Winged Heroes

[PanBiker]

ZA947 BBMF Dakota same aircraft we had for our 1940 weekend a few years ago and the one I had the pleasure to visit in the BBMF hangar at RAF Coningsby. Thanks for the tip off Wendy, will certainly keep an eye and ear out for it.

[Tizer]

The Red Arrows are due at the Whitehaven (Cumbria) Festival tomorrow, 3rd June - would that put Barlick in the flight path perhaps?

[Stanley]

In my recent reading I came across the story of the RAF taking a large McLaren compound steam traction engine equipped for steam ploughing out to France with the Expeditionary Force in September 1939. It was used for helping to prepare forward airstrips but of course was abandoned when we retreated via Dunkirk. Nothing is known about its eventual fate.

[Stanley]

I watched the programme on how the public took to the air last night and it was splendid. Lots of archive footage of the old Imperial Airways planes. I also watched another programme I recorded about the Graf Zeppelin's round the world voyage. Again, lots of archive footage.
It struck me that the advent of computerised data bases of archive footage has made it much easier for producers to find the clips and include them in programming.

[Tizer]

I enjoyed the programme too, it covered part of my favourite aviation period, between the wars. Coincidentally, we had recorded the programme previously and watched it last night but I assume you were watching it live! The main aircraft shown were the Handley Page HP42, with their Imperial Airways names all beginning with `H', such as Hanno, Hannibal, Hercules, Heracles, Hengist etc, the Short L17 with `S' names like Syrinx and Scylla and the Armstrong Whitworth AW154 Argosy. Imperial asked Short to provide them with the L17 when Handley Page started charging too much for the HP42. This is an HP42 pic we had earlier in the thread:
http://www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/view ... age#p10958

While reading about these aircraft I discovered this great British Airways archive of photos covering the decades since 1920:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/he ... blic/es_es

Also this BA poster site - click on the pic for the decade you want to view:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/he ... blic/en_gb

When I look at the posters from 1974 to present (3!) it shows how BA lost its way - they must be nuts to miss the chance to still be using posters like those early ones!

[Stanley]

I'd recorded it as well Tiz. I tend to record the early morning repeats of BBC4 progs that I have missed by watching other programmes. Last nigh 'Lewis' got in the way of BBC 4 so I recorded the Antarctica items.
I loved the two guinea tea fights over London. I suspect they would be popular even now. Also noted that the presenter mistook the price as £2, he evidently didn't realise that £2-2-0 was two guineas.
In the inquest on the Jubilee TV there was almost universal criticism of the content of the presenter's commentary on the river pageant. General view was brilliant photography but crap commentary.

[Wendyf]

The Lancaster is flying with the RAF at Leeming today. See this Link

[Stanley]

So nice to see these veterans still flying. I wonder how long they can remain airworthy? I know I've told this story before but I shall never forget being at Ellenroad late one Saturday afternoon and just as I was finishing locking up I heard a familiar sound. The Battle of Britain flight came over the site from the south at low altitude and roared over directly overhead. The sound of six Merlins in full song sent the short hairs up on the back of my neck. Particularly poignant of course for anyone who first heard them during the war, we got quite expert in identifying friend and foe by the sound of the engines. I remember reading somewhere that the Germans deliberately ran their engines unsynchronised on the grounds that it made them sound more menacing. I wonder if there's any truth in that?
I had the opposite experience in 1999 when I was visiting New Ulm in Minnesota with my friends Martha and Roger Paas. We were walking down the street and Roger was telling me how pro-German the town had been in WW2, they volunteered to take many German prisoners of war and were noted for having a very well-equipped National Guard Armoury. I heard a plane coming over and told Roger that they had their own Luftwaffe as well! It was a Dornier bomber passing overhead. The sound was just as distinctive as the Merlin, I identified the sound before it came into sight. Some things you never forget.....

[PanBiker]

So nice to see these veterans still flying. I wonder how long they can remain airworthy?

