Cosford and Sleap 18/4

[keithh]

I went to Shrewsbury Town FC as I close in on my 92 league grounds, (it was number 88). I decided to call in to Cosford museum as I had never visited before. I was surprised at size of it and, with free entry, it was great place to go. There is a parking charge of £6.50 but worthwhile nonetheless. I am not in to military at all but there are so many rare frames there, the camera is essential. I needed six of the civil exhibits which were big gap fillers in my register and I also saw three Tutors which weren't needed. I also popped over to Shifnal as I was so close but the gates were locked. Finally I went up to Sleap before footie but hangar access was not allowed and they all looked closed anyway so I was restricted to what was out on the field. I have put types against those I needed.

Cosford 
G-RMAA BK117
G-BIDW (A8226) SOPWITH STRUTTER REPLICA
G-BLWM (C4994) BRISTOL M1C REPLICA
G-AIZE (FS628) ARGUS
G-AEEH POU DE CIEL
G-ACGL COMPER SWIFT
G-APAS COMET 1
G-BYWD
G-BYWR
G-BYWY
Sleap
G-BRHY
G-BJTP
N95VB BEECH 90
G-BILR
G-BOIR
G-CBEE PA28R
G-MUKY
2-DEAL PA32
G-LORR
G-LAMS


DSC00564 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00570 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00571 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00572 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00573 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00574 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00575 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00576 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00577 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00579 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00580 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00581 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00582 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00583 by keith harbor, on Flickr


DSC00584 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00586 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00587 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00588 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00589 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00591 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00592 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00593 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00596 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00598 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00599 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00600 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00602 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00605 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00607 by keith harbor, on Flickr

Sleap


DSC00613 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00617 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00618 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00619 by keith harbor, on FlickrDSC00620 by keith harbor, on Flickr

[graham]

Great photos Keith, always amazes me how tiny the TSR2s wings are, probably on a par with an F-104, makes you wonder how such tiny wings give any lift.

[keithh]

Apr 20, 2023 11:39:13 GMT graham said:

Great photos Keith, always amazes me how tiny the TSR2s wings are, probably on a par with an F-104, makes you wonder how such tiny wings give any lift.

Yes it’s one of so many rare types on display. The Cold War hangar was brilliant but everything is so tight, so pics aren’t really possible

[keefyboy]

That's a great museum Keith and IMHO better than Hendon. I've flown as a passenger on both the VC10 and Andover at the museum.

The Andover experience was interesting as my mate and I were both invited out to the RAF Rheindhalen christmas ball in 1992 so I drove up from the west country via Sunbury (to pick up my mate) to catch the trooping flight out of Luton to Dusseldorf. This was then operated by Britannia Airways and because we both worked for MOD it was only a fiver return on what was known as an "Indulgence passage". Back in the day us civvies could get to Hong Kong for a tenner!

A great time was had by all with copious amounts of German booze being consumed in the process - I even won third prize in the raffle with a JVC mini hifi system - it was pretty state of the art at the time (the first prize was a car) . Anyhow the problem was getting home - the trooping flights to Luton were all full with families going home for christmas and as an "indulgence passenger" we were buggered! Fortunately my mates in Germany pulled a few strings and they were able to get us back to the UK from RAF Bruggen on Andover XS639 into RAF Northolt. The problem was my car was at Luton airport!! Fortunately my mates brother lived nearby and was good enough to drive me to Luton.
Cheers. Keith

[keithh]

Apr 20, 2023 15:22:59 GMT keefyboy said:

That's a great museum Keith and IMHO better than Hendon. I've flown as a passenger on both the VC10 and Andover at the museum.

The Andover experience was interesting as my mate and I were both invited out to the RAF Rheindhalen christmas ball in 1992 so I drove up from the west country via Sunbury (to pick up my mate) to catch the trooping flight out of Luton to Dusseldorf. This was then operated by Britannia Airways and because we both worked for MOD it was only a fiver return on what was known as an "Indulgence passage". Back in the day us civvies could get to Hong Kong for a tenner!

A great time was had by all with copious amounts of German booze being consumed in the process - I even won third prize in the raffle with a JVC mini hifi system - it was pretty state of the art at the time (the first prize was a car) . Anyhow the problem was getting home - the trooping flights to Luton were all full with families going home for christmas and as an "indulgence passenger" we were buggered! Fortunately my mates in Germany pulled a few strings and they were able to get us back to the UK from RAF Bruggen on Andover XS639 into RAF Northolt. The problem was my car was at Luton airport!! Fortunately my mates brother lived nearby and was good enough to drive me to Luton.
Cheers. Keith

I never flew in a VC10 but I regret not going on a farewell flight that was arranged before retirement of the type. I have flown on a few HS748s in civil guise however, Series 1s of Skyways and a Bahamasair Series 2.

[filair]

I think the Catalina was in the Colerne museum many years ago

[graham]

Never knew there had been a museum at Colerne Bob. I used to visit the airfield semi regularly in the late 60s/early 70s when along with Lyneham and South Cerney, it was "Herc Central"

[keefyboy]

Graham/Filair - I don't think it was ever a museum as such, rather a storage facility for historic aircraft. My first ATC camp in 1970 was at Colerne - then the Hercules MSU - we were due to visit the storage facility but for reasons that escape me, it was cancelled. I think pretty much all the aircraft are still with us in various museums today.

