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Post by filair on Feb 19, 2019 18:44:27 GMT
With Honda Swindon in the news at the moment,AFA members may not be aware that the factory was built on the old South Marston airfield.
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Post by keefyboy on Feb 19, 2019 19:48:13 GMT
Very sad news indeed for South Marston. We stopped by in the early 70's and I seem to recall seeing a Spitfire guarding the old Vickers facility. A quick excert from Wiki states:
Early in the Second World War, a Ministry of Aircraft Production shadow factory and airfield were built for Phillips & Powis Aircraft Ltd, and 1,090 Miles Master training aircraft were built there. Short Brothers Ltd also used another part of the airfield for final assembly and testing of locally-built Short Stirling bombers. Vickers-Armstrongs-Supermarine acquired the site later in the war and produced Supermarine aircraft including Spitfire, Seafire, Attacker, Swift and Scimitar there until the early 1960s.
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Post by rh226 on Feb 19, 2019 20:09:12 GMT
The Spitfire at South Marston Gate was F.21 LA226, once Gate Guardian at Little Rissington. Now in store at RAF Stafford (I believe) for RAFM Cosford.
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Post by keefyboy on Feb 19, 2019 20:09:50 GMT
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Post by keefyboy on Feb 19, 2019 20:12:05 GMT
Thanks Bob. My previous post explains the F.21 connection.
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Post by graham on Feb 20, 2019 8:38:57 GMT
My brother worked at Honda for 20 years, then about 5 years ago, he was offered voluntary redundancy when they closed down one of the lines, which he took, pocketed several tens of thousands of pounds and started work the following Monday morning for the main panel supplier to the plant, doing almost exactly the same job as he did at Honda, and for an additional five grand a year.
I seem to recall that in the very early days of the plant, the old runway was used to give the new motors a run, is that correct?
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