I took a visit to East Kirkby airfield in Lincs yesterday and watched in awe as they fired up the four Merlins of 'Just Jane'. If you don't already know, she is a non flying Lancaster bomber which they fire up and taxi down the grass strip. For £200 you can ride in her as she moves up and down the runway.
Being less than 30 feet from a Lanc with all four engines going is an awesome sight and sound.
I wonder what stops her from flying again?
Well worth a visit.
www.lincsaviation.co.uk
Last edited by: TheManWithNoName on Mon 19 Jul 10 at 13:04
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The owners of Just Jane are currently buying airworthy parts with a view to getting her back in the air again. It'd be great to see two Lancs flying side by side.
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We went down to RAF Coningsby last week for the tour of the hanger all aircraft were there and got some cracking photo's when the tour opperator said this is the only flying lanc in britain i said it may not be for much longer!
He said there won't be any more flying in the uk as i pointed out there's one not so far down the road he said, the panton brothers make more cash from the taxi rides it will never fly!
But yes i read about the 4x new engines flight ready and scouring for parts so lets see.
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There's another flying Lancaster in North America somewhere as well.
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FM213 in Canada, but I think its been grounded for the last year.
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>> FM213 in Canada, but I think its been grounded for the last year.
Aparently they were able to buy some spare propellors from an aircraft parts store. Gives a new meaning to new old stock.
www.warplane.com/Planetalk/Appeal%20Lancaster%20Grounded.html
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>> I took a visit to East Kirkby airfield in Lincs
>> Being less than 30 feet from a Lanc with all four engines going is an awesome sight and sound.
>>
>> Well worth a visit. www.lincsaviation.co.uk
>>
The displays in the hanger and in the original buildings are superb.
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Well while were on about old aircraft i want the Victor up and running the one at Elvington & just for good measure a Lightning in the uk sky, knickers to Concorde i want these two up and running, can't see it ever happening but i can dream.
What else would you like?
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There are 2 Lightnings and a Victor that all do high speed taxying, a few weekends a year, at Bruntingthorpe.
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>> Well while were on about old aircraft i want ...just for good measure a Lightning in the uk sky.
The local lightnings are grounded after last year's airshow crash.
Awesome beast! Was at Ysterplaat a few years back when the guy took off, cleaned it up, pointed to the heavens and shoved the balls through the gate - 60000 in about as much time as it takes to type this!
He came back, drag chute deployed but ripped, so he had to bolter to CT international.
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Somebody on the other thread mentioned a Shackleton. That would be a hell of a sight.
I never really figured out how they flew in the first place.
My brother-in-law was an airframe fitter on Shacks and he reckoned he didn't know either.
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 09:48
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3SnLiYbe-U
Not s much an aircraft as 100000 rivets flying in formation....!
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Thnx Pug.
Don't have YouTube acccess... is that 'our' Shack?
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Hey! Thas my joke!
and its 100000 rivets flying in LOOSE formation.
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My old man still twitches as a result of working too close to their inbound flight path in in Lossiemouth !
Yes it's the Pelican Ian.
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Pelican 22.
Pelican 16 went down in the desert en route to Farnborough back in the 90s. Great DVD if you can get it.
Features one of my mates in a cameo role - sticking his face out of an observation bubble. He didn't make the final flight.
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One of my first managers, and later to become great friend and mentor flew in Shacks as observer out of Lossiemouth.
It started his great love of Scotland, no sorry I mean scotch.
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SAAF Shackleton... They still roll the old girl out every now and again, but the airframe is now sooo old, I think it has very few hours left on it.
At full chat, with those contrarotating props howling, it is a sight to behold.
They have one on static display at the local airforce base, but it is crumbling through lack of money.
Local maritime stuff is now done with turbo Daks and C130s.
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I must dig out my pics of the last airshow. Got some good ones of the Shack, the Buccaneers, the Grippen and the Mil-Mi24.
Alas, as i was leaving, and got to the end (start) of the runway, a sea fury in RAAF colours came in low dirty and slow to land. Missed that, as the camera was packed away.
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Oh, bit of trivia here.
SA pilots, the Flying Cheetahs, flew P-51s in Korea.
The mustangs never ever made it here, though.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSvNsbEsPnQ&feature=related
Climbing into this and taking the old rattler down the runway would have been a brave thing to do when they were new. The idea of doing it with a 50 year old kite... it's a world away from taking a Spitfire into the skies today.
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In 1944 the life expectancy of a Lancaster rear gunner was 5 sorties. I wonder how many young men these days would make that sort of sacrifice for their country. www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/07/a7234607.shtml
Last edited by: L'escargot on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 10:12
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Plenty are as we speak Snail.
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>> In 1944 the life expectancy of a Lancaster rear gunner was 5 sorties. I wonder
>> how many young men these days would make that sort of sacrifice for their country.
>> www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/07/a7234607.shtml
I hope we never have to find out. But, I suggest just as many as did last time. What you wont get is canon fodder blindly following dumb upper class twits over the top like in WW1.
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>> I wonder
>> how many young men these days would make that sort of sacrifice for their country.
I have a fair few pals who are/have been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
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For you lovers of shacks go donate your time to this.:www.airport-data.com/aircraft/WR963.html
You can polish it paint it and overhaul it on your days off.
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>> I wonder how many young men these days would make that sort of sacrifice for their country.
