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Came across this on a non-aviation forum I occasionally frequent. A view inside Tollerton's main hangar, showing two DC-3s, a York, Proctors and a Prince. I believe the Percival Prince went on to become the Pembroke, whilst I suspect the York is the big thing in the middle minus donks. Probably photo taken in the mid 1950's.

The Avro York (as correctly identified) used basically the same wings and engines as the Lancaster.

From the Bert Huneault collection. August 2nd, 1947, Ashuanipi Lake, Labrador.


Same aircraft and location, December 24th 1947.

This aircraft has always fascinated me, the highly original name, the background and history of the Company, and also the uniqueness of the aircraft.







William Beardmore and Company had acquired a licence for the use of the Rohrbach principle for stressed-skin construction. Using these principles and drawings supplied by Rohrbach for the RoVI, the Beardmore company designed, what was then a massive all-metal three-engined transport, the Beardmore Inflexible.
The aircraft (Serial Number J7557) was built in sections at Dalmuir between 1925 and 1927 and these were sent by sea to Felixstowe and from there delivered by road to the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Martlesham Heath Airfield where it first flew on 5 March 1928,[2] appearing at the Hendon RAF Display later in the year. The aircraft was structurally advanced for its time and had good flying qualities. It was also a very large aircraft for the time, having a wingspan of 157 ft. 6 ins. around 16 feet (4.9 m) greater than the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber of World War II. However, with an all up weight of 37,000 lbs. it suffered from being underpowered and, with no interest in production, the aircraft was dismantled at Martlesham Heath in 1930. It was then used to investigate the effects of corrosion on light-alloy stressed skin structures
One of the aircraft's wheels survives, and is an exhibit in the Science Museum, London.

Alison. You're often going on about aviation pics or aviation this and aviation that. What about us former Infantryman, don't we get a go?
How about 'infantryman pics from a bygone age?' Or, 'the uniforms of the worlds infantryman over the years?'

Equal opportunity is demanded.

Here you go rgb

om15 wrote:Here you go rgb

MIMITW3.jpg

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Hooah. Good one that!!!!

I believe the Percival Prince went on to become the Pembroke

The Prince was developed into the Sea Prince for use by the Royal Navy, the RAF wanted something similar but with a higher payload capacity so Percival extended the wings to give extra lift. This Pembroke was displayed at the Abingdon air & country show a few times, they also had a Sea Prince they were restoring but I've not seen them for a few years now.

Everyone was influenced at an early age into aviation, I used to ride my bike to Abingdon in the early 1960 and watch the Beverly's doing circuits, went inside one on an open day, and that was it settled, straight into the RAF at 15.5.

On my 1st 'overseas' posting, I travelled by Beverley.

Abingdon to Istres, I was on the manifest as Supernumerary Crew. I queried this with a guy in Movements, and was pleased to be told that I wasn't working my passage, but that it was a work around, as the driver was not qualified to carry passengers!

Did a long haul in a Bubblie in '67, Ian. Some 4,146 nm all up.

Code Source Location
WSSL AIP Singapore [Seletar Airport], SG
YPCC DAFIF West Island (Pulau Panjang) [Cocos (Keeling) Islands], CC
YPPD DAFIF Port Hedland, WA, AU
YBAS DAFIF Alice Springs, NT, AU
YLVT GCMAP Laverton [RAAF Williams Laverton Base], Vic, AU



4 segment path:
WSSL YPCC 207° (SW) 207° (SW) 915 nm
YPCC YPPD 114° (SE) 116° (SE) 1,348 nm
YPPD YBAS 106° (E) 105° (E) 875 nm
YBAS YLVT. 149° (SE) 144° (SE) 1,009 nm
4,146 nm

Alison

I'm sorry for you.

The longest trip I did in a Bev was Marham to Luqa and return. The return leg was non-stop, the outbound stopped at Orange. This was just about 12 months since I left there. I managed several beers with old mates in 1 hour.

One trip I missed was a detachment to Kano, when 214 did the 1st non-stop flight from UK to Cape Town.

We based tankers in Kano, the ground crew and spares traveled in a Bev. They night stopped at Idres (SP) and the trip from Idres to Kano was rather boring, but the return was hell. Apparently the a/c bounced around so much that one pax hit his head on the roof of the freight bay! Luckily not hard and more luck, he landed relatively unhurt.

