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Post by Kath on Apr 5, 2024 21:27:17 GMT
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Post by Kath on Apr 5, 2024 21:33:41 GMT
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Post by Kath on Apr 5, 2024 21:35:25 GMT
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Post by Kath on Apr 5, 2024 21:37:02 GMT
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Post by Kath on Apr 5, 2024 21:38:45 GMT
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Post by Chester PB on Apr 6, 2024 21:24:07 GMT
Are visitors allowed inside any of the planes that are displayed at ground level? If so, you will be surprised how little space there is inside them.
In 1968 or 1969, when the RAF's Lancaster was at the Biggin Hill air show, I was allowed go inside and sit in the co-pilot's seat. I was a tall 12 or 13 year old, and I found the cockpit very difficult to get into. I recall a lady, probably then in her mid-40s, sitting in the pilot's seat and talking with the RAF officer who had flown the plane that day. She asked him to put his hand over her eyes and ask her to find any control he wanted to name, and he humoured her by doing this and naming some kind of control switch for one of the engines. To his surprise she immediately reached out and touched the correct switch whilst blindfolded. She then asked him how many 'hours' he had on Lancasters, and what was the longest distance he had flown in one. His answer was something like 'two or three hundred hours and three hundred miles', to which she replied that she had over two thousand hours, and had once flown one to Iceland. I still remember her statement 'Of course, I didn't have to fly to Iceland solo like I did with most of the other flights'. She had been one of the ladies who delivered Lancasters from the factory to RAF bases all over the UK, and that the Iceland trip had been a one-way flight after which she was returned to the UK as a passenger in a USAAF B17, which she told him was a very poor plane compared to the Lancaster.
When I was much older, and elderly relative of mine who was a wartime RAF pilot died and I recall something his son told me at the time. When he was eighteen he wanted a big motorbike and his father's comment was something like '100 horsepower and 100 miles per hour? When I was your age I had 1,700 HP and nearly 400 mph, and people in other planes often tried to kill me, but it was probably less risky that you on a big motorbike.'
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Post by gray1720 on Apr 7, 2024 8:39:48 GMT
Some very decent shots there, Kath, the American Air Museum is so rammed with aircraft it's hard to do. Did you take a look at the glass panels leading to the entrance? Very sobering.
Ironically, had I not gone to boarding school (one of my formative experiences and something I loved), I'd probaby have seen a Blackbird in flight. They were regular visitors to RAF Wethersfield just up the road as the commanding officer was a former Blackbird pilot, so they would often roll by on the way back to Mildenhall. That's probably my biggest regret about going away.
Does the kids play area have the wooden Lancaster still? To my delight, when it was built some genius christened it the Plankaster!
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Post by MJB on Apr 7, 2024 9:59:57 GMT
If you want to get inside a Lancaster bomber cockpit, then the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection has a restored/recreated nose section that is usually open to visitors. They have many cockpits you can climb in and the knowledgeable guides often flew the types on display, frequently the actual airframes in the collection. As the name suggests it focuses on the A&AEE and Empire Test Pilots School, so it's mostly cold War aircraft, but there is an excellent RFC exhibition and I think there's a new display about the AOP that was based at Old Sarum. www.boscombedownaviationcollection.co.uk/ |
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Post by Kath on Apr 7, 2024 10:12:33 GMT
Are visitors allowed inside any of the planes that are displayed at ground level? If so, you will be surprised how little space there is inside them.
In 1968 or 1969, when the RAF's Lancaster was at the Biggin Hill air show, I was allowed go inside and sit in the co-pilot's seat. I was a tall 12 or 13 year old, and I found the cockpit very difficult to get into. I recall a lady, probably then in her mid-40s, sitting in the pilot's seat and talking with the RAF officer who had flown the plane that day. She asked him to put his hand over her eyes and ask her to find any control he wanted to name, and he humoured her by doing this and naming some kind of control switch for one of the engines. To his surprise she immediately reached out and touched the correct switch whilst blindfolded. She then asked him how many 'hours' he had on Lancasters, and what was the longest distance he had flown in one. His answer was something like 'two or three hundred hours and three hundred miles', to which she replied that she had over two thousand hours, and had once flown one to Iceland. I still remember her statement 'Of course, I didn't have to fly to Iceland solo like I did with most of the other flights'. She had been one of the ladies who delivered Lancasters from the factory to RAF bases all over the UK, and that the Iceland trip had been a one-way flight after which she was returned to the UK as a passenger in a USAAF B17, which she told him was a very poor plane compared to the Lancaster.