I'm not sure it would be much different. I think people tend to rise to the challenge, when the challenge is sufficiently serious. Look what the guys are doing in Iraq/Afghanistan. - smaller in scale perhaps, but they're still out their risking life and limb.
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following dumb upper class twits.
Sweeping generalisation Zero- The BEF in 1914 was arguably not only the best led British Army ever to go into action but probably the best led army ever. This seasoned force were fighting to the brilliantly written "war book" the result being that against astounding odds, between August and November, despite hugely overwhelming odds they fought the greatest war machine in history to a halt and in some places pushed it back. The last mobile action of that phase, Battle of the Marne is viewed by many as the most pivotal action in the history of Europe. At Loos the British Army lost more Divisional Officers than at any time since including the entire 2nd World War - the point were the Allied Forces (Mainly British) held the German army against all imaginable odds. The mere fact that the BEF was able to retreat in good order from Mons to Arras was down to impeccable planning on the hoof, leadership and discipline saved this country. In succeeding years and especially during the sacrifices of Summer 1916 masses of brave young Officers died leading their men from the front and despite these massive losses the British Army was able to recover and in just over two years an evolve sufficiently to beat the Germans in the field. There may have been "dumb" Officers, but they were outnumbered by poorly trained (and in some proportionate number dumb although I despise that word) squadies. The Somme was the start of what modern historians view as a forgotten victory.......Further reading to dispel the myth of "dumb" front line officers, The War The Infantry Knew and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. Dumb they were not.
Last edited by: Pugugly on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 13:36
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Dumb the senior command was. Never taking postions of superiority (wondered why our trenches were mudbaths and the germans were not? look at the ground the germans chose to defend) Tactical awareness was non existant. Ability to compromise or change tactics was non existant. All they coud think of was "the big push". Diversionary tactics were usless or non existant.
The "war book" was out of date.
The british high command deserves all the scorn and disgust we could possibly pour onto them. They slaughtered a forgotten generation of young men.
The line officers were superb, General staff and senior command should have beenung as war criminals.
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The war book was out of date (like any such document) the minute it was published - without it though the mobilization of July/Aug 1914 would have been an unholy mess and BA1914 would never had made it to Belgium in time to meet its destiny on the Marne, with it the British war machine came to life in days rather than months. We won that war despite the French Army (and railways) - the Somme was fought at the wrong time in the wrong place, merely to support the French defences eleswhere. Up until November 1916 I agree with your statement about tactics - From the end of 1916 and throughout 1917 the British Army changed - and improved tactics waged against a very, very well dug in enemy ultimately defeated them. It was easy for the Germans all they had to do was reinforce their lines and defend them, they didn't have the ability (until Spring 1918 when their Eastern armies were released to the West) to carry on any further. And indeed once the occupation of the channel ports was a lost opportunity (which they lost because of BA1914) they had no real incentive to want to go westwards. They are the most remembered generation of our times, memorials in every village and a National day still given to them. There's a lot of propaganda written about the Generals - don't believe all of it, in fact a number of the general staff that were fighting in 1918 were back for part 2 in 1940 - Another forgotten victory is Dunkirk, incredible mobility allowed BA1940 to come home and carry on the war.....some remarkable Divisional leadership made it happen.
Another good read is Old Soldiers Never Die - a remarkable account of the Army 1914 to 18 written by a squaddie, he respected his Officers.
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Oh and while I'm at it - the biggest mistake that HMG did was to remove Dorrien-Smith, a last minute replacement - this guy basically saved the British Army at Le Cateau and arguably at the Marne and Ypres, he was sacked because General French (CiC) didn't like him. DS argued for the closing of the Ypres salient, that would have saved thousands of British Commonwealth troops but Ypres was a bloody "symbol" and had to be kept at all costs - and what a cost.
Last edited by: Pugugly on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 14:42
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I agree that life would have been simpler without the "aid" of our allies, the good old French.
But, its a postion we have never had to face up to or deal with, a war on home soil.
When you are fighting on your home soil, among your own kith and kin, tactical ground, straigtening lines, shortening lines of supply, tactical withdrawal and scorched earth defence and withdrawal is not military tactics. Its giving up your back yard, your soul, your heritage and your fellow countrymen.
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They were mostly and seriously crap in 1940 though and then whinged that it was our fault. Really bad political leadership, really bad dependence on one tactic (the Maginot line) and really bad losers afterwards up to and including D Day and beyond.
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They've only just recovered from Napoleon. He wiped out a whole generation, and the French military were rubbish from then on. Prussians walked all over them in 1870 and subsequently.
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The French miliary elite have always suffered from an overblown belief in their own military genious, overwheling superiority and infalibility. Even in defeat. In truth they have been usless since 1066, I think hastings was a step too far for them. (where in truth they should have been saughtered.)
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 15:32
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Q: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris.
A: Nobody knows.....
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Napoleon was a military genius - without the intervention of the British and in particular Wellington he would have conquered Europe - I think that AC is near the mark. Don't think the foreign legion gave a particularly good account of itself in Desert Storm from what I remember.
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Agreed re the sound though the Merlin (or Griffon) sound better in a Spitfire doing a low pass, grrrrrrrrrrrrrawwwwwwwawawawaawawawa ...
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you like Spits?? try this then! (warning! contains language of the broader nature!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDDDKnNhuE
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Talking of old aircraft flying again... - Zero