Keith - in my opinion, the VC10 was the most elegant and over engineered aircraft ever (excluding Concorde). I never flew in a civvie VC10 but my flight log shows more than one trip as a passenger in - XR806, XR808, XV101, XV102, XV104, XV108 and XV109. All seats facing rearward being the RAF!

[filair]

Colerne was an RAF Museum out station.
They held open days with all of the aeroplanes available
to view and photograph.
If you have access to WRECKS AND RELICS,THE ALBUM,there is a picture
of the whole collection on page 15.
I think the same picture is featured in one of the older editions of
Wrecks and Relics.
I believe the "Museum"closed around 1975.
I did write to them prior to closure suggesting a last exhibition of the
exhibits which they duly did.

[davebasing]

My first visit to Colerne was a couple of days before Christmas 1967 on the way to see relations in Wales. Logged 7 of the based 24Sq Hastings that I needed that day including TG528 which I finally got round to graphing at Staverton when part of the Skyfame Museum in 1975 (after a rather eventful flight to there in Beagle Terrier G-ASOI) and is now preserved at Duxford.

75-aa by dave tompkins, on Flickr

The RAF reserve collection was periodically open, and I visited in June 1975. As Keefyboy says, most of the exhibits are still with us but the Valetta WD159 (albeit marked as 519) which I graphed there that day sadly went to the SAS at Pontrillas who promptly blew it up.

75-ba by dave tompkins, on Flickr
75-az by dave tompkins, on Flickr
75-bc by dave tompkins, on Flickr

After the Hastings had left, Colerne became the maintenance base for the RAF’s Hercules fleet. Tragedy struck on the 10 September 1973 when XV183 crashed fatally just after lifting off from a touch and go there. Incredibly the RAF then still practiced engine out take-offs with the No1 engine actually shut down rather than simply placed in idle. Inevitably that day the No2 engine actually failed just after lift-off and the now two engined Herc could not remain airborne and rolled into a wood next to Doncome Lane killing all 5 on board. Belatedly the RAF then banned actual engine shut downs on such training.

I still recall a report I received in my flight safety role involving a certain 4 engine aircraft (type and operator shall remain anonymous here) where the instruction to the pilot under training was “Cut four”. The report continued “..in the silence that followed the instructions could be heard loud and clear!”

[chrisb]

I seem to remember the Indian Liberator making a flyby on delivery at one of the early Greenham Common shows.

[davebasing]

Apr 23, 2023 16:28:26 GMT chrisb said:

I seem to remember the Indian Liberator making a flyby on delivery at one of the early Greenham Common shows.

Quite right Chris. Greenham Common 7 July 1974 on its final stage of its delivery flight from Rome to Lyneham

[graham]

The first IAT I drove to, having passed my driving test in the previous April. We lived in Calne so it was a relatively short ride along the A4 in the Mini Cooper I had with my brother and a friend.

[chrisb]

Is the Cooper still squirrelled away in your garage? Proper ones worth a few bob now, I had Minis in the seventies all now returned to dust no doubt.

[davebasing]

I missed the B24 at Greenham in 1974 as I went to the show the day before. Would probably have missed her anyway as she only flew past right at the end of the show enroute to Lyneham for customs clearance and some maintenance work before being flown to Colerne on 11 July and on 20 January 1976 roaded to Cosford (where I graphed her again). On 6-9 September 2005 she was trucked in various bits to Hendon where she now resides.
CosfordC4 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

She was built at Detroit-Willow Run as one of an amazing 296 B24s produced there in the month of December 1944 alone (of some 18,500 built, making it the world’s most produced bomber). On 4 June 1945 she was ferried across the South Atlantic to her new base in Bengal, flying her first operational sortie against Japanese shipping in Java on 1 August 1945. Not a good start, taking over 10 hours and her bombs failed to explode! On 11 August 1946 she was flown to 322 Maintenance Unit at Cawnpore where over a hundred withdrawn RAF Liberators were stored. 36 of these survived to join the Indian Air Force including KN751 which, using parts from other B24s, became HE807. By January 1969 the surviving Indian B24s were placed in storage at Poona with HE807 being reserved for the RAF Museum, flying to Bangalore on 20 June 1974. Painted there as KN751 she left for the UK on 1 July 1974 routing via Bombay, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Cairo and Rome.

I have graphed 4 other former Indian B24s.

Firstly HE771 which stopped at Duxford from 1973 to 1975, becoming N94459 and which I graphed again in the museum at March, California in 1990 painted as 42-50551 a Hethel, Norfolk based aircraft which was shot down by direct flak hits on the nose and cockpit on 28 January 1945 on a bombing mission to an oil refinery at Magdeburg. 7 of the crew were killed but 2 were blown clear and captured. N94459 is now preserved in flying condition at Polk City, Florida.

