Cold War Jets Open Day 1, 2014

At 09:00 on Sunday 25 May 2014, the gates at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground/Aerodrome opened to the public for the first of two open days in 2014 of the Cold War Jets Museum. The weather was near perfect and although a light shower was forecast it never materialised throughout the day. With an ever increasing number of aircraft in or being returned to running condition, this unique museum has become the jet equivalent of Duxford, albeit none of the aircraft are airworthy. But that does not detract from its popularity.

Visiting Aircraft

During the morning several visiting aircraft arrived, which included amongst others an L-4 Cub and an Auster, a Fox Month and a couple of ex-military aircraft, a UK registered SIAI-Marchetti SF-260 in Italian Air Force colours and a German registered Piaggio P-160.

In addition over a dozen other light aircraft arrived.

Also arriving at the western end of the airfield were a brace of Gazelle helicopters.

They remained anonymous till they departed, when they flew along the length of the runway at low level before making an abrupt 180 turn to depart. 

A visitor seen before at these open days was a Jet Provost T4, arriving from North Weald, which was followed by a Jet Proost T5 in little while later. Both aircraft performed flypasts before landing and after taking off at the end of the day.

The Performers

Most of the aircraft performing fast taxi runs have been seen before, but there was one notably return to the running fold, Buccaneer XX900, which had been "laid up" for a few years following a problem. Although not painted yet, it was back to full running order thanks to its new owners, Denis and Lee Parker. The other aircraft that made its debut was Vickers VC-10 ZD241, which in the hands of Andy "Tonks" Townshend, closed the show and unfortunately,  as it taxied back to the head of the runway, suffered a tyre deflation due to a brake unit binding slightly causing it to get a bit hotter than the others. Fortunately the problem is rectifiable without difficulty.

Follow are a few images of the running aircraft. 

Canberra starting up

Nimrod MR2 spools up its Speys

Victor K2 at full power.....no flight this time though!

VC10 ZD241 returns after its blast down the runway

L-29 Delfin returns from its noisy run

Jet Provost T3 accompanied the Delfin on its run

One gorgeous looking Buccaneer, wings folded and airbrake open being shown off

A welcome return of Buccaneer XX900, with electrical and hydraulic problems sorted

Lightning XR728 being "flown" by John Ward

Unfortunately Geoffrey Poole's Hunter T7 developed a problem with the Avpin starter unit and didn't run.

Mid-afternoon BBMF Spitfire XIX PM631, resplendent in D-Day stripes, made a few low level passes in the hands of BBMF boss Duncan Mason 

 On the side-lines

Pat Fitzgerald's baby Tristar C1 ZE705 on display. Its future and the other four Tristars is rumoured to be as air tankers fighting forest fires in the US after conversion 

This Sea Vixen has had a few problems, but should be joining the "runners" in the not too distant future. Just imagine a Sea Vixen and Buccaneer in Royal Navy colours running together. The latter is already a runner, but had brake problem this time around and since stopping is rather important after a high speed taxi she remained on the "flightline". A raspberry-ripple Tornade GR1 is being rebuilt to running condition by a team from RAF Marham, so watch this space.

Ever since the first open days in the nineties these events have grown in popularity and every years sees increases in crowd numbers, which is not surprising when the number and variety of aircraft have increased. More will be added as time goes bye, a Hunter GA11 is not far off and there is a German F-104G Starfighter, that needs work and an engine.

The next scheduled event at Bruntingthorpe are:

July 27, 2014 Lighting Preservation Group - Double Q-Shed Scramble, ticket via the website:  http://www.lightnings.org.uk/
August 24, 2014 Cold War Jets Museum Open Day 2
website:  http://www.bruntingthorpeaviation.com/open-days/

30 May 2014
Theo Claassen

Visit to Brooklands

On Thursday 8th of May some of us were lucky enough to get a seat on the Rolls Royce Heritage coach for a visit to Brooklands Museum in Surrey. The weather forecast wasn't very good and the rain soon hit us as we were travelling down the M40 towards Oxfordshire and with delays the M25 we arrived at the museum around 11:00.

The museum is home to many iconic vehicles from horse-drawn busses to Concorde and there are a great many other interesting things to see. This blog concentrates on the aeronautical side and is intended to be more of a photographic report of the visit. There are however a few points worth a mention, the first of which being the overwhelming enthusiasm of the volunteers that can be found around most of the exhibits. Stories and information are abound and access to some of the airframes offers an insight into the technology as well as the use of the individual aircraft. One of the volunteers in the hangar persuaded me to shoehorn myself into the cockpit of two-seat Harrier G-VTOL, which many years earlier I had photographed, on several occasions, at various Farnborough air shows in the eighties.

The second point to make is that there are several replica aircraft, e.g. Sopwith Camel and Tabloid in the main display hangar, that provide a good visualisation of those aircraft that are no longer available in original form.

The third and final point is that some of the unique exhibits, such as the Lancaster Nose section and the fuselage of Swift F4 WK198 are out in the open as is Viking G-AGRU, which has its starboard engine with mounted propellor stacked behind it with some tarpaulin draped over the top.

