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Does anyone know which street this airplane body is being transported in?

In the background you can just make out some shops but have tried enlarging but cant make any names out, do they show up on the orginal at all?
 
Looked at this again and now think from the markings on the aircraft it is a Valetta not a Varsity, and I've looked at virtually all of them on many sites. There is an RAF crest on it's side which I can't make out - is there another photo from a different view point? There are only two complete Valettas left in the world, one at Flixton, in East Anglia and one in storage at Cosford. The one at Elmdon was broken up in 1991. I notice that the windows of the building on the right seem to have curved bars! I also have a feeling that the street doesn't look like B'ham! The pic below shows a similar paint scheme and crest.
The mystery continues....
oldmohawk:)
 
dwilly said:
In the background you can just make out some shops but have tried enlarging but cant make any names out, do they show up on the orginal at all?
Click to expand...
No dwilly the original is in a magazine and sadly no clearer.

I remember about three years ago talking to an elderly chap who told me he was in the RAF and his job after the War was to collect crashed and abandoned aircraft. He lived in Birmingham but this job took him all over the country. I remeber him telling me that lamposts were a nightmare when moving aircraft. Sadly he is no longer with us oh how I wish I had asked more questions.
 
oldMohawk said:
Looked at this again and now think from the markings on the aircraft it is a Valetta not a Varsity, and I've looked at virtually all of them on many sites. There is an RAF crest on it's side which I can't make out - is there another photo from a different view point? There are only two complete Valettas left in the world, one at Flixton, in East Anglia and one in storage at Cosford. The one at Elmdon was broken up in 1991. I notice that the windows of the building on the right seem to have curved bars! I also have a feeling that the street doesn't look like B'ham! The pic below shows a similar paint scheme and crest.
The mystery continues....
oldmohawk:)
Click to expand...

OM didn't the different models have different Wind screens?
 
Hi Wendy,
There is an aerial map photo on the web of RAF Kirkbride 12 Maint Unit with 1200 scrapped aircraft and the caption under it is...
This aerial photograph taken in 1946 show 1200 aircraft parked at Kirkbride for disposal! They range from Tiger Moths to Lancasters - what would they be worth today?
oldmohawk
 
Hi Alf,
I think what has decided me against the Varsity is the paint schemes, couldn't find any Varsity pics with the paint scheme in the photo. I even found some on the web which I actually worked on in my NS days. I think a Varsity was pretty much a Valetta, but with a tricycle undercarriage, and training bomb aiming bay on the underneath, I just wish I could clearly see the RAF crest in the photo, the nearest one I found is the Maintenance Unit Crest and I don't think they would have put it on aircraft.
oldmohawk
 
oldmohawk,

As I am sure you know, Valettas were used in the 1950s for calibrating aerodrome radar systems, Every few months one would appear on the scene and trundle around the sky in the vicinity of the aerodrome for an hour or two, doing what it had to do. (A role later taken on by Canberras I think). Would such machines have had a special crest? Probably so. But which one?

'Fraid none of that helps with the location though!

Chris
 
The 'where is this' photo at the start of this thread has always intrigued me and I think the aircraft might be the Vickers Valetta VX580 as shown in the photo below. The paint scheme looks the same and the RAF crest is in the same position relative to the 'flash' on the side of the aircraft. The aircraft is presently parked at the small 'Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum' Flixton, Bungay, Suffolk. Looking on Google maps it could not have flown in there so it must have arrived by road. It looks like a RAF Transport Command aircraft but I have not yet traced it's RAF history or the route it took to get to Flixton.
oldmohawk
 
Its in a convoy with a support truck behind and a motor cycle out rider to my mind it does not look like a Birmingham street, the three storey buildings bear no resemblance to typical Birmingham back to backs.
 
whilst serving in the RAF (1948 - 1956) I flew in both a Valetta (RAF) and a Viking (of Huntings Airways) and the only external difference I can remember was one had the fuselage coming to a point at the tail and the other was cut off. For some unknown reason the RAF chartered the Viking to fly us back from Takoradi on the Gold Coast to Blackbushe airport, home of Huntings Airways, taking a day and a half with numerous refuel stops, 2 in the Sahara desert and an overnight stop at Gibralter followed by lunch at Bordeaux. This was late 1951. I believe Huntings Airways is still in existence. Sorry for going of thread. Eric
 
Well, VX580 was built at Weybridge by Vickers-Armstrong in 1950 and saw service as VIP transport in Malta, Egypt and Cyprus, as well as with the Metropolitan Communications Squadron at RAF Northholt. It retired from the RAF in 1968 and flew to Norwich Airport where it was handed over to the local Air Scouts.
It was obtained by Flixton Aviation Museum in 1982 and one report says it was delivered, minus engines, by RAF Chinook HC1 helicopter from Norwich as a training exercise!! Must have been interesting to see. Only one other Valetta survives; it is at the RAF Museum Cosford.....the puzzle continues...
oldmohawk
 
Hi Wendy,

Have you got the photo which started this thread.
I've found most of the possible aeroplanes but still looking for the street !
It's these sort of little puzzles which makes the forum interesting.

oldmohawk
 
The airplane fuselage which this thread was all about. The original photo in post #1 was lost when the forum was hacked.
Apologies for putting it here but I can't put in the start post to make things look tidy..:)
A Standard Vanguard and Morris Minor are parked but number plates not visible

transporting_a25_.jpg
 
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I don't recognise the street as being in Birmingham. I do know that many aircraft were taken to the aluminium smelter off Kingsbury road for scrapping. They were transported there on Queen Mary trailers. Many of the engines were disposed of by Thomas ward and Co on Bordeley Green Road, oppositte Mulliners.
 
