MAY'S Q&A
Tuesday, 27 March 2012 00:00

Wings over Glasgow
Q Stuart James asked in December 2011 for information on Scottish de Havilland Queen Bee production.

A Dave Miller writes from Australia to say that Scottish Aviation acquired an old warehouse at 39 West Campbell Street, Glasgow, for building Queen Bees, but the project was sub-contracted to Morris and the West of Scotland Furniture Co of Beith, Ayrshire. A contract was issued for 150, later reduced to 60, the first being completed in August 1943. Serials ran between LF779 and LF867, with blockout batches. The only surviving flying example is LF858/G-BLUZ. Scottish Aviation also had sites at Largs Bay and Greenock (Cairds Shipyard), used for the maintenance of seaplanes and amphibians.

Checkpoint Charlie
Q Details were requested in the March issue on pieces of an aircraft in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Berlin, which I said was obviously a Storch; it was not!

A Geoff Dobson has received an email from the museum, giving the story. Rolf Schauss, who had a parachute-jump school, had been contacted by a family named Arnditz in East Germany who wished, for humanitarian reasons, to escape to the West. Without permission Schauss took PZL Wilga D-EDDG from Saarbrucken, hedge-hopped across the border to Hungary and landed in a field near Jak, took the family and flew out, being shot at, but landed in Pinkafeld, Austria, the whole action lasting 19min! Schauss and Bernd Alt wrote a book about the escape, Angst vergessen, but there seems to have been only a German edition.

Foulness aircraft

Q We had a query in the February issue about aircraft on the Foulness site.

A There have been two replies so far. Alan Marshall, as a member of the Royal Observer Corps, donned his uniform and visited Foulness every week from 1962 to 1991 and can name some of them. They included Vickers Valiant B.2 WJ954, BAC TSR.2 XR219, Boeing B-29s WZ966 and ’967, Handley Page Halifax RT779, English Electric Canberra WE113, Supermarine Type 508, Westland Whirlwind XR453, four Supermarine Scimitars, about 60 Gloster Meteors and the two Bristol T.188s, XF923 and ’926. The latter fortunately was saved and is in the RAF Museum Cosford. Mr Marshall recalls seeing a book there which recorded every aircraft which went to Foulness.

Major Tony Hill says the Receipt and Issue records for the period January 1954 to September 1991 have survived, but it is thought that aircraft there before early 1953 may have been destroyed in the surge tide of January 31, 1953, when virtually the whole of Foulness was flooded. The accuracy and amount of information recorded depended on the diligence of the relevant recorder.

Historic archive material includes notes taken from the desk diaries of the site foreman from 1964 to the early 1990s, some correspondence files and reminiscences, and it is only from the last (including some from Wg Cdr Ken Wallis) that Major Hill has an idea of a few aircraft types that ended their days at Foulness, but no detail of serials or dates. This is a frustrating gap in his researches, which run to some 90 pages, and he would be pleased to hear from readers with any information.

 

Add new comment
 
MARCH'S Q&A
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:05

B-17 at Croydon
Q Captain Heinz-Dieter Bonsmann, formerly chief of the Lufthansa Historic Flight and now retired, sends a photo of a Boeing B-17G fuselage at Croydon Airport in the summer of 1961 (the airfield had closed for flying in September 1959, but some on-site maintenance work was still being carried out). A sign over the cockpit window said the B-17 was used for motion-picture purposes..

A I saw this fuselage in August 1961, and noted it as being used in the film The Longest Day. I was later told that it was formerly 44-83811, once N5014N. A month later there was a section of centre fuselage there with sand/brown camouflage and a white underside. Presumably these pieces were used for interior shots. Also around this time another film, The War Lover, was being made, so possibly that was another connection..

P-40 and Spitfire
Q Geoff Dobson submits an interesting photo issued by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) which was reproduced in Flight for June 27, 1940. The caption says the location was Uplands Airport, Ottawa, but why were these two aircraft there together?

A Reference to Air-Britain’s Spitfire International (2002) reveals that Spitfire IA L1090 was shipped to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, for testing in September 1939, and flew tests with the Curtiss XP-40 in May 1940. During a visit to Canada by USAAC technical officers, the XP-40 was flown by an RCAF officer and the Spitfire by a USAAC officer. The Spitfire subsequently flew with several units in Canada before leaving Ottawa for England via Montreal in June 1940, arriving back in the UK on August 1. In April 1941 it became 3201M with No 3 School of Technical Training (STT), Blackpool, passing the following month to No 4 STT, Henlow, where it was finally struck off charge on September 4, 1944..
Spitfire’s newmarkings
Q Adam Smith submits photos dated 1971 showing five Hispano Ha-1112s in fake RAF markings, and asks for details.?
A There were actually six aircraft at that location. They were used only for taxying sequences at Tablada, Spain, during filming for The Battle of Britain, and ended up at the Victory Air Museum, Mundelein, Texas, where these photos would have been taken. A brief history of each: C.4K-108 eventually became G-BOML and crashed at Sabadell, Spain, tragically killing pilot Mark Hanna; C.4K-121 was eventually restored to fly in Texas as a Bf 109F-4 with a DB 601 engine; C.4K-131 went to Eric Vormezeele in Belgium in 1985 for restoration to fly as OO-MAF; C.4K-134 is in Germany, modified to Bf 109G-6 standard with a DB 605; C.4K-135 was.

 

Add new comment
 
MARCH'S QUESTIONS
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 14:00

Contact us by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to Q&A, Aeroplane, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG

 

Walter Leslie Handley
Q Michael Walters says that the above-named famous motorcyclist (four times TT winner) died in the crash of a Bell Airacobra, and asks why he would have been flying it, and whether there are any further details./p>

Lightning F.3 XP701
Q David Harvey of the Robertsbridge Aviation Society, which has the cockpit of the above English Electric Lightning, is compiling brief history of it for the society’s website, and asks if any readers can contribute information or photographs of XP701..

Earthquake Beverleys
Q Recent questions about a Blackburn Beverley reminded Peter Huggett that Beverleys of 242 Operational Conversion Unit were involved in relief work following the Agadir earthquake, which occurred on February 29, 1960. The aircraft were flying-in 45gal drums of lime for most of March to “deal with” the death toll, estimated at 35,000, but there seems to have been no coverage of this anywhere; hardly surprising in view of its sensitivity. Can readers comment on the operation, which was also used to give student crews route-flying experience?.

Checkpoint Charlie
Q On a recent visit to Berlin, Geoff Dobson noted the propeller and a pair of wings of an aircraft inside the Checkpoint Charlie exhibit, but, having no time to go in, photographed the pieces from outside. The wings, bearing registration D-EDDG, are obviously from a Fieseler Storch, but it is not clear if it is genuine. Does anyone know more?

Presentation Spitfire
Q David Lloyd says The Spitfire Society is trying to trace information on presentation Supermarine Spitfire IIB P8643 Margaret Helen. He has details of its service history with various units, including a belly-landing near Rye on January 29, 1943, but would appreciate any photos from pilots or others who had connections with it.

 

Add new comment
 
More Articles...
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>

Page 10 of 27