Midland Air Museum

[Hagar]

PeteTLUK mentioned an airworthy Fairey Gannet in an earlier thread. Here's some shots I took of the static example at the Midland Air Museum, Coventry Airport a few weeks ago. It's nice to see these aircraft being preserved by a dedicated group of volunteers but I doubt that any will ever fly again. It was a rotten day when I took these photos. I had a job stopping the rain getting on the camera lens.

This is the Fairey Gannet.




More interesting types.






This is the tiny Boulton-Paul P.111A delta research aircraft taken from under the wing of the Vulcan.

The late "Ben" Gunn, airport manager at Shoreham for many years, was chief test pilot for Bouton-Paul in the 1950s & would have flown this aircraft. He once held the altitude record for a live ejection when the similar P.120 broke up round him at around Mach 1. Back injuries caused by the ejection finished his career as a jet test pilot.

The Vulcan from the road outside the museum. I couldn't get it all in from the other side.


This museum is well worth a visit if you're in the area.

[ozzy72]

Lovely photos Doug, bad luck with the weather though

Mark

[fido]

Seeing that I am the horribly uninformed Yank, and could only recognize, the Vulcan, the Gannet and the two century series aircraft, I will take your word as to how interesting the rest are, but the shots are great, especially in poor weather.  Good job and many thanks.

Fido  ;D

[Craig.]

Great shots as always Doug:) Even moreso working with bad weather.

[Hagar]

Thanks for the comments chaps. Not ideal conditions but I thought you might find them interesting.

[quote]Seeing that I am the horribly uninformed Yank, and could only recognize, the Vulcan, the Gannet and the two century series aircraft, I will take your word as to how interesting the rest are, but the shots are great, especially in poor weather.

[fido]

Hagar:

Thanks, the dumb Yank

[Hagar]

Not so dumb Fido. I have the advantage of being familiar with the classic jets longer than I care to remember. These were all in regular service in my younger days.
I also have a good reference source for specific details.
http://www.paulnann.com/location/Coventry.htm

PS. I haven't forgotten your repaint.

[fido]

Hagar:
Checked out the link, any chance there is more of the Shackleton to be restored any time soon

Fido

[Hagar]

Hagar:
Checked out the link, any chance there is more of the Shackleton to be restored any time soon

Fido

Sadly no Fido. I suspect the rest of it went to the scrapyard long ago. Not too many places would have the room to store an aircraft of this size, let alone restore it to airworthy condition. The only company in this country involved with this sort of thing is Air Atlantique, again based at Coventry. http://www.airatlantique.co.uk/

"Air Antique" owns & displays an airworthy Canberra & a Meteor NF.11 among others. It's a pity they weren't in business when more of these rare types were up for grabs.

PS. I just noticed the Air Atlantique airworthy Shackleton is currently in the US. http://www.airatlantique.co.uk/page17.html
It looks like an MR.3.

[fido]

Hagar:
thanks for the links, the Shackleton is quite a looker, and I noticed they have not one, but two Dragon Rapides, what a sight that must be.

Again thanks

Fido  ;D

[Hagar]

The Shackleton was of course a direct descendant of the legendary Avro Lancaster. I believe it used some components from the Lincoln & was the last in the line of the Avro piston-engined types.

The Air Atlantique Dragon Rapides are regular visitors to the RAFA display at Shoreham. I'll try to get some shots at this year's event. For an exquisite example of an even rarer DH type check out my earlier posts from the G-VFWE fly-in at Abingdon. http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=photos;action=messageindex;start=40

[Rifleman]

Did I spot a Sea Vixen in the background of your fine shots Doug ?.....a worthy example of " Classic " in my mind ...............Maybe a Percival Prentice too, behind the " Hun " ?
Rain or not, any day is a good day to shoot old birds sitting still, so the rest of us get to see them ........Thanks for the look

[Hagar]

Did I spot a Sea Vixen in the background of your fine shots Doug ?.....a worthy example of " Classic " in my mind ...............Maybe a Percival Prentice too, behind the " Hun " ?

Thanks Ken. There is a Sea Vixen & Prentice. You can see better shots of all these aircraft from my earlier link. It wasn't raining when I first arrived & a volunteer was working on the Sea Vixen which is why I didn't take a shot of it. He kindly showed me an ex-DDR MiG 21 tucked away in a hangar in its original markings. This is in better condition than many of the other exhibits. It was flown into Coventry with the intention of joining the display circuit. Unfortunately, privately owned jet fighters with afterburners are not allowed to fly in this country. It's only brought out in the summer months.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Very Very Nice Doug

Thanks for posting them!

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug