Bristol Brabazon

Here is an interesting video from YouTube about the Brabazon.



The comment about MPs proves that little has changed in 60 years regarding our attitudes to politicians!

The Brabazon was, in the end, a commercial failiure, a classic case of government investing in a project based on a complete lack of understanding of the market developments already in progress.

In 1942, with World War Two still raging the British Government instituted a committee to investigate post war civil aircraft requirements and recommend specifications for aircraft to fulfill those needs. The Minister for Aircraft Production Col Llewellyn asked his predecessor Lord Brabazon of Tara (John Moore-Brabazon) to be the chairman and after taking comprehensive expert opinions its report was delivered on 9th  February 1943. The conclusions called for five designs to meet different requirements, the first of which led directly to the Bristol 167 later christened the Brabazon.

Design work was carried out during the later years of the war and the first prototype built in the immediate post war period made its maiden flight on 4th September 1949 with Bristol's chief test pilot, Bill Pegg at the controls.

Although technically advanced the Brabazon proved to be a white elefant, despite the intention that its main user would be the British national airline BOAC nobody seems to have ever asked their management if they wanted the type. Meanwhile the airline's chairman, no doubt for political reasons, carefully avoided making any statement either confirming or denying the company's intentions regarding purchasing the aircraft.

In 1952 the decision was made to cancel the project with the second prototype under construction, the two airframes were reduced to scrap and only a few pieces of undercarriage remain in museums.

However the vast assembly hall and runway specially constructed at Filton proved to be more enduring and in the end are probably the Brabazon's true legacy justifing the (at the time) eye watering amount of money spent on the project.

Bristol Aircraft Since 1910 (Putnam's British aircraft)


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

DeHavilland Chipmunk

I have many fond memories of the Chipmunk, back in the late 60s I was in the air cadets and we used to get a couple of air experience flights a year in them. My squadron (No. 493 Kings Heath & Moseley) was in Birmingham and we would go up the Birmingham University Air Squadron based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire usually in late winter or early spring for a flight and then have a second one at whichever RAF station we were based for our summer camp

De Havilland Chipmunk RAF Museum, Hendon.

The flights lasted about 30 minutes and were conducted with an experienced RAF instructor who would be happy to give you control of the plane and teach the basics of piloting, something few fourteen and fifteen year olds get the opportunity to do. Those of us who stayed in the cadets for several years would gain some flying experience from these flights and the instuctors would take us through more advanced exercises sometimes going as far as performing aerobatics. At the start of each flight, as we were taxiinig towards the threshhold of the runway, the pilot would usually ask how many flights you had already made and tailor the the lesson to your level of experience. Of course he (In those days they were exclusively men) would do all the communication with air traffic control, which meant that he would occupy the front cockpit where the radio controls were located, which would normally have been the students position.

At Shawbury one element that was looked forward to with some anticipation was the pre-flight briefing, in the wrong hands this could have been the most tedious part of the day but fortunately it was carried out by a Flight Lieutenant who understood the value of humour in keeping the attention of an audience and getting exited youngsters to remember important safety regulations. He had many years of flying experience behind him and possesed a seemly limitless fund of funny anecdotes of aviation incidents that he used to reinforce the points he needed to make. He was one of those people who always have time for anyone and was completely aproachable, happy to answer whatever questions we threw at him no matter how silly, in retrospect, they were.

A major feature of these briefings was the wearing and use (In an emergency) of the Irving seat type parachute and one thing I can say is that when you see pictures from WWII of pilots running to their machnes  with this type of 'chute strapped to their posteriors, the photo is a propaganda "set up", you simply cannot run in one if it is properly fitted so that you don't fall out of the harness if you need to use it. The best that you can manage is a stooped shamble in the manner of the great apes with the knuckles of the fingers gently brushing the tarmac!  

This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Restored Lockheed L749 Constellation in Holland

Here is a YouTube video of a Lockheed Constellation  restored to a fully airworthy condition in Holland.

The "Conny"is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic airliners ever to grace the skies so the sight of one taking to the air again is a joy to behold. We all owe the Dutch team who made this possible a big thank you.

                                                                 

Vickers Viking G-AHDW

This rather grainy photograph of an Invicta Airways Vickers Viking was taken by me using a Kodak Instamatic camera at Ostend Airport, Belgium on or about 1st April 1967. I had just disembarked from it having made my first flight, from Manston in Kent, and my first visit to a foreign country.

The Viking was developed from the wartime Wellington bomber using the same wings (metal skinned in place of fabric on all but the early examples), tail planes, fin and undercarriage married to a new fuselage. One feature of the type was, as it had a midwing layout, the main spar passed through the passenger cabin at about knee height, boxed in and covered with carpet and steps either side of it. Anyone passing along the cabin had to clamber over this obstacle and the stewardesses negotiating it in their newly fashionable miniskirts were a cause of considerable delight to our party of teenage schoolboys!


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Want to Fly a Lightning?

Finding this YouTube video was the inspiration for this blog.

I recall this short film, or at least a variation of it, being shown on BBC TV back in the early sixties, as an RAF recruiting piece. As I remember, it usually appeared early on Saturday afternoons just before the sports coverage (That became the 'Grandstand'  program). Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I think that it was an edited version with some of the later sequences moved to the begining (e.g. the pilot doing the external pre-flight checks) and the tag line was "Want to fly a tiger", referencing 74 Squadron - the first unit to operate the lightning and whose markings can be seen on the aircraft in the video. I would welcome any feedback on this, either confirming my recollections or correcting them.

Meanwhile, enjoy some pure nostagia!