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Old aeroplane photo's.

Thats a great shot phil , Thanks for the help on the Vickers Varsity I newI had seen it other than at cosford but the name just would not come. ( IN THE CENTRE FOLD OF THE EAGLE COMIC)
 
Just 2 more, one it of the fantastic modles at cosford & donot ask me about the second I liked it as it reminded me of the SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS, LINDBURGE'S FIRST FLIGHT ACROSS THE POND.
I think it all that ALLOY
 
This one is being rebuilt at Withybush airfield Haverfordwest sould be flying in about 4 years time with an extra seat for fare paying passengers, that would be a good white knuckle ride.
 
Cheers Darby. The good old "Stringbag" now of the RN Historic Flight. I worked on the early restoration of that very aircraft at Lee-on-Solent in 1975 before it was handed over to the FAA Museum. A very underated aircraft yet one of the most valliant of WW2. With actions at Taranto and the raids on Bismark to name but two
 
G G Jean said:
My next door but two neighbour would like to share some of his photo's with the forum. He is an avid plane spotter and travels all over the place with his brother. Would like you comments you fellow plane spotters please. Jean.
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Hi Jean, my plane spotting days ended when they sounded the Last Allclear in 1945, Bernard
 
It must be very addictive this plane spotting as my neighbour is always going to shows and New York recently with a group of spotters for four nights. Please forgive me for posting this photo Pete took again but I think it has a place on this thread. Jean.
 
It seems everbody and their Granny at my local pub has been to Farnborough this year. I used to enjoy going but somehow I changed and the noise and spending so much time on my legs no longer drew me.
 
I've only been to the Farnborough Air Show once - on 13th September 1964. Just as we arrived and parked near the runway, a vintage plane was on a display flight - then plunged nose first into the ground. Amazingly it did not burst into flames, and a few seconds later the pilot managed to extricate himself and walk away.
The plane, a Bristol Bulldog, although totally destroyed has been rebuilt over the following 35 years to pristine condition. Here's a link to the plane's history and a picture of it now.
 
Thanks for that Lloyd I will pass it on to Ray my neighbour. Mind you knowing him he probably remembers it. He even has a radio that tunes into the planes when they are in flight. I can hear him when his kitchen door is open. Jean.
 
Comet 1 Eastleigh 1950.jpg A photo I took of Comet 1 at Nairobi in 1950 arriving for its tropical trials in the old BOAC livery
 
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82 Sqdns Lancasters Nairobi 1950.JPG Some of 82 (PR) Sqdns seven Lancasters at Nairobi in 1950, one of them was returned to UK and restored to wartime condition and is now the memorial flight Lancaster. I was lucky enought to serve with them as wireless operator 1949 t0 1951. I believe it was the last Lancaster Sqdn and shortly after changed to Buccaneers
 
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Right on Big Gee.. Grumman Tigercat is the Twin and what may look like a Fieseler Storch is in actual fact a Morane MS 500, a radial engined licence built version of the Storch.
 
In the early 1950s travelling to Richmond in London we use to drive on the main road past Northolt airport and often saw the old piston engine airliners seeming to struggle to gain height after take off from the airport. Two pics below of a DC3 which landed on a house after take off in December 1946 reminds me of those days ... not a single window in the house was broken !
The plane had taken off from RAF Northholt during a snowstorm and reached only 300ft before starting to lose height because of snow on the wings. As it flew over Bourne School it got tangled in telephone wires and it's tail hit a British Restaurant which caused it to spin round and pancake on to houses resting on No 46 Angus Drive. The plane was full of fuel but did not explode and the only person injured was the pilot who bruised his knee. Irene Zigmund, whose house it was, told of the incredible escape of herself and her 4-month old-son David, who was asleep in his cot upstairs when the plane landed on the house.
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DC3 road.jpg

DC3 back.jpg
 
Re- the DC3 on the roof of a house - apparently the crew & passengers were able to deplane and came down the stairs and out of the front door! Looks as if they've almost finished the house repairs!