When I was much older, and elderly relative of mine who was a wartime RAF pilot died and I recall something his son told me at the time. When he was eighteen he wanted a big motorbike and his father's comment was something like '100 horsepower and 100 miles per hour? When I was your age I had 1,700 HP and nearly 400 mph, and people in other planes often tried to kill me, but it was probably less risky that you on a big motorbike.'
What an incredible story! We had a photographer come to do a talk at my Photography Club last year whose passion was WWII planes and he told that women pilots were used to deliver planes to the RAF bases - but to see one of them back in a plane again - brilliant! I only saw one plane with steps up to the cockpit but it was more for looking in than sitting in. I think they do a special every now and then and let people in them. I'm sure when we last visited regularly (I'd have been roughly around about ten so 1978 or thereabouts) you could get into the planes. Perhaps people caused too much damage? |
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Post by Kath on Apr 7, 2024 10:17:09 GMT
Some very decent shots there, Kath, the American Air Museum is so rammed with aircraft it's hard to do. Did you take a look at the glass panels leading to the entrance? Very sobering. Ironically, had I not gone to boarding school (one of my formative experiences and something I loved), I'd probaby have seen a Blackbird in flight. They were regular visitors to RAF Wethersfield just up the road as the commanding officer was a former Blackbird pilot, so they would often roll by on the way back to Mildenhall. That's probably my biggest regret about going away. Does the kids play area have the wooden Lancaster still? To my delight, when it was built some genius christened it the Plankaster! It was hard to get decent shots - that B52 seemed to get some bit of it into everything and there wasn't space to get clear shots of much. I spent a bit of time looking at the glass panels - over 7000 planes missing in action and represented as etchings was as you say, very sobering. They looked to be building a new kids' play area and I didn't see the wooden lancaster (Plankaster! Brilliant!) but perhaps it will feature in the new set up. I did see a German Volksjäger in the middle of being restored and Pete, the bloke telling me all about it said they were running out of materials so had to give it wooden wings - a real Heath Robinson job by all accounts. |
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Post by Kath on Apr 7, 2024 10:18:54 GMT
If you want to get inside a Lancaster bomber cockpit, then the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection has a restored/recreated nose section that is usually open to visitors. They have many cockpits you can climb in and the knowledgeable guides often flew the types on display, frequently the actual airframes in the collection. As the name suggests it focuses on the A&AEE and Empire Test Pilots School, so it's mostly cold War aircraft, but there is an excellent RFC exhibition and I think there's a new display about the AOP that was based at Old Sarum. www.boscombedownaviationcollection.co.uk/Next time I am in Salisbury to visit my cousin, I'll see if he fancies a trip there! |
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Post by aitch on Apr 7, 2024 10:57:38 GMT
What an incredible story! We had a photographer come to do a talk at my Photography Club last year whose passion was WWII planes and he told that women pilots were used to deliver planes to the RAF bases - but to see one of them back in a plane again - brilliant!
One of the few interesting things I learned about from QI.
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Post by kate on Apr 7, 2024 11:13:08 GMT
What an incredible story! We had a photographer come to do a talk at my Photography Club last year whose passion was WWII planes and he told that women pilots were used to deliver planes to the RAF bases - but to see one of them back in a plane again - brilliant!
One of the few interesting things I learned about from QI.
And yet when I wanted to be an RAF pilot, I was told no women accepted to train as pilots. Bugged me no end. It changed eventually, but too late for me. |
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Post by aitch on Apr 7, 2024 11:15:26 GMT
One of the few interesting things I learned about from QI.
And yet when I wanted to be an RAF pilot, I was told no women accepted to train as pilots. Bugged me no end. It changed eventually, but too late for me. You should have started a war - THEN they would have taken you on.  |
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Post by Chester PB on Apr 7, 2024 16:26:43 GMT
Are visitors allowed inside any of the planes that are displayed at ground level? If so, you will be surprised how little space there is inside them.
