Binning the Olympics? It’s a two week waste of space that’s quickly forgotten, on the other hand once an artifact (aircraft) is scrapped it’s gone forever

Withdraw the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and end wars there that should never have been started. Perhaps the savings from all these unneccesary expenditures will allow all these issues at home to be addressed, including funding the NHS, maintaining our museums and being able to cope in adverse weather by providing funds for our local authorities to purchase enough grit and salt for our roads! We have enough cost-cutting issues at home and the poor management at Hendon is the tip of the iceberg!

Now I’ll get off my soapbox! :rolleyes:

T7 XL579 – I know she was written off on the 22.01.1979 but what happened? what units was she with before/

T7 XL616 – Is she still flying as SE-DXH? Again what units did she serve with?

These two were with ETPS at Farnborough, then at Boscombe Down for most of their lives. If you go to Google Images and type in the serial number, it will show you all the photos on the net, giving you all the units the aircraft served with. That applies to any aircraft, depending on the photos that have been uploaded.

LC-130R Hercules. Possibly the largest aircraft to be fitted with skis, unless someone knows better?

Just some help here for the unitiated. I thought old Guppies were based on Strats but the photo seems to be a Britannia. Please clarify. And on that point are any Britannia’s flying anywhere? Thanks.:)

Yes you’re correct in thinking that the “Guppy” series was based on the Stratocruiser. This particular aircraft is a ‘one off’ conversion of a Canadair CL-44 (the Canadian version of the Britannia that was slightly stretched and had RR Tyne engines). It was really called the Conroy “Sky Monster”, so how it got called a ‘Guppy’, I have no idea. More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conroy_Skymonster

..and NO, there are no Britannias left flying anywhere.

An update – last week the CL-44-0 (outsized?) was still intact, minus engines, so scrapping seems to have been delayed.

Hi AMB. thanks for the kind words. We try our best. Dont worry, she won’t be sold to South Africa, they certainly wont be looking for another. colour scheme, she will have to sport RSAF one side and RAF the other, to keep everyone happy:-). The Warton scheme is very inobtrusive anyway, just a couple of small RAF roundels, a serial number and that’s it, so it wont detract from her clean service look.

Not wishing to distract you from all the internal work you are doing, do you have any idea when the repaint will occur?

I think the one below is the Foden Pluto refueller rather than a suoer refueller.
Amazingly in the 60’s British diecast maker Budgie made models of both the Pluto Budgie catalogue no 256) and the Super Refueller (Budgie catalogue no 280). The Budgie wheels aren’t particularly accurate although the main casting is pretty good. They are hard to find in good condition but there are damaged restorable ones out there which, with a bit of hunting around for decent wheels, could be made into presentable models. Sorry I can’t post any pictures but I couldn’t find any in my diecast books or on the web.

Ah, thanks for point that out. I now see that the Python had double bogies under the cab, front and back, but possibly the same tanker trailer as the Pluto in my colour pic.

The timing of the 2 shows is unfortunate and maybe the organisers should have worked together to space them a little further apart. I suppose they both wanted to take advantage of what will hopefully be the better part of the year for weather.
It will mean one deep pocket month for many but the eventual cost over the season to attend both displays would be the same regardless of them being one week or two months apart. It just means a bit of careful budgeting to make sure the money to attend is available at the right time and there is always the option of buying tickets in advance to spread some of the cost over a longer period.

The best option would be to fly all the wardirds into Fairford and combine the shows for just one price.:rolleyes: