The days before my trip were frantic. So frantic that I neglected to check when international flyers were required at the airport. I understood it was two hours before take off. I checked on the Melbourne Airport web site. Oops. Three hours.
My house-sitter Julien was busy and my friend and colleague Alex had very kindly agreed to take me. Ring Alex - can he come sooner. "Yeah sure, I can leave now I guess." Thank God. I finished packing about 5 minutes before Alex appeared.
Of course after all that drama I sailed through check-in and Customs in one hour flat and had two hours to burn. Internet access at Melbourne Airport SUCKS.
When I got to the boarding gate for the flight to Hong Kong my pass didn't go through the first time. The hostess twigged... I had been upgraded to Business. There is a first time for everything. I got several hours sleep. The Chinese guy next to me roared strips off the hostess for giving me a bottle of water and not him. She ended up literally on a knee begging for forgiveness. I don't who he was. He spent most of the flight asleep to general relief.
Our sleep was broken by turbulence over the South China Sea, which lasted quite some time.
Hong Kong Airport is BIG. I wandered around but the shops were overwhelmingly high fashion and not of interest. Every big label I could think of was represented - it was quite extraordinary. Singapore is better though - greater variety. Internet access at Hong Kong airport SUCKS.
The flight to London was routine. The hotel was like an Ibis, modest. The internet access SUCKED even though I paid 10 pounds, although I discovered later that the real problem was the appallingly slow DHS web page particularly the Citrix applications. 45 seconds per click guys.
As I unpacked some stuff, I wondered why I had packed both sets of travel manicure packs. I mean Nigel, you don't have more than the usual quote of nails. I discovered some other things that, on reflection, I could have left home. I'm pretty sure Panadol is available in the UK and Europe and Betadine. A couple of books I didn't need to bring. But my biggest mistake was caused by the last minute abbreviation of packing time (so entirely my own fault). My specially bought backpack with wheels didn't have enough space for everything I thought I needed on board, so I got down the much larger small bag with wheels I have for short trips. When loaded, it weighed 10kg and I was only just allowed to take it on the flight. I brought my smallest pack and just flattened it and threw it in my suitcase.
Day 1
The next morning was an unmitigated disaster. Do not ever try to pick up a rental car at Heathrow first thing on a weekday morning. There were 70 people ahead of me. I've never seen anything like it. Not only was I half an hour late meeting Paul due to a timetabling error on my part, but it was just unbelievable. The care we eventually got was an almost brand new Kia Cee Diesel which seems a perfectly good car.
After a fairly routine drive we got to our first museum, the De Havilland Museum in the northern outskirts of London.
The Sea Vixen was one of the first strike fighters. Building on the twin boom layout pioneered by the Vampire, it was a big, heavy two sea aircraft with 4 30mm cannon and in later versions, 4 big air-to-air missiles or bombs and rockets. The navigator didn't have an ejection seat, and had only a small porthole to see the world and it wasn't supersonic, one gathers a lot of people were happy when they were replaced with the F-4 Phantom.
The star of the show, a bomber Mosquito. It is a beautiful aircraft. The drum looking device on the right is a 4000 pound nearly 2 tonne) bomb which could be carried in later versions. The apertures in the inner wings were the radiators.
The Vampire was the second British jet fighter and more successful than the Meteor. Unusually for a jet part of the fuselage was plywood and early models lacked an ejection seat, but it was fast, maneuverable and had good firepower.
The instrument panel of a Dove, a twin engined feederliner. Business aircraft have come a long way since the 1940s! The instrument panel is typical of aircraft of the time.
Seating in the first class lounge of the Trident, the British equivalent of the Boeing 727. Underpowered, it only sold a few hundred. Later versions had a little Rolls Royce engine to provide additional power on take-off, but it was a maintenance nightmare and corrosion was a major problem, as with many British aircraft of the 1950s and 60s.
The cockpit of the Trident. Before computers, inertial navigation and later GPS large aircraft typically had or 4 crew. Pilot, copilot, engineer and navigator/radio operator.
More shots of the Sea Vixen.
The product of a collaboration between Cierva and de Havilland was this ungainly looking autogyro. It worked, but didn't see production.
We tried to get into Bletchley Park but unfortunately we were a bit late.
We stayed at a large country style hotel called the Mount on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. It was quite a place, obviously given to receptions and functions as well as having more than 100 rooms.