In 1968 or 1969, when the RAF's Lancaster was at the Biggin Hill air show, I was allowed go inside and sit in the co-pilot's seat. I was a tall 12 or 13 year old, and I found the cockpit very difficult to get into. I recall a lady, probably then in her mid-40s, sitting in the pilot's seat and talking with the RAF officer who had flown the plane that day. She asked him to put his hand over her eyes and ask her to find any control he wanted to name, and he humoured her by doing this and naming some kind of control switch for one of the engines. To his surprise she immediately reached out and touched the correct switch whilst blindfolded. She then asked him how many 'hours' he had on Lancasters, and what was the longest distance he had flown in one. His answer was something like 'two or three hundred hours and three hundred miles', to which she replied that she had over two thousand hours, and had once flown one to Iceland. I still remember her statement 'Of course, I didn't have to fly to Iceland solo like I did with most of the other flights'. She had been one of the ladies who delivered Lancasters from the factory to RAF bases all over the UK, and that the Iceland trip had been a one-way flight after which she was returned to the UK as a passenger in a USAAF B17, which she told him was a very poor plane compared to the Lancaster.
When I was much older, and elderly relative of mine who was a wartime RAF pilot died and I recall something his son told me at the time. When he was eighteen he wanted a big motorbike and his father's comment was something like '100 horsepower and 100 miles per hour? When I was your age I had 1,700 HP and nearly 400 mph, and people in other planes often tried to kill me, but it was probably less risky that you on a big motorbike.'
What an incredible story! We had a photographer come to do a talk at my Photography Club last year whose passion was WWII planes and he told that women pilots were used to deliver planes to the RAF bases - but to see one of them back in a plane again - brilliant! I only saw one plane with steps up to the cockpit but it was more for looking in than sitting in. I think they do a special every now and then and let people in them. I'm sure when we last visited regularly (I'd have been roughly around about ten so 1978 or thereabouts) you could get into the planes. Perhaps people caused too much damage? I think it helped that the ladies were probably not as tall as most of the RAF's Bomber Command pilots - the cabin was certainly very cramped with her, the RAF pilot and I in it. I had to bend very low to climb through the fuselage and into the cockpit. Since writing the comment, I suspect I may have been wrong about Iceland, and she may have said Greenland. There is no way I can check this, and it was a long time ago. However, I believe that some Lancasters may have been sent to Canada for pilot training, so it is plausible that both Iceland and Greenland were used as stopping places on such a journey. We occasionally enjoy the noise of the Gloucester police helicopter over our rural abode, and I am familiar with its sound. A few years ago, in the middle of a week day, I hear something different and looked out of a window to see the RAF's Lancaster flying just close enough o be recognisable. I found out later that it going to Chepstow to do a 'fly past' to coincide with a ceremony for the fitting of a 'blue plaque' on a house there. openplaques.org/plaques/49259My late father in law worked at Rolls Royce in Derby from the late 1930s until his death in the late 1980s, and was never conscripted because aero engine manufacture was a reserved occupation. He worked on the Merlin engines, and later on jets. I recall watching a live TV broadcast from the Farnborough air show with him sometime in the 1980s, when the RAF's Lancaster was performing. The TV set only had a small loudspeaker in its cabinet (none of the wonderful surround sound we would have today), and he told me that one of the engines was not running correctly. A few moments later the announcer said that the plane would be landing immediately because of a problem with one engine. My father in law had once been taken for a 'ride' in a Lancaster prototype by one of the test pilots who had told him that when not 'fully loaded' it was nearly as much fun as a Spitfire and proceeded to fly it in a loop and then performed a roll during which it was inverted. My father in law did not fly in an aeroplane again until travelling in commercial passenger jets in the 1960s. The story about the motorcycle always amuses me. Apparently the father flew Hawker Typhoons later in the war, so the 1,700 HP figure would be too low. |
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240402-Duxford IWM-001 by Kath Polley, on Flickr
240402-Duxford IWM-B52-002 by Kath Polley, on Flickr
240402-Duxford IWM-003 by Kath Polley, on Flickr
240402-Duxford IWM-004 by Kath Polley, on Flickr
240402-Duxford IWM-006 by Kath Polley, on Flickr
