Thursday 20 July 2017

RAF Duxford the Return Pt 2



This is the follow on from the last blog on Duxford and the second part of our trip to where we checked out two more of the hangers, this one was of interest it was where the maintenance was done of the flying legends you see at shows





The Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk




Not sure what beast this plane is apart from seeing it's rotary engine is bing worked on




another I'm unsure about other than seeing it is in US Navy colours



This is a biplane could well be a Gloster Gladiator



Waling around for me is like being in a sweet shop and if I lived in the area I would be volunteering my work seeing the planes that are bing rebuilt



The green one you see looks like it could be a Bristol Beaufighter




More planes in various states of repair




Left the Hawker Nimrod





Think this one is the Hawker Sea Fury













Spitfire and Vought F4U Corsair




One plane I recognise and have seen flying is Sally B

Who you might also know as the Memphis Bell from the film of the same name




A Flying Fortress and a plane I think looks amazing




Not sure but could be a Hawker Typhoon




Another View of the Memphis Bell side of the Flying Fort
Left a De Havilland Rapide




A Flying Fortress Engine



A view of the repair hangar



After leaving that hangar we went to the new aerospace one was were greeted by the Polaris Missile. The UKs nuclear deterrent from the Cold War I remember of the 1960's



Above the Short Sunderland Flying Boat this thing is huge but one of the most beautiful planes around. Right the Westland Lysander













Going further along the ground floor of the hangar













Spotted this lurking under the wing of the Lancaster, the bouncing bomb from the famous Dambuster raid






Ah and old favourite and one I can have bragging rights on as I have flown on the plane, not this one as its the original test plane which was flown in just before the built the M11 and cut the runway down




I love this plane and use to listen out for it flying pat our village on the way to the USA every evening. Sad to say it's no longer in use and I miss seeing it fly past and the noise it made




The Avro Lancaster it has to be mu favourite plane
Tail end Charlie the end turret on the Lancaster





This is one amazing plane and I always love seeing it fly. It came over our Village a few years ago at tree top height and I can honestly say it make the hair on the back of you head stand on end





The De Havilland Mosquito one beautiful plane
Never seen one this colour though




When I first saw this plane I had thought it a De Havilland Heron
from the  Queens Flight. I have since found out is a De Havilland Dove Used by the Civil aviation Flying Unit





Above the Avro Vulcan which is one of the nosiest planes I've heard when it flew down the runway at RAF Benson and stood on its tail and opened the throttle.
Left the Westland Lysander



Looking across to the Short Sunderland which gives and idea as to how big it is.
Left the Avro Anson which use to based where I now work at the former RAF Harwell site




View of the mid upper turret of the Lancaster
Above the ejector seat, Taking a guess this is a Martin Baker as we are in the UK. They test them at Chalgrove Airfield near where I live and I've seen them tested out of the Meteor they had 
Stitch View of the Avro Lancaster

and another of a plane that never reached service the TSR2




That was it with photos useing my DSLR but I took a few with mu iPhone and the hall from the landing




above a First World War Plane
Left the Fairey Swordfish or stringbag as it was known


View of the Lancaster
and one above looking down on the Sunderland's cockpit & front turret

Finally a panoramic of the exhibition hall. That was it for our trip to Duxford. We missed seeing the Land Warfare Museum and the American one with all the US Air Force planes in but we hope to return for another look in the future.
If you want to know how come I did not have the time to visit the last two parts well it was because I went for a flight in one of these and if you look you will see a Tiger Moth in the background
I went up in that as well
Tally-ho Everyone



4 comments:

  1. Amazing collection of planes. I have been inside a few small planes, and some big ones too. The best was Concorde but as a kid we used to travel in RAF Britannias going to and from my dad's postings.

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  2. What a buzz eh? lol. Its is conceivable a lot of these babies will never dive through the skies again like concord but seeing the Memphis Bell up in the air sends the blood rushing through the veins.

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  3. A lovely collection of beautiful aircraft when aircraft were interesting and fun to fly. However, getting the captions right is very important when displaying them in any form. G-ALFU is a DH Dove (not a Heron) that belonged to the Ministry of Aviation Flying Unit (not the Queen's Flight) which calibrated and flight checked the navaids in the UK.

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    1. Thank you very much for the info, I will update accordingly

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