Hopefully when the new hanger is built the unique and vulnerable exhibits can be brought indoors. There was even the suggestion of Eden Project like domes to house the larger aircraft, but that will cost a small fortune and is many years away, if ever!

BAC-111 Test Aircraft

First production Concorde

Loch Ness Wellington

Loch Ness Wellington

Jetstream

Canadian Lancaster Nose

Merchantman

P-1127 prototype

Roe 1 replica

Swift F4 WK198 *

In the second half of the seventies I was a member of the North East Aircraft Museum at Sunderland Airport (ex RAF Usworth and today the Nissan car factory). It was NEAM that rescued this important fuselage from a scrap yard and restored it as best as possible. The wings and horizontal tail surfaces had disappeared hence the current state of the restoration. WK198 was flown by Mike Lithgow on 25th September 1953 to a new World Speed Record of 1,184km/h. Including this fuselage, only six aircraft have survived

Yours truly trying Harrier T1 G-VTOL for size (too small)

Valiant starboard undercarriage leg

Varsity

VC10 Cockpit

Viking G-AGRU (see link below)
http://www.vc10.net/History/vikings_of_soesterberg.html

Vimy replica that Steve Fossett flew to Australia

Viscount 800

Main museum building from motor racing's heyday

Visit to Red Arrows

17 January 2012

Red Arrows at RAF Scampton

Sywell Aviation Museum Opening for 2014 Season

  

On Easter Saturday, 19 April 2014, the Sywell Aviation Museum re-opened its doors for the 2014 season with a special event attended and supported by a variety of people and organisations.

From the Rugby Aviation Group, apart from the author, David Smith and Chris Heath were in attendance for most of the day. We had hoped for warm sunny weather, if previous days had been anything to go by. But, despite it remaining dry, there was a cold and stiff north-easterly breeze blowing.

Peter Teichman displays Hurricane BE505

The first event of the day was the arrival of Peter Teichman in his Hawker Hurricane IIB BE505, which flies in the colours of RAF 174 Squadron and who flew in from his Hangar 11 operation at North Weald. On arrival the assembled crowd was treated to Peter's expertly executed display, showing the aircraft from all angles. Peter has close links with Sywell and the museum, but more about that later.

Peter Teichman posing for the cameras in front of BE505

Following the landing there was a brief photo opportunity when the sun was out, as exemplified by the picture to the right, which was accompanied by rapturous applause from the crowd.

Andy Shemans addresses the gathered crowd

The formal part of the opening ceremony was presided over by Andy Shemans, chairman of the museum, who explained that the theme for this year was centred around EFTS6, which was based locally during the Second World War to train, amongst others, the Free French.

The unveiling of the memorial

A few years ago the museum created a memorial to those that served and were killed defending this nation. That memorial, shown on the left covered by an RAF ensign, was later unveiled by two ladies, one English, one French and blessed. That was followed by the laying of two wreaths, one on behalf of the museum, the other on behalf of the aerodrome.

The laying of the wreaths

Then there was an address by a veteran squadron leader who spoke those well-known words "...we will remember them". There was a bugler and the sound of "The Last Post" prior to a two-minute silence and "Reveille" to end the silence.

Romer Adams accepts the presented cap on behalf of the museum

What followed next was a brief story, told by Romer Adams, of an incident that took place near Daventry during the recovery of some B-17's following a raid on Germany, where two of the returning aircraft hit aerials, the first aircraft making it safely back to Shelveston, the second sadly crashing, killing its crew. The latter hit the G aerial knocking out the G navigation system in the whole of the UK for fifteen minutes.
In the above picture Romer is holding the cap of one of the crewmembers that perished in the crash and which was presented to the museum by the son of the man who found it on the crash site, just hours after the fateful event. The cap was placed in a specially built glass display case that is now on show inside the museum.

Andy presents Peter with his certificate

The official morning's proceedings were brought to an end by Andy Shemans, who made a presentation to Peter Teichman. The first part of the presentation was a gift to complete Peter's Spitfire consisting of a box  containing some 20mm cannon shells. But it was the second part that was the real objective, which was to present Peter with a certificate of honorary membership of the Sywell Aviation Museum, something he evidently appreciated very much.

In his final address Andy thanked all those that had helped to make the day possible and declared the museum officially open for the 2014 season.

The locally based Great War Aircraft Display Team performed a practice display and below are some images from that practice. Conditions were marginal  as it was rather blustery.

Matthew Boddington taxies out in his Be-2C

An SE-5A and a Sopwith Triplane "fight it out" with a Fokker DR1 Dreidecker

A rather lovely Sopwith Triplane replica

And finally....others supporting the day's proceedings where a WWII military vehicle association and a "visiting" Hunter cockpit section.

A GMC truck with an anti-aircraft gun

The visiting Hawker Hunter cockpit section

The formal part of the morning was well put together and tastefully executed, a credit to the museum that is well worth a visit.

Theo Claassen

20 April 2014