memorials

Just a couple of recent ones of the 9 Sqn memorial in Bardney village

Anyone know if its touched the skies yet?

It had it’s cowlings off and they were still working on it at the Fly-In on the 7th of May.

Interesting you should mention brooms, Lancman. I was reading a forum recently (someone can find it, as like a prat, I didn’t bookmark the thing!), which was more or less an in-house Shuttleworth/Old Warden site (I think), calling for winter cleaners for the collection. One thing that did strike me was the amount of discussion time given over the best types of broom/brush to use for dusting down airraft wings (particularly the Anson), and how much time this would save. There was also a healthy discussion about the best metal polish to use to obtain the best finish on the cowlings, notably the Hind. I guess this is something those of us not involved with ‘hand’s on’ preservation really think about. What goes on behind the scenes when we go and see bright, shiney aeroplanes lined up for us to photograph!

There do seem to be these trends in going for names. In between the wars there was a tendancy for fighters to be named after bird species (some native, some migrant) seen in Britain: Grebe, Gamecock, Tomtit, Osprey , Flycatcher, Snipe, etc. and also carried on throughout the war and immdiately after: Gannet and Fulmar spring to mind.

Perhaps, in keeping with the rather more aggressive names being employed for front line aircraft at the time for the TSR2, they should have chosen Shrike. Let’s see the BAC Shrike (?)……Had someone else not had the name for a missile of course! (actually, was the Shrike a more ‘recent’ weapon?) Firecrest might have been good too.

Are we not confusing our Fireflies? The Fairey IIIF was also called Firefly I believe. The fighter Firefly was indeed intended to have a reconnaissance function as indeed were all (purpose designed) British naval fighters of the day.

I think the ‘R’ in the FR1 may have stood for radar as only radar equipped aircraft were given this designation (although it was specifically for recon function…)

I had heard another version of the TSR2 numbering story, and that is that the Canberra was retrospectively considered to be the TSR1 and as the BAC aircraft was replacing it, it came second in that designation despite the designation being new.

Yes! Very probably confusing Firefly’s here – it confused me and that’s not hard to do. I wasn’t aware (and there’s no reason whiyI should be) that the IIIF was also designated the Firefly I. Apart from the Fairey IIIF, the most obvious (Fairey) names which crop up from this era are the Gordon, Fox and Flycatcher.

It’s interesting that there are so many potential sources for ‘TSR’ and it would be quite interesting to see which one can be properly quantified as correct (if possible?).

Just to chuck a spanner in the works, how about Nimrod? That’s appeared twice. Given it’s origin, were there some bods at either the design stage or in the AM who were either classically and/or theologically trained? You don’t just invent Nimrod out of thin air!

tsr etc

The Swordfish was indeed called TSR II before it had a name. The Firefly was not originally intended to have a reconnaisance role as far as I am aware. Originally designed as a fleet escort fighter.

I’ve just had a VERY quick dig around and the Firefly was indeed a recce aircraft, although until I read a bit more around this, I’ll agree and say wasn’t originally intended as a recce a/c, although they did appear specifically designated as such: the FR Mk. 1 and later, multi-role variants: FR/NF Mk. 4; FR/AS/NF Mk. 5; AS Mk. 6; AS Mk. 7/T. Mk. 7. Clearly an adaptable aircraft!

Sorry about this as it’s off-thread. Hhmmm, bacon…………

tsr

I think rlangham is closer.

On reflection, 25degsouth, I think you’re right. Mind you, I was close, still a Fairy design, so something must have runga mental bell! It’s my advancing years and no bacon sandwich this morning………………..