OT: Dixie's BBMF stuff

[Dixie]

I took a trip to Hendon with work yesterday. Loads of lovely aeroplanes to geek at! Some of them are relevant to this forum, others not so much.

To start with, the famous S-Sugar (or Q-Queenie in her early days). The second highest 'scoring' Lancaster in terms of missions and the highest scoring survivor. For a while it was believed she was the top scorer which is why she was saved.
It's an impressive scoreboard, but it's not the original. When she came up to 100 ops the RAF decided to get some propaganda from her and invited the press. But she had a rather 'free spirited' lady on the nose and it was apparently deemed inappropriate for the national consumption at the time.

[Dixie]

Black 6, the Bf109. One of the guys I work with was involved in restoring her to flying condition. Unfortunately she only few a few times until a heavy landing put a second stop to her aerial days. [:(]

[Dixie]

And from the other side. Although she looks in decent nick, because the pilot refused to be cut from the aircraft, we were told the internal damage is quite severe.

[Dixie]

Another view of S-Sugar. She looks a bit odd sat up like that, but who am I to argue with the experts.

[Dixie]

A Gloster Gladiator. Sort of. This is the remains of an aircraft retrieved (iirc) from a Norwegian lake. It's certainly a different way of displaying an aircraft rather than restoring her.

[Dixie]

Beaufighter X.

It's surprising just how big she is, the 'fighter' part of the name is a bit misleading in this respect! She's a big kite and it's a shame that there aren't any flying about. Not as glamorous as the Spitfire or as famous as the Mosquito the Beaufighter was the first designed for the task nightfighter and was also used for a variety of other roles (as we're all no doubt aware). I wonder why the USAAF didn't take some on for the South Pacific NF squadrons as they did in the Med?

[Dixie]

Lockheed Hudson.

One that's relevant to the forum! [:D] I guess she did OK for a converted airliner, another one that rarely gets any limelight.

[Dixie]

Thunderbolt MkII

In SEAC colours, so relevant again! The MkI and MkII Thunderbolts both came under the US P-47D designation, depending on the canopy type. RAF mark numbers did not always correspond directly to US designations, a case which is probably most evident in the P-47 and B-24.

The P-47 got different mark numbers for the same US 'type' whereas various US Liberator designations were grouped into single mark numbers in RAF service.

[wdolson]

The stuff foreign museums have... The bulk of aircraft in American museums are, of course, American. I've seen a few Me-109 close up, but I don't believe any museum in the US has a Lanc. Where do you work where you get to go to air museums on outings? I worked down the block from the Museum of Flight in Seattle for a rather large aerospace company and they never took us to any museums.

The Planes of Fame museum in Chino, CA has an unrestored Betty displayed in a crash scene. Aircraft that haven't been restored yet, or are unable to be restored are sometimes displayed in their "as found" state. I believe there is a wrecked Ju-88 on display in a museum in Germany.

Bill

[Dixie]

Those who know me will know what this is about [:)]

[Dixie]

Mystery aircraft! First person to guess wins the kudos of your fellow forumites! Is this a good thing? Only you can decide...

[Kwik E Mart]

...cool pics! thanks!

[Dixie]

Liberator MkVI

One of those afore-mentioned Libs. This is (iirc) a B-24M built by Ford, the guide mentioned that she's got the Ford Oval on the control columns. This one came to the museum via India, after the end of the war the Brits didn't want to pay for her (and many others) and the Americans didn't want her back. So the RAF gather a load of surplus Libs at an MU and drove bulldozers into them, thus making them scrap. When we left India, the IAF managed to piece together several Liberators from parts of multiple aeroplanes.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: Dixie

Mystery aircraft! First person to guess wins the kudos of your fellow forumites! Is this a good thing? Only you can decide...

As a WAG, I'd say Sunderland, but I don't think that's right. It does look like a 4 engine beast.

Bill

[Dixie]

Halifax.

The only 'authentic' and orginal Halifax anywhere in the world. She was lost on her first sortie an a raid against the Tirpitz. With her starboard tank burning she was put down on a frozen lake, her crew escaped with just a broken ankle between them (the Eng) and were retrieved by the Norwegian resistance. The burning fuel melted the ice and the plane sank the the lake bed where she remained until the 70s. When they raised her the burnt wing snapped, which was part of the reason for keeping her as is rather than restoring her (actually a total rebuild).

The crew were quite quickly moved on to neutral Sweden, except the Eng who realised his broken ankle would slow the rest of the group. After a few weeks he came to the conclusion that staying with the resistance would put too many Norwegian lives at risk so he handed himself in to the Germans.

[Dixie]

Ju88

This is an interesting one. During the war the boffins wanted to get hold of a functioning Lichtenstein radar, so the secret service put feelers out. They ended up contacting a German pilot based in Denmark who agreed to defect.

He set off for a flight to Norway and refueled there, then he set off for home but instead sent out a distress signal and dumped a dinghy and other odds and ends overboard before heading to Dyce in Scotland. The only problem was that the pilot and nav were happy to defect but the w/op didn't like the idea so he had to be knocked out and restrained!

[Dixie]

One from today. Can you tell what it is?

[Dixie]

It's PZ865! Sister of LF363 and the last Hurricane ever built.

[Dixie]

She's in the colours of SEAC, a Canadian pilot Flt Lt 'Jimmy' Whalen DFC who was killed during the battles of Imphal and Kohima. Shame she's not got the fishtail exhausts (yet) or Vokes filter.

[Dixie]

And finally, Jimmy's personal insignia. The original panel was removed from his aircraft by his fitter and kept for several years (Jimmy's aircraft was u/s on the day he died). Eventually the panel was passed onto Jimmy Whalen's family, rumour has it that BBMF will be getting the original on loan.