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

I don't think anything beats the approach to "Ki Tak" the old Hong Hong airport across checker board hill and decent though the housing estates of high rise flats, and looked for all the world as if you were going to land in the sea.
paul
 
Paul I was based at Kai Tak with the RAF in 1953/4 and flew regulary from there, but there was no high rise then, my Wife and I had an apartment in Observatory Crescent of the Natham Rd and from our roof had a marvelous view of the Royal Observatory behind us. I bet I wouldn't recognise the place now with all its high rise, underground and remote new airport - so sad. Eric
 
We are off thread here Cookie, so will be brief theres nothing to get the heart fluttering on a plane as someone saying "I don't want to worry everyone but I just saw a woman hanging washing on her balcony, about 12' from the wing tip!!!!!!!!!.
paul
 
Yes, my apologies to all, just noticed the thread title and realised I was way of the subject, when it comes to aircraft I get carried away. Eric
 
A Valetta aircraft VX506 was sold on the 10/02/1959 to a Birmingham scrap yard owned by H.H.Bushell & Co - but there is no trace of an address or area for that scrap yard - does anyone know where it was ?
 
Thanks for that link Jennyann - I've looked at the scrap yards in it and cannot see anything, but the site has some lovely photos and stories I can browse through.
I've found that H.H.Bushell & Co received many scrap aircraft even during the 1960's, but a search on Google for the company name gives many strange results !
 
When I worked at Triplex Safety Glass in the late 1960's there was a scrapyard on Pershore Road South right opposite Camp Lane, just down from Cotteridge. We saw several aircraft and bits of aircraft on the piles of junk, including an F86 Sabre. I don't know if this scrapyard was Bushell's, unfortunately, but maybe it's a start. You're getting there, OM!

Big Gee
 
Thanks Big Gee, I'll have a look round there. The last F86 Sabre I saw in B'ham broke the sound barrier in a dive and was doing about 680mph from Castle Bromwich airfield over the Chester Rd towards the city centre.
 
Hi OM, I should have said that the scrap-yard was where Kings Norton Factory Centre is now. The F86 was a great aircraft, I don't think I ever saw one in the air, but wish I had.

Baz, I worked in R&D from '68 to '74. A good company until Pilkington's got involved.

Big Gee
 
Bushell's had a yard next to St Chads school in Brearley St. in the 50's.
Saw many an aircraft shell in there on my way to and from school.

Dave
 
What a marvelous link jennyanne I just spent 1,1/2 hrs enthralled in reading it all and looking at the photo's that's what this site is all about.
paul
 
Big Gee said:
You're getting there, OM!
Big Gee
Click to expand...
I've just read all the posts from the start of the thread and it's amusing to see us start off with enthusiasm as we got down to the task of finding the street, but I think it is one that will not be solved. Things have changed so much since Standard Vanguards (in the pic) were parked in streets. However, it has been enjoyable trawling through the many aviation sites on the web.
oldmohawk...
encouragement.png
 
Hi Maypolebaz
I copied all the site and pasted it into Wordpad which stripped the photos out, then used Wordpad's 'Find' to look for the word scrap.

I found the word 'scrap' in streets below
Benson rd - no name
Don St - no name
Heath St called Parkers scrap yard
Park Rd no name
Tudor St owned by Moult family

oldmohawk

ps.. It's hard to believe but there is an Aviation Scrapyard forum here ....
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oldMohawk said:
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.

Click to expand...

A fascinating puzzle; I'm afraid I can't help with identifying the street. OM's photo of an aircraft passing perilously low over a bus at Southend Airport reminds me that a friend and I drove along that road one evening in the late-1980s. The end of the main runway was on our right, and on the left was a ploughed field - with a light aircraft nose-down in the earth. We stopped to investigate - and found the pilot clambering out, apparently unharmed!
 
Re: Does anyone know which street this aircraft fuselage is being transported in?

Dave Ed said:
Bushell's had a yard next to St Chads school in Brearley St. in the 50's.
Saw many an aircraft shell in there on my way to and from school.

Dave
Click to expand...

Dave is right. The company H. H. Bushell & Co. Ltd. - which was classified as "general merchants" - had premises at 46/52 Brearley Street and a warehouse at 31/45 Brearley Street, Birmingham 19 certainly up to 1966.
 
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dave i must apologise as it seems your post 73 passed by with no reply and thank you db84124 for bringing it to our attention...so dave you think that the plane could have been heading for bushells in brearley st..this needs some more investigating...

thanks dave

lyn
 
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As I've previously mentioned a Valetta aircraft VX506 was sold on the 10/02/1959 to a Birmingham scrap yard owned by H.H.Bushell & Co but generally scrap yards firms cut up the aircraft on site because the cost of transporting a complete fuselage on a Queen Mary trailer would have been very high, particularly with out-riders and disruption to traffic etc. It was cheaper to cut it up into sections and use normal lorry transport to bring the bits to the scrapyard.

An example of Valetta VW197 was on the ground at Birmingham Airport in 1970. It had been donated to West Midlands Air Scouts Elmdon in 1969. The aircraft was not wanted, they cost a lot to preserve and store, so here it is being broken up for scrap in 1971.

Complete
index.php

Being cut up
index.php

There are only two complete Valettas now in the UK, one on display at Flixton, and one in bits at Cosford.

The one at Flixton was delivered by Chinook helicopter.

The RAF scrapped a lot of these aircraft as can seen in the list in this pdf file I made. The one going to H.H.Bushell is highlighted some way down the list.
 
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Hi all
Just stumbled across this discussion, but unfortunately the original photo is not showing. I was just wondering if it could be the old Castle Bromwich Aerodrome - now Castle Vale estate.
 
Jane

The photo in question was reposted by "Old Mohawk" at post #45 if you look you will see that it is not Castle Bromwich Aerodrome or any of the streets nearby, but thanks for having a go and keep on trying as we would all like to see this mystery solved.
 
Hi Jane - Welcome to the forum. Every time I receive an email alert that someone has posted in this thread I think 'has someone found it'.
It is one of several 'mystery photos' we have on the forum and here is another below.
We have never found out anything about the man below in Corporation Street ... click on him.
oldmohawk
 
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A recent photo of part of an aircraft on a RAF truck in the Corporation Street thread reminded me of this old thread. Lots of new members have joined the forum since this old thread was started and one of them might be an aviation enthusiast with new suggestions ... ;)
Wendy said:
I have scanned this from this month's Brummagem magazine with the permision of Carl.
There is a section of photo's by Stan Millington sent in by his sister in law. Stan was a wedding photographer but for pleasure he took photo's around Birmingham. Stan was born in 1909 and died in 1972. I thought it would be nice if we could put more information on this photo.:)
transporting_a25_.jpg
Click to expand...
 
richard i thought i may have found the location from the newspaper archives but no luck...however i would have thought that a cargo as large as our plane would have made the headlines..just for interest below is the article i found but as i said its not our planeairplane through banbury.jpg

lyn
 
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