When I was invited to get up close with the aircraft of the BBMF flight in the hangar at Conningsby, I asked the very same question. The good news is that it basically boils down to how long funding is available to keep up the maintenance regime. The skill of the ground teams who look after the flight is amazing, the younger engineers have learnt from the guys that had the skills during the war. At the time of my visit there were a couple of "in progress" aircraft in different stages of refurbishment. All of the aircraft have rigorous maintenance schedules and have major overhauls on a rotational basis to keep them in airworthy condition.

There is no real reason why they cannot keep flying as long as there is no interference on regulations. Anyone who has been following this thread for some time may remember the EC ruling a few years ago now which threatened to ground a good number of the historic aircraft when they proposed compulsory emergency oxygen supplies in all all aircraft capable of carrying passengers. This had the potential to ground all of the DC3's still in operation despite the fact that their ceiling height would never require oxygen in the first place. It took a hefty petition and few questions in parliament to get some properly thought out clauses for exemption for historic aircraft added to the new directive before that particular bogey man was put to bed.

With particular regard to the BBMF Lancaster PA474 (City of Lincoln - Phantom of the Ruhr). It is one of only two remaining airworthy aircraft of this type. The other which is KB726 is owned, maintained and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario.

Surviving Lancasters

PA474 underwent a major service starting in October 2006 until the end of April 2007 when it was returned to the BBMF. The service was done by Air Atlantique who are based at Coventry Airport, my eldest son Dan works for the air freight side of the business. They maintain a number of historic aircraft of their own. I have a DVD which was made by Roger White, one of the members of Lincolnshire's Lancaster Association who support the BBMF. He was allowed exclusive access to the hangar during the 7 month strip down and rebuild. He videoed the entire operation in monthly chapters, the DVD is now sold on behalf of the BBMF.

PA474 bears two names, City of Lincoln is it's official name displayed on the starboard side, the port side is where it carries it's alter ego. In 2006 it went into the hangar as "Mickey the Moocher" and it emerged after the major overhaul as "Phantom of the Ruhr" which is still the aircraft's current alternate designation. All the aircraft in the BBMF flight are maintained to the same standard of readiness as when operational during the Second World War.

There is some fantastic footage taken from the Lancaster during the Jubilee celebration flypast on the link below.

Jubilee celebrations as seen for Britain's last airworthy Lancaster

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Ian. Watching the video of the fly-over I was reminded of an occasion when a German lady asked a visitor from Rochdale if he had ever visited Bielefeld before. He replied "I think so but they all look the same from 3,000 feet". He was ex-bomber crew, WW2.

[Tizer]

This aeroplane flew over our Somerset village on 11th July, circled round and went back the way it came. I don't know what type it is - any suggestions? It was high enough that all I could make out by eye was that it was twin-engines and had red patches. I took the photos on full zoom at the highest megapixel setting and have cropped the 5000 pixel images to about 600.

[Wendyf]

Not interested in planes at all really but I can never resist looking stuff up!Here you go

[Tizer]

Wendy, you're a star! Thanks for the link showing that it's a Hawker Siddeley HS.780 Andover C.1 belonging to the school. I'd never heard of the Empire Test Pilots School before and it's interesting to see the aircraft they use or have used in the past. Good photos too. Mrs Tiz likes the Sepecat Jaguar T.2 and wants that wonderful photo as her screen wallpaper - just look at the frost and snow and footprints! Note these aircraft have Qinetiq's name/logo and red paint scheme - it's the same paint scheme on this photo I took at Yeovilton in 2007 on this Harrier (remember Harriers?)



The link also led me on to the Empire Test Pilots' School Flight Simulator and you can take a ride on this using this YouTube video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CX2B2LTHf4

[Stanley]

Interesting programme on BBC2 last night about the major overhaul of a 747. If anyone is interested, look for a book called 'Wide Body. The making of the 747' by Clive Irving. (LINK) Only £7.28 and it's a riveting read!