Hi Bob,
I've had a browse through scrap yards and many RAF dumps but concluded that aircraft were cut up when scrap yards took them - the cost of transporting a complete fuselage on a Queen Mary would have been high, particularly with out riders and disruption to traffic etc. I thought I had found it at Flixton but the Chinook delivery finished that line of enquiry. If I ever visit Cosford again, I will take the photo and see if anyone there can answer the question.
oldmohawk
 
I don't know where the street is oldmohawk but is this where it ended up. Only having a laugh mate:fat: . Hope you find out.
plane.jpg
 
Frothblower said:
I don't know where the street is oldmohawk but is this where it ended up. Only having a laugh mate:fat: . Hope you find out.
plane.jpg
Click to expand...



I haven't read the previous posts but I can tell you I am almost certain that this is in Camden in London!
There is lots of stuff like this around Camden Market
 
Try ringing the telephone number ?? Also it is only a scale wooden model of an aircraft, about 1/4 scale I would say, certainly not the real thing. Don't see the connection between aircraft and leather goods unless it is an advertising stunt like our late King Kong. Eric
 
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My guess is that it is being transported for use as a crash practise item .
It is a Valetta , the Valetta had more side windows than the Varsity , and the RAF obviously have no further use for it because the pitot/static bungs are not fitted . It is also not cradled correctly for an a/c which will fly again . The wing root is not protected in that awful green paper muck that was a universal keeper-out of rain and weather .
From the darker colour of the Rebecca Aerials (the H shape) and the cheat line of the paint between upper and lower colours , I would say it's a Transport Command aircraft . (the aerials of all other commands' a/c were painted yellow )
It is not an ex-VIP (shiny bomber) because it ain't shiny .
So unless someone comes up with an airframe number, we may never know .
One thing I Do know , it is always sad to see what was a wonderful piece of engineering (any aircraft) being treated like muck .

I worked and flew on Varsities and Valettas extensively . Great planes , both .

By the way , the Radio Calibration aircraft previously referred to were called "IRIS" , and could arrive unannounced , causing panic because they had arrived to check that ALL radio associated stuff on an airfield was up to scratch and properly documented . Inspectorate of Radio Services , if you want the full title , hence IRIS . Most of them were Hastings .
 
Hi Mikanmart - Welcome to the forum.
I was watching TV tonight and the BHF email alert on my iPad beeped and I looked, saw the topic and thought someone's found it !
However it's the street Wendy was after.
You may not know that the forum lost all it's images in a big 'hack' event last October so that's why many images are missing from posts in the threads.
I had flights in RAF Varsities - 'gentleman's flying machines'.
oldmohawk
 
I still occasionally search for the street where the Valetta fuselage is being transported. I don't think it is a Birmingham street, why move a complete fuselage through Birmingham ?
If it was scrap they would have cut it up. I'm presently looking at small towns near Birmingham and as far out as around RAF Tern Hill. There are only two complete Valettas in the UK, one on display at Flixton, and one in bits at Cosford. There was one parked at Birmingham Airport for years but broken up in 1971. I've seen many interesting photos on aviation history sites and one below is a 1950s/60s pic of a Channel Airways Viking (civil version) aircraft landing at Southend Airport - doubledeck buses not advisable in that road !
The other pics show the same place today - traffic lights - barriers - double yellow lines.

vikings.jpg

Hedge-hopping into Southend Airport. Bus passengers have a close-up view. Air passengers looking at trees !

se2s.JPG

View from where the bus was. Much safer now with traffic lights and barriers.

se1s.JPG

Almost the same view as Pic 1 They have lowered the fence, cut some trees down, and double yellow lines etc.
 
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That's a great and rather terrifying picture, OM! I had a customer at Southend Rochford Airport, on the nearby industrial estate. Aircraft still come in at zero feet (or so it seemed), but no more Vikings, sad to say. There was an article many years ago in "Aeromodeller" magazine by a man who flew a Viking during the Berlin airlift - I think his name was Alex Imrie or something like that, and I think he might have written a book about his experiences.

Big Gee
 
Hi Big Gee - It is a nice picture of the risky flying conditions so long ago. I look at the original forum photo and have tried to identify the crest on the side of the aircraft. The two remaining Valettas are amongst the photos shown here including a third one at Sunderland which was wrecked by fire vandals. The Valetta at Cosford flew in during 1981 so it's fuselage isn't the one in the street.
oldmohawk
 
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Hi OM,

Wow, quite a few to choose from there! The two small aircraft on the Brooklands photos are interesting: the one on the left is very early and looks like an Antoinette (but isn't). The red pusher-engined aircraft could be a BAC Drone from the 1930's - it looks very clean and new so could be a reproduction.

Do you know where Vikngs, Valettas and Varsities were manufactured?

Big Gee
 
They were of course all Vickers but no Idea where their factory was. Came back from Takoradi Gold Coast (now Ghana) to Blackbush Airport on a chartered Viking in 1951 whilst in RAF, belonging to Huntings Airways (still going). Because of there limited range had an overnight stopover at Gibraltar at the Victoria Hotel, wonder if that is still going ? Eric
 
Vickers' main factory was at Brooklands, near Weybridge, Surrey, but they also had plants at Southampton (Hamble?) and Foxwarren, as well as sub-contractors both in the UK and abroad. I'd guess that the majority of the Viking/Valetta/Varsity aircraft were made at Brooklands.

Incidentally, the first Vickers Viking was a biplane flying-boat from the early 1920's.

Big Gee
 
The aircraft manufactured at Brooklands flew from Vicker's Wisley airfield which closed in the 1970's. It is near junction 10 on the M25 some distance from Brooklands and the Ockham VOR can be seen on the field. I have had a good tour around there on Streetview looking for a certain street !
oldmohawk
 
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