All in all, it was one of the better detachments to miss.

While at Istres I once replaced the HF aerial from the mast by the astrodome to the top of port tail fin, just walked along the top of the fuselage unrolling the wire and did up the shackle on the tail. I wouldn't dare do that now.

One trip I missed was a detachment to Kano, when 214 did the 1st non-stop flight from UK to Cape Town.

Non-stop ? Kano ? What am I missing ? ( yes, I do know where Kano is, spent many happy (?) days there on the BOAC Stratocruiser fleet.

Sorry, not trying to be a smart-ass, just curious ?

ExSp33db1rd wrote:

One trip I missed was a detachment to Kano, when 214 did the 1st non-stop flight from UK to Cape Town.

Non-stop ? Kano ? What am I missing ? ( yes, I do know where Kano is, spent many happy (?) days there on the BOAC Stratocruiser fleet.

Sorry, not trying to be a smart-ass, just curious ?

We based Valiant tankers in Kano, this was to re-fuel the a/c that did the non-stop Marham - Cape Town flight. This was July 1959.

The captain of the non-stop a/c was our Sqdn OC, Wing Commander Mike Beetham DFC, he has recently passed away as MoRAF Sir Michael Beetham GCB, CBR, DFC, AFC, DL, FRAeS

ian16th wrote:We based Valiant tankers in Kano, this was to re-fuel the a/c that did the non-stop Marham - Cape Town flight. This was July 1959.

Were you practising for the Vulcan to the Falklands round trip?

We were building up the experience and expertise, that was used for Black Buck in 1982.

214 carried out the original trials of Sir Alan Cobham's probe & drogue in flight refuelling system, the trials were deemed to be a success and we became the RAF's 1st operational tanker sqdn. Our boss, Mike Beetham was awarded the AFC for the successful introduction of IFR into the RAF.

He was MoRAF Sir Michael Beetham GCB, CBR, DFC, AFC, DL, FRAeS and Chief of the Air Staff in 1982 at the time of the Falklands War. So he knew what he was asking when he ordered the Black Buck missions.

I was posted to 214 in Feb 59, I was on the Sqdn until Oct 62. Yes I was posted out, to Akrotiri, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 2 years later I opted to spend my last 6 months service prior to demob back at Marham, and when clutching my Blue Card, I turned up at Tech Manning, I was assigned to 214 again

This was Oct 64 and the Valiant's problem with corrosion had come to the fore, we did little flying and most days all we did was 'Anti Deterioration Checks' and played a lot of Bridge.

This meant that I had no problems getting time off to go for job interviews and getting settled into civilian life.

The grand sum was that I spent over 4 years on 214, most of it was great fun. Lots of short detachments and travel and doing a job that seemed meaningful, when most of Bomber Command was doing dispersal exercises and spending long days and nights on QRA.

17 years into civilian life, longer than my 13 in the RAF, I'm following the Falklands War on TV and among the military top brass on TV is a face that I recognized! It was my old sqdn boss, now with lots of gold braid and even more rings around his sleeve.

When people receive knighthoods, why does Mike become Michael?

Happy Daze

ian16th wrote:when most of Bomber Command was doing dispersal exercises and spending long days and nights on QRA.

Tell me about it. After a night on QRA the mess used to do us proud with trays of eggs, bacon and sausages delivered to our table. As much as we could eat. The Duty Officer would stay well away from our area because we stunk of hydraulic fluid, glycol, fuel, etc. etc. In Winter it was trog boots, greasy-wool roll neck sweaters and dirty torn anoraks. But we was happy, we was.

Alison

Some interesting facts and good photographs :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/list ... n-history/

I did the flight refuelling ground school for the Vulcan at Marham in Aug 64 as we were planned to be AAR capable. Earlier the Mk1 Vulcan had done non-stop flights to Australia etc and also tried airborne alert.

I think in practice AAR at that time was impracticable as we didn't have many tankers. We could it from UK to Singapore in 36 hours and do a mission in the last leg. With AAR we could do it in about 18 hours but the route would need to be set up with Valiant s in Libya, Aden and Gan. We were quicker without AAR.