1973 in the scheme in which it arrived at Duxford
73-bx by dave tompkins, on Flickr

1975 still at Duxford after painting
75-ag by dave tompkins, on Flickr

At March AFB,Ca
90a-ee by dave tompkins, on Flickr

Secondly, HE877 preserved in the Pima Museum in Tucson. While still in Indian service this aircraft provided the aerial photo survey for Sir Edmund Hillary’ and Tenzing Norgay’s conquest of Everest in 1953.
PimaA2 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

Third, HE773 in the cramped store at Rockcliffe, Canada nicely painted as an anti-submarine aircraft of Eastern Air Command. Donated by India in 1968 (routing via Prestwick) in appreciation of a gift from Canada of a Lysander (1589)
IMG_6848 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
IMG_6891 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

And finally HE924 at the Indian Air Force Museum at Palam, Delhi.
india 523 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

There is of course the B24 at Duxford (44-51228), but neither a former Indian or RAF aircraft, and indeed never even saw US squadron service. Spent her life as a research aircraft with the Aeronautical Icing Research Laboratories in Minneapolis from 1946 to 1954 when she was preserved at Lackland AFB, Texas before being transported by C5 to Mildenhall in 1999 and thence by road to Duxford (much to the annoyance of the Smithsonian who wanted her). Painted at Duxford for some unknown reason as 44-50493 which was a Wendling, Norfolk based aircraft during WW2 but survived to be scrapped at Kingman, Arizona in 1946. Painted with the name “Dugan” which was the nickname given to the main pilot (who had no Irish family connections) of 50493 by an Irish friend. Lackland has replaced it with a full scale replica (for those who collect plastic models). This is the real one which I took at Lackland in 1981

LackC9 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

[graham]

Apr 24, 2023 7:24:52 GMT chrisb said:

Is the Cooper still squirrelled away in your garage? Proper ones worth a few bob now, I had Minis in the seventies all now returned to dust no doubt.

How I wish she were Chris, she had all the bits on her as I worked at a garage when I left school and they had a spares shop where you could buy all the go faster stuff. She had a stage 2 head with a racing cam, twin big SU carbs, special exhaust with a straight through, big bore pipe. Add to that the Cosmic wheels and larger tyres, it made a lot of noise but it went like s*** off a shovel, rather different to today's boy racers who stick a special exhaust on some old banger to make it sound "hot". The suspension was lowered all round too. I remember driving to Basingstoke to pick up my Gran to bring her back to home in Calne, poor old girl had a bit of a tight squeeze into the bucket seats and complained bitterly to my Mum when I arrived with her. She insisted that my Dad should take her home at the end of her week's stay but being a market trader, he was busy on that following Saturday so she had to endure another ride in the Cooper with her backside most likely no more than 6 inches off the tarmac.

[chrisb]

Cosmic wheels, ah that takes me back. Good times.

[davebasing]

Slightly off topic but "cosmic wheels" reminded me of the Le Vier Cosmic Wind built by a group of Lockheed individuals for the US air racing scene back in 1947.

Took G-ARUL at Redhill back in the early 60s before I could afford colour film. Effectively destroyed at Halfpenny Green in August 1966. "G-ARUL" still exists but it owes little if anything to the original aircraft, being built only using parts from the original aircraft as a pattern for the new parts. Rather like some of today's Spitfire builds, it retains the original data plate as a basis for its registration.
cosmic1 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

Then G-AYRJ which I took at the 1971 Biggin Hill Air Fair.
71-ad by dave tompkins, on Flickr

There is of course also G-NZIC which was registered to look as close as possible to its supposed original reg of N21C. This is also effectively a new aircraft build using a few parts from G-ARUL but mostly from spares and jigs with little of the original N21C.

[billsamuels]

Apr 27, 2023 11:37:44 GMT davebasing said:

Slightly off topic but "cosmic wheels" reminded me of the Le Vier Cosmic Wind built by a group of Lockheed individuals for the US air racing scene back in 1947.

Took G-ARUL at Redhill back in the early 60s before I could afford colour film. Effectively destroyed at Halfpenny Green in August 1966. "G-ARUL" still exists but it owes little if anything to the original aircraft, being built only using parts from the original aircraft as a pattern for the new parts. Rather like some of today's Spitfire builds, it retains the original data plate as a basis for its registration.
cosmic1 by dave tompkins, on Flickr

Then G-AYRJ which I took at the 1971 Biggin Hill Air Fair.
71-ad by dave tompkins, on Flickr

There is of course also G-NZIC which was registered to look as close as possible to its supposed original reg of N21C. This is also effectively a new aircraft build using a few parts from G-ARUL but mostly from spares and jigs with little of the original N21C.

The first photo (Redhill) brings back a lot of memories…

The 2-3 visits a month to Gatwick in the late 60’s and early ‘70’s almost always included a visit to Redhill by bus with the long walk from the bus stop on the A23… A good 35-45 minutes each way and with no cafe at Redhill to visit… How times changed in recent years with the cafe(s) offering some excellent refreshment opportunities - all now, once again, a thing of the past…

Great photos Dave.

Bill