Disgusted, – Not From Tonbridge.

It’s sickening to see this tragedy being acted-out. Cruise around the UK on Google Earth. Try and find the bases of all the old big manufacturers – all are laid to waste. What is so totally nuts about Filton being closed is that, history aside, Airbus and Rolls Royce are still there. It’s closing the door firmly shut on massive potential. About what we have come to expect in the UK.

At the end of the day, it’s also just one more airfield being gobbled-up by companies cashing-in on the land, with the councils following close behind on the gravy-train…..

The councils see to it that these sites die with a whimper. Converseley, if a manufacturer wanted to build such a facility, they’d want a Public Enquiry, charge huge fees, and take years.

What on earth would the founding fathers of British Aviation make of the mess we’ve made of our heritage. Heritage, now there’s a much-abused word….

🙁 Yep, sickening.

What’s Wrong With Plurality..?

Of course, no museum can please everyone. I went to Cosford a few months ago for the first time in some years. Overall, ‘ace’, – new building (all dark and gimmicky) wasn’t a patch of the proper hangars. Just my personal taste. I still think the Duxford Superhangar is the best space in the UK, as it’s endlessly flexible and has a useful viewing gallery which is very practical and which many museum spaces would benefit from hugely.
Hendon I haven’t been to for some years, but was impressed last time. I do agree that the BoB hall was rather dark and depressing, but I’m due to visit again, as I haven’t seen the MOF yet.

Whilst some of the comments in this thread are fair expressions of the personal tastes and opinions of the individuals, there does seem to be a rather nerdy streak with regard to what the RAF Museum may (Or may not) include;- Just because it’s the RAF’s own aviation museum, it doesn’t have to restrict it in any way, although, naturally, it will tend to be predominantly RAF machines – which, factually, it is. There is some plurality in the inclusion of the machines of our allies and enemies, as well as other interesting machines. The Mew, for example, falling into the latter category. (Perhaps ‘Robbo’ would like to enlighten us all as to what a ‘vanity inclusion’ is…???)
I’m guessing over 90% of the museum is given-over to purely RAF displays. The smattering of other interesting machines helps to give context. (Pity it seems to upset the trainspotters. :))

IMHO, the UK is very fortunate, as we are well-served by a plethora of museums of many kinds, all of which have great scope. Generally, the weakest feature is that they tend to be based in the S.E. For that reason, I’m very pleased to see the investment in Cosford. I can’t see the RAFM moving from Hendon, but Cosford is still an active and perfectly usable aerodrome. I’m sure that more could be made of this asset.

A Digression…

…sorry for the thread-drift, but a quickie. Presentation Spit’s;- Is there any sort of ‘master-list’ that anyone has compiled to refer to…?

Thanks, S. 🙂

Finally.

These should have been awarded at the time. It was a complete no-brainer. Sadly, most of the potential recipients are dead now. Better late than never I suppose.

Colour Conundrum.

It’s true that some folks have used dodgy versions of BRG over the years (I used to do a bit of Hillclimbing and one or two folks seemed to have thrown a a tiny blob of green into a tin of black…!), but I ran a business for thirty years making extensive use of pigmented polymers and there was wide agreement as to what BRG was. We produced products in BRG with no variations. Generally, we used pigments based on suppliers own, BS and RAL and no other standards seemed to be used. I can’t speak for outside the UK of course.

Supplier Llewellyn Ryland have several charts online here;-

http://www.llewellyn-ryland.co.uk/standardrange.html
http://www.llewellyn-ryland.co.uk/bs5252.html
http://www.llewellyn-ryland.co.uk/ralcolours.html

Of course, apparent colours on a PC monitor don’t mean diddley, but LR used to send out colour-charts FOC. Brunswick Green was I believe used by the passenger locomotives of the Great Western Railway. My recollection is that this was browner than BRG, which looked more blue.

Black and white film can react strangely, depending on the emulsions used, condition etc. Added to that, the depth and transluciency of the paint can affect the apparent shade in a B&W photo.
I have a similar problem to Ken in pinning-down some Titanine colours. I have B&W photos of the same machines appearing in different apparent shades in different photos on the same day…:confused:
I had thought that Titanines range was quite limited, but looking at the range of greens in the 1935 chart above has caused me to revise that opinion..! Interesting. Perhaps some were available to order, but dealers stocked a limited range….? Some manufactures, such as Percivals used few colours. Most of their Vega’s seem to have been silver and pale blue…
One last thing;- In the 1930’s, many a/c weren’t actually painted in a gloss finish, but a semi-gloss eggshell. I’ve never really known why this was for sure, but it may have been because a high-gloss finish tended to show-up more faults such as panting. Just my three-‘apeth…:)
S.