Paul's Trivia Quiz

[paulb]

Well, I should not sit here and wait for everyone else to come up with questions  ;D  So here is my trivia quiz. Answers on a postcard please to #@<*$<~  or just add to this thread  ;)

OK here we go....................

Question1
I have found a picture of a prototype being rolled across the River Wey at Brooklands, over the bridge. At that time it was private property. The landowner used to charge a toll for all aircraft except those bearing roundels. Can you tell me the name of the aircraft?
(Clue : It was developed into a famous RAF aircraft)

Question2
Before the outbreak of war, the exceptional qualities of the Spitfire had drawn a great deal of foreign interest. What is the name of the first country believed to have made enquiries for Spitfires? (and which sent a military commission to Wolston and Eastleigh)

Question3
The pilot of ? received the only Victoria Cross ever to be awarded to a member of Fighter Command. What was the aircraft?

Hope that you like it!  ;)

Cheers Paul

[Felix/FFDS]

Sopwith Snipe?

[paulb]

Hi Felix

Which question are you answering?

[Felix/FFDS]

Sopwith Snipe?

Q#3

[Hagar]

That's cheating Felix. I knew about Flt Lt Nicholson VC without looking it up. Also the type of aircraft.

I've read the story about Brooklands but that's lost now, along with everything else in my addled marble.

I'm only guessing on question 2. Maybe it was Germany.

[paulb]

OK Felix, You have won a bun for Q3. Well done!  :D
(BTW there was not a Fighter Command in WWI. I believe that Fighter Command came into existence in 1936)

Hi Hagar  ;)

Interesting thought - Germany. But according to my source- No! Sorry  ::)

Cheers Paul

[Hagar]

[quote]Hi Hagar

[Felix/FFDS]

I thought not. I went for the least obvious answer & stranger things have happened.

PS. Watch out for Felix. He knows far more than he lets on. He also has a strange fascination for Sopwiths. I still say he cheated.

Me?  cheat?   I admit that I don't know everything, I mean, just because Japan showed an interest in license production of the Spitfire, around the same time they were interested in the He112 ....

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]Well, I should not sit here and wait for everyone else to come up with questions

[Hagar]

[quote]Me?

[paulb]

Well done on Q1 Felix!  I was a bit worried that Q1 was too hard. Clearly not!  

The aircraft in the photo that I found is K4049 a B.9/32 prototype, which as you say, went on to become the Wellington.

Sorry but your answer to Q2 is not correct.

OK. So only Q2 remains to be answered..........

Cheers Paul

[paulb]

Come on Hagar!

I am looking for you to answer Q2  ;)

Cheers Paul

[Hagar]

I can only find reference to France & Belgium. I thought this was worth posting anyway.

One day a group from France were there on a perfect sunny cloudless afternoon watching Jeffery Quill in a Spitfire, do his display, he finished by going very fast and low in front of them, and he vanished from view. They were still looking to the front. Jeffrey Quill had gone around to the back of the hangars behind them, going full out, he came back between the hangars below roof level and made everyone jump out of their wits, including we who were also watching, he finished with a victory roll and landed just a few feet from the visitors. To say they were impressed would be putting it mildly.

I would dearly love to have seen some of these demonsrations by Jeffrey Quill & Alex Henshaw.

[Felix/FFDS]

I can only find reference to France & Belgium. I thought this was worth posting anyway.

I would dearly love to have seen some of these demonsrations by Jeffrey Quill & Alex Henshaw.

I've spotted references to Japan (as indicated) and Russia, but I guess the catch is the "first" country to express and interest AND send a commission.

[Hagar]

Completely off-topic but I've been a good boy for far too long.
I liked these quotes from my previous source, a former Supermarine employee at Woolston.

When a Walrus was to be test flown, Flt. Lt. Pickering, when the tide was high, would start up and gently ease down the ramp into the river and take off over the ferries that crossed the river, sometimes scaring the pants off the crews who quite often shook their fist to him, this amused him and would make remarks about it.
At the finish of the test he would fly very low over the river, by low I mean about 300 feet or so, in front of the flight shed and loop the Walrus to signal that it had passed the test, if not, he would just land and return up the slip and it would be worked upon. If you haven't seen a Walrus looped, you haven't lived.

I had to visit the paint shop to collect some thing for my tutor, the shop was located across the road from the main entrance, it was where all the spray painting was carried out, i.e. Spitfire components, wings, fuselage, etc. On the floor above, it used to be the lofting room where wooden mock ups were made of prototypes and experimental types and high up in the rafters was what looked like a Spitfire fuselage with a rounded nose where the engine would normally be and an engine bulkhead each side of it on the wings, it was terribly dusty.
When I asked about it I was told that it was originally for a twin engined Spitfire but the idea was abandoned. Since that day I have never heard mention of it anywhere.