport, Dorset killing two of the three crew

03/05/1970 XV566 R-010 Phantom FG1 892 NAS While on loan to the A&AEE all radio and radar contact was lost. It had crashed into Lyme Bay, Dorset killing both crew

06/05/1970 XR433 R-044 Gannet AEW3 849 NAS Crashed on a night approach to Yeovilton, Somerset and burnt out killing both crew

07/05/1970 XP742 G Lightning F3 111 Sqn Crashed into the North Sea off Happisburgh, Norfolk following a reheat fire. The pilot ejected safely

13/05/1970 XT621 Scout AH1 665 Sqn The pilot became disorientated after the aircraft was engulfed in a sand cloud when landing at night in West Malaysia. It moved to the right, crashed onto its side and turned over injuring one of the three on board

26/05/1970 XR767 E Lightning F6 74 Sqn Flew into the Malacca Strait off Singapore at night killing the pilot

26/05/1970 XA304 Cadet TX3 1 GC Written off in a flying accident at Swanton Morley, Norfolk

27/05/1970 XR526 AH Wessex HC2 72 Sqn Broke its back in a heavy landing at Odiham, Hants. To 8147M at Odiham

I imagine given that their acquisition maybe involved a degree of private enterprise, in a manner not necessarily involving official sanction or approval, they, and the ‘owners’ are keeping a pretty low profile.

It/they have a value, but as soon as you go public questions will start, with a high probability that a higher authority will intervene.

Perhaps they will be salted away into the warbird rebuilding industry as ‘spares’.