[Whyperion]

As an accidental book dealer I keep getting asked if I buy books ( silly really as I do , but I dont like to do private purchases as the low prices I offer can cause offence - I prefer to buy in auction or from a couple of suppliers I have ). I tend not to read any of the books I deal in, anyway having sold a new copy of Nick Wotherspoon's North West Aircraft Wrecks books at a ridiculously cheap price to one of my London regulars - he hails from the South Lancs area so has an interest in the transport stuff I find that relates to the area, we got into conversation - It was a quiet day - and he has acquired 5 boxes ( how big are the boxes ) of mostly military aircraft books (How big are the books ? ) , some generalist coffee table ones , and a few specialist. As I find most customers want colour plate books now I dont suppose there will be many of interest, but before I offload them to a more specialist shop than my small trading ( the car is full today and I cannot fit any more in it ! ) I am happy to offer them on here if anyone is interested in getting a list , PM me ( I am spliting sale proceeds 50:50 with the current owner ) , and expect to pick up in a week or so's time - he is only a couple of miles from my current base , and there will be a large delivery of items I am sending from London to Barnoldswick base in October so can be collected then. Otherwise I guess I could mail out individually at £3.99 per parcel. I cannot really compete with most delivered Amazon Prices on the new or old stuff unfortunately , but there might be some interesting bargains , as I said I should have a list done out by the end of the week or so.

[Stanley]

Book me down for one Tiz. I'm always interested in book lists especially if they are my favourite subjects.

[Tizer]

I hope you all watched `Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies' Episode 1: Military Marvels on BBC4. LINK
Marvellous old films of early British jet fighters and bombers plus modern colour film of surviving examples. Great interviews with pilots and test pilots. Pictures of unusual aircraft from the 1950s, the strange delta shapes that you'd sometimes see whizzing across the sky at what seemed then to be incredible speeds. I never got to the Farnborough Air Show but I was staying near Farnborough once when the show was about to begin and I remember being frightened by the sudden screams of jet fighters hurtling past at what seemed rooftop level - no warning, just the deafening roar coming out of nowhere.

[Stanley]

I watched it and was reminded of the day I saw a Meteor jet dive straight into the ground a hundred yards from the spectators. We covered this and identified the crash on the old site. The next programme is on civil; aircraft.

[Tizer]

It's tonight at 9.00pm, BBC4. The channel's web page says the following:
The Shape of Things to Come (Episode 2 of 2) Duration: 1 hour LINK
In the heady years following World War Two, Britain was a nation in love with aviation. Having developed the jet engine in war-time, British engineers were now harnessing its power to propel the world's first passenger jets. By 1960 the UK's passenger airline industry was the largest in the world, with routes stretching to the furthest-flung remnants of Empire. And the aircraft carrying these New Elizabethans around the globe were also British - the Vickers Viscount, the Bristol Britannia and the world's first pure jet-liner, the sleek, silver De Havilland Comet, which could fly twice as high and twice as fast as its American competitors. It seemed the entire nation was reaching for the skies to create the shape of things to come for air travel worldwide. But would their reach exceed their grasp?

[Stanley]

The greatest contribution the Comet made was paradoxically the recognition of metal fatigue in its failure. One of the key inspection points in modern jets is ensuring the integrity of the pressure hull, particularly in respect of corrosion weakening the shell. I can still remember the experiment when a hull was repeatedly pressurised and relieved until it failed. The knowledge gained was worth billions to other manufacturers. One of the penalties of being a front-runner.

[Whyperion]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/indian-diploma ... 25449.html

Noted from Yahoo's news gathering.

From an Air India crash on Mt Blanc in 1966. Anyone got the aircraft number ?

[Stanley]

Reading Beevor's book on D Day I was reminded of the reason why many aircraft had broad white stripes painted on the wings. It was supposed to protect them from 'friendly fire' by identifying them as Allied aircraft but unfortunately in the heat of battle it didn't always work!

[Tizer]

It was interesting on that Jet programme seeing film of the young Queen Elizabeth looking out of one of those square windows on the early Comet!

[Stanley]

I have it recorded but haven't watched it yet. I remember the shot that you mentioned. Reading 'Wide Body' I was surprised by the amount of thinking that went into whether they had windows at all. Much easier to build without them.....

[Tizer]

There are some good aircraft photos here (3 pages)...
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photog ... rder=views