Dakota House.jpg
 
Flying in the 1950s and 1960s was interesting as shown in this pic of a Viking airliner landing at Southend.
vikings.jpg

In the same place to day they have double yellow lines, proper traffic lights, and road barriers. See some up-to-date pics on the forum here ... https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...being-transported-in.33243/page-3#post-440216
 
One day in October 1956 at RAF Padgate near Warrington on the drill square marching back and forth, we were disturbed by a tremendous throbbing rumbling noise which became so loud we could hardly hear the Drill Instructor's shouted commands and had to stop. Eventually through the grey clouds above we could see up to 11 B36 "Peacemaker" bombers circling in a stack waiting to land at nearby RAF Burtonwood. The B36 had 6 rear facing piston engines for normal flight and 4 jet engines for assisted take-off. They were the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built and usually carried nuclear bombs in those days. In 1955 they featured in a film 'Strategic Air Command' starring James Stewart and June Allyson.
The Convair B-36.
usaf-convair-b-36.jpg
 
A RAF Hastings over a road by RAF Colerne, No 4 engine stopped, committed to land. No one jumped those traffic lights !
RafColerneHastingsLand.jpg
 
Hey oldMohawk, it was a Hastings I went out to Africa on to join 82 Sqdn in West Africa October 1949, we stayed overnight at Castel Benito in Libya, my first time on foreign soil. That brings back memories. We left from RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire I think. Eric
 
A flight of B36D aircraft certainly made their presence known when flying above you. The noise they made was most impressive and was quite memorable for me. In the early 1950's a flight of six flew overhead of Earlswood from the NW, heading SW and I guess they could have been making for one of the US airbases in The Cotswolds.
 
cookie273uk said:
Hey oldMohawk, it was a Hastings I went out to Africa on to join 82 Sqdn in West Africa October 1949, we stayed overnight at Castel Benito in Libya, my first time on foreign soil. That brings back memories. We left from RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire I think. Eric
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That must have been an interesting flight Eric. The Hastings aircraft were tricky to handle if one of the outer engines failed. There is an interesting account of a near miss at RAF Colerne, Wiltshire in the link below.
https://www.81st-entry.co.uk/journals/articles/journal-36-article5.html
 
Regarding the B-36, the original concept for this aircraft dates from mid-1941 when the US Government was seriously concerned that Great Britain would be defeated by Germany. They therefore issued a specification for a bomber capable of taking off from the eastern seaboard of the USA, bombing Germany, and returning to the USA without re-fuelling. Unfortunately for the B-36, Germany didn't defeat us, and also as the design utilised piston engines it was to a great extent obsolete before it had ever flown (first flight 1951, I think?). It was for a time the only bomber capable of carrying the early US H-Bomb. There's a B-36 at the Dayton-Wright Air Museum in Ohio, not all that far from where I lived when working in the USA, but I never got round to going there.

G
 
The were several accidents concerning B36 bombers and nuclear bombs ... one example below
May 22, 1957 – Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, USA – Non-nuclear detonation of a Mark 17 thermonuclear bomb[17]
A B-36 ferrying a nuclear weapon from Biggs AFB to Kirtland AFB dropped a nuclear weapon on approach to Kirtland. The weapon struck the ground 4.5 miles south of the Kirtland control tower and 0.3 miles west of the Sandia Base reservation. The weapon was completely destroyed by the detonation of its high explosive material, creating a crater 12 feet (3.7 m) deep and 25 feet (7.62 m) in diameter. Radioactive contamination at the crater lip amounted to 0.5 milliroentgen.
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and two in Britain with the all jet B47 which replaced the B36.
]Date: July 27, 1956
Location: Great Britain
A B-47 bomber crashed into a nuclear weapons storage facility at the Lakenheath Air Base in Suffolk, England, during a training exercise. The nuclear weapons storage facility, known as an "igloo," contained three Mark 6 bombs. Preliminary exams by bomb disposal officers said it was a miracle that one Mark 6 with exposed detonators sheared didn't explode. The B-47's crew was killed.
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Date: February 28, 1958
Location: Great Britain
A B-47 based at the U.S. air base at Greenham Common, England, reportedly loaded with a nuclear weapon, caught fire and completely burned. In 1960, signs of high-level radioactive contamination were detected around the base by a group of scientists working at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE). The U.S. government has never confirmed whether the accident involved a nuclear warhead.
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