Gipsy Six, I think “R”s to be exact.
Flight time from Dux to OW would only be minutes so I dont se a Problem with her opperating from the larger area of Duxford. Be great to see her airborn again 🙂

Not wishing to be a pedant, but G-ACSS’s rare Gipsy Six R’s were removed after her return from the antipodes in 1934 or thereabouts. She then had the more reliable Gipsy Six Series II fitted for the rest of her pre-war flying. When she was rebuilt at Old Warden, they fitted Gipsy Queen II engines. No difference to see with the cowlings on, and they all sound the same.

I’ll shut up now….;)

Huh…?

“Jap planes”? (In the thread title.) How about a thread on Guinea planes,or maybe Spic planes?

Is that ‘Jap Planes’ as in… ‘Brit Planes’..? Or ‘Yank Planes’..? ..or Aussie Planes…? Really, whilst ‘Jap’ is hardly a term of endearment, just as with ‘Nip’, it’s really a simple linguistic contraction, rather like, well ‘planes’ really…. Shortening a nations name can hardly be be termed as a racial slur per se. I doubt Cobber Kain, Paddy Finucain and a few million ‘Limeys’ were much stirred by their epithets either. What is much more offensive is the way words are used.

I’d much rather object to the term ‘plane’ for myself. An awfully naff term, especially in an aviation forum in my view. Very Daily Mirror. A plane is something that correctly placed on it’s side. :diablo: Happy New Year by the way….;)

Interesting thread btw…:)

..interesting photos.

..of the aeroplanes I mean. :rolleyes:

..an odd place but..

…funnily enough, quite a few of Mosquito components were made in Brumagem. U/C oleos and cockpit canopies for starters. Then there was Dunlop, wheels, tyres and brakes, possibly controls too….probably a quite a list in toto.

Spot The Difference…

The extra span of the Vega came the wider centre-section. This was to keep the wing-loading down at the increased max designed weight. The modest widening of the fus’ can be seen in the centre glazed panel in the windscreen of the Vega, which is easy to spot, especially head-on. It’s only the late Gulls that can be confused with the Vega. Earlier gulls had a different canopy and u/c anyway, which is a dead give-away. very late Vegas had a blown windscreen, very, very similar to the MkI Proctor.
The basic Gull was derived from the Hendy, and in fact, the Gull prototype, as originally built, was virtually indistinguishable from the Hendy.

Vega.

One thing that I omitted to mention about the Vega was of course the wing-folding, which was a feature that was carried-over to the Proctors. The mainplanes folded backwards to rest either side of the fus’. Not a two minute job however. One rarely sees photos of Proctors in RAF service with the wings folded, unless they were is storage, when that feature was obviously very useful. An old pal of mine owned a Vega before the war and was a big fan, he stated that whilst the Vega was nothing special to fly, it was a fantastic workhorse. Unlike many light aircraft, it had speed, range and carrying capacity which could all be utilised together. After the war, the move to all-metal aircraft that were not as vulnerable to our wretched climate meant machines like the Vega faded from the scene, yet, even today, the Vega can beat the pants off a lot of much more modern aircraft AND it’s wings fold. The aforementioned friend was asked to demonstrate a later Proctor during the war. He trundled off on his take-off run but got rather a nasty shock, as he hadn’t realised just how much less performance than the Vega it would have. He got a much closer view of the boundary hedge than he’d anticipated…. The RAF had of course loaded all sorts of gear into the type, as was their habit.

One little mystery that I never really got to the bottom of was the cooling. This was never a problem on the Vega, even in hot climes. This was not the case with the Proctor, which underwent many modifications to the cowling and had the addition of an oil-cooler to boot. It can’t have been just the weight.

After the war, the market was flooded with ex-RAF Proctors, so those Vegas which had survived impressment soon went out of service. Most of the Proctors were scrapped, owing to glue problems in the 1960’s. The UK only has one airworthy Vega now, and I think that was a re-imported example. I think G-AERD(?) went off to an Australian museum a few years back. A bit of a pity, because it was airworthy as I recall. In fact I think most of the surviving pre-war gulls that are airworthy are in the antipodes.

For me, the Vega is the quintessential pre-war British light aircraft, beauty and functionality combined.

So basically sit down, be quiet, don’t discuss anything or even comment until the final product is revealed, then just say how wonderful it is and be quiet again … :diablo:
Might as well close the forum down now!! 🙂

Oh, no, where’d be the fun in that..?…lol. :diablo: I didn’t say that. What is ludicrous, is the assertion that builder/restorers have some sort of duty, handed down from above, to keep enthusiasts informed, or get colour schemes ‘passed’. Patently, they do not have any ‘duties’ to enthusiast. Of course, if the said ‘enthusiasts’ would like to put up some money in a project and own a share of it, – and the expense too – that’d be another matter….! :diablo:

Time for another mince pie.

Snoopy.

Least Likely.

So called “Spotters” have rightly been rightly blamed for for some gross acts of vandalism over the years but it should be remembered that others are quite capable of entering an airfield/airstrip/hangar and carrying out a criminal act.

I have heard stories of damage, but never had any problems myself, nor have friends, thank God. Maybe I’m naive, but of all the types of people, I’d be dumbfounded if Spotters were responsible, as it seems almost inconceivable that any kind of aviation enthusiast could act that way. There are plenty of feckless recidivist inbreds who’d be far more likely candidates. :p