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Elmdon Airport

Elmdon Boy said:
Yet another two interesting photos you've got oldMohawk. Where are you finding them.
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Back in those days I used to buy the 'Flight' magazine and a few years ago I wanted to find the dates of the amazing air displays I had been to as a youngster. I eventually found the the web site below but it is not easy to search.
https://www.flightglobal.com/
I notice the abandoned airfield is in an aerial view of Hockley Heath taken in 1953.
https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW050010
The image in post#268 is from Google Earth.
 
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There were a number of local airfields at which unintentional approaches/flypasts could and have been made.

Among them Honiley and of course Baginton. Both are on the southern approach to Birmingham..

I do wonder where the F86 Sabres would have been based in 1953, any ideas?
 
Slightly of subject, I once took part in an air display to celebrate Battle of Britain day, rather small fly past just 3 Lancasters and a DC3 (Dakota) in 1950 over Nairobi. Great fun. Eric
 
Perhaps the RAF were keen to replace Sabre jets because over 30 of them were lost between March 1953 to July 1954, either being delivered or in service. See the pdf file with details below. Just imagine how today's television news channels would react about such losses today! Perhaps they were a difficult aircraft to fly. One reason for loss of one aircraft ...
During a steep climb the pilot removed his helmet to put on his sun glasses. The nose pitched up and his helmet fell between the stick and the console. He was unable to control the aircraft properly and ejected. It crashed six miles from Liege, Belgium
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He was in 67 Sqn so presumably British. The earlier versions of F86 jet fighters had no autopilots unlike the latest jet fighters which have considerable computer assistance. Another interesting quote from the pdf about a Sabre jet flying itself over Lincolnshire even though it apparently had engine failure.
29/11/1954 XD772 Sabre F4 66 Sqn The pilot abandoned the aircraft over the North Sea due to engine failure. It flew seventeen miles inland and crashed near Kelstern, Lincs. The pilot was rescued
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A rather frosty looking Elmdon in 1957 with what looks like an Air Lingus DC3 by the terminal, and Shell and BP signs.
Elmdon1957.jpg
Spotters (more women than men) by the terminal in 1964 looking at two BEA Viscounts. The chairs they are sitting on all look the same and the grass worn away shows it was a popular place from which to watch the aircraft.
Elmdon1964.JPG
 
In the 1960s when travelling along the Coventry Road past Elmdon Airport I use to see a beacon light (green and white) rotating a strong beam and vaguely remember seeing when I was on a flight coming into Elmdon. The beacon was known as a 'Chance Light' made in the Lighthouse Department of Chance Brothers Ltd. After removal it was for some time stored at the Midland Air Museum at Coventry. Some searching about Chance Bros led me to F. W. Cooper’s description of the firm of Chance Brothers and of himself.
 
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Had my first flight in one of those (DH Rapide) at Prestwick Scotland, Easter 1956. It cost 10 shillings (50p) for half an hour. In the 1950s they also did similar flights in the same type aircraft for same price from Elmdon.
Inside a De havilland Rapide.
Inside Rapide.jpg
 
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10/- for a half hour pleasure flight seems incredible by todays standard.

It costs more than that on the bus to town these days...
 
Seeing the photo of the aircraft in post#285 reminds me that in the late 1940s when playing on a field on the Beeches Estate we heard a strange rushing sound and looking up we saw a DH Rapide gliding over with engines stopped and we kept looking until it disappeared behind some houses. Next day I read in the Birmingham Mail that it had made a forced landing in the nearby Perry Barr park. One other forum member also saw the aircraft but I have since never been able to find anything about it.
 
end of the road..jpg
These pics bring back some happy memories for me because when I was Birmingham taxi driver for 14 years I worked the airport rank more frequently than the New St Stn. or the city ranks.
 
This picture would appear to be off thread! My mother in law off on a flight, Isle of Wight perhaps by the writing on the steps, I would imagine no later than 1937 so too early for Elmdon. Can the aviation buffs recognise the plane and to what could the P.S refer. She lived in Erdington at that time and worked at Victoria Playhouse, Aston.
img084.jpg
 
Not much of the aircraft showing but it might be in this pic of the Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation Ltd. fleet at Portsmouth in 1937. Four Airspeed Couriers are lined up on the left and a Fox Moth and two Monospars stand behind them. The ST-10 G-ACTS won the 1934 King’s Cup Air Race. It was a prototype and never went into production, but served with PSIOW on the Ryde Ferry.
psiow.jpg
 
It it looks like it is this DH.84 Dragon II of the Portsmouth ,Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation Co. The window and the door look about right ...:)
g-acrf.jpg
Boarding a DH84 Dragon II
Boarding G-ACRF.jpg

Perhaps posts#291, 292 and this post could be moved to the Old aeroplane photo's. thread
 
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Almost certainly the bi-plane, there is another "snap" from within a plane which shows the wing struts and "cross wires"
 
Your photos of the spotters at Elmdon in 1964 is a loose description oldMohawk. They appear to me to me to be more like visitors, children and mums and dads just coming down for the afternoon to watch the comings and goings.
On a good weather Sunday afternoon in the summer there were hundreds there. It was the only day you had to pay to enter the public enclosure from a pay kiosk up the top by the entrance road in.
I was a proper spotter then, collecting the aircraft registrations and there was certainly no females doing it then, unless someone out there wishes to correct me.
The Chance light was still on display at the Midland Air Museum a few years ago, and may still be on display. I haven't been there for some time.
They were still using DH Dragon Rapides for pleasure flying at Elmdon up until at least 1966.
In early 1960s they used a Baginton, Coventry company called Trans European using Dragon Rapides G-AFFB and G-ALBA until the company went broke in 1962.
A new company Solair [Solihull Air] was fopmed in 1962 and used there Dragon Rapides G-AHKV and G-ALBC plus there Cessna 172 G-ARWP on Sunday afternoon pleasure flying at the top of the public enclosure until the company ceased operations in 1964.
Mid-fly [Midland Flying] was formed in early 1964, and they started pleasure flying using the former Solair Dragon Rapide G-AHKV, and G-AJKW in 1965 and on into 1966 when they were sold.
Spot on oldMohawk with the DH Dragon, predecessor to the Dragon Rapide.
The photo devonjim would probably have been taken at Portsmouth, or Ryde Isle of Wight, but possibly Sandown IOW.
Portsmouth aerodrome closed in 1973, Ryde in early 1950s, Sandown is still in use.
 
Hi Elmdon Boy, yes I think you're right about the folks watching aircraft being just visitors. I had a phase a few years ago of listening to airband and still have a Yupiteru MV7100 scanner but I let the batteries go completely flat and lost all the scan frequencies. When the forum went offline a few weeks ago I got back into MS Flight Sim and have recently upgraded BHX scenery and notice they have now made RWY 06/24 into a taxiway. I like to 'fly' with ATC operating and standard instrument departures and arrivals. As a teenager I joined the Air Training Corps and eventually ended up in the RAF on National Service.
oldmohawk
 
Hello Tim, I have no idea. I have never been an aircraft buff although I always found it exiting/interesting to watch aircraft land and take off during the 1950s when myself and a couple of friends would go to Elmdon on our bikes for a few hours.
 
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