Day 2
RAF Museum North Cosford
This very large museum concentrates on WW2 and the Cold War. It has a complete set of V-bombers, the British nuclear strike bombers of the 1950s, and an impressive collection of British transport aircraft of the era. The Cold War displays were well done but the overall impression wasn't convincing: a Leopard tank and a BMP representing all the armor on both sides?
This Nimrod is one of the star aircraft. Converted the to the R1 electronic warfare role, it is a large impressive aircraft. The premature retirement of the Nimrod fleet without replacement was a one of the dumbest defence procurement decisions ever made by the British MoD.
The Bristol 188 was made of stainless steel. From this angle it looks a bit like an SR71.
One of my favorite aircraft the TSR2 was the British equivalent of the F-111 but killed off by the incoming Labor government in 1964, a blow from which the British aircraft industry has arguably never entirely recovered.
P-51 Mustang was the best piston-engined fighter of WW2 and this example looks very fine.
I think this is the only Me 410 extant. It is quite a large aircraft. Not a great success - the Mosquito had a much better performance with less powerful engines - it remained in production until late 1944 mainly to keep Messerschmitt's lines gainfully employed.
This Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah is also a very rare aircraft. this is the original recon variant and a very elegant aircraft it is.
This IMA-58 Pucara was captured during the Falklands war. It makes an interested comparison with the Me 410 nearby. The turboshaft engines were less powerful, but lighter, and the result was about 50mph slower and less heavily armed.
Another Mosquito, this one also has an engine exposed.
One of my favourite aircraft, the Fisler Storch could almost hover in a modest wind.
At the other end of the performance scale, the Me 163 was probably the fastest aircraft of WW2, but the Germans lost more in accidents than they did operationally.
Another shot of the Dinah.
Another favorite of mine, this Folland Gnat was a lightweight fighter with 2 30mm cannon and bombs or rockets and proved remarkably successful in Indian hands in the 1971 war.
Cosford has a remarkable catalogue of German missiles. This Enzian was one of the first successful surface-to-air missiles.
The Gloster Javelin was a big heavy delta all-weather fighter of mediocre performance but a key part of British air defence in the 1950s.
This imaginative ASW display features the Australian Ikara missile.
In the 1950s Britain decided to acquire an independent nuclear deterrent. The prime delivery system was to be bombers, and the RAF acquired three different types. This is one of the few survivors of the first, the Vickers Valiant. The Valiant was a fairly mediocre aircraft and was hurriedly withdrawn in the mid 1960s when fatiguue cracks were discovered.
Cosford remarkably has examples of all three. The Avro Vulcan above used German experience for a big delta planform. From memory it was one of the largest delta aircraft flown. Unlike the Valiant, the RAF Vulcans lasted a long time and were still in service in 1982 when they bombed Port Stanley airfield. The white missiles underneath it are the unsuccessful Douglas Skybolt (foreground) and behind it the more successful British Blue Steel air to surface missile.
In complete contrast to the nuclear armed bomber above this is a fine example of a big utility aircraft called the Twin Pioneer, which was widely used in Malaya.
Day 3
The next day we set out for Bournemouth, basically from the centre of England to the south west coast. It was quite a pleasant drive, but fairly long. We went via Oxford, and I must confess to going slightly berserk in the big bookshop there.
We made time to visit the Solent museum at Southampton, which is great.
This is a lovely Folland Gnat, a tiny lightweight fighter developed to reverse the trend towards ever larger, heavier and more complex fighters. Never used as a fighter by the RAF, it served for many years as the mount of the Red Arrows aerobatic team and as the RAF's principal advanced trainer. It did see extensive service with the Indian Air Force, including combat service during the 1971 war with Pakistan. The Indians liked it so much they built it as the Ajeet under licence.
This is a Supermarine S6, which won the 1929 Schneider race. A developed version, the S6B, won the 1931 Trophy when the Italians dropped out and a world airspeed record of 340 mph, which was unbelievably fast in 1931, especially at low altitude. (The Schneider was run at sea level, off the Isle of Wight.)
This Sandringham is the largest aircraft in the museum and is painted as an Ansett machine flying to Lord Howe Island.
After WW2 several countries who should have known better experimented with the flying boat jet fighter. This is the British version. It was not a success.
Bournemouth is lovely and bigger than I remembered. The hotel was on an "island" of hotels, a bit run down, and compact but surprisingly comfortable. With parking. Just. We had to park around the back, which was a tapas restaurant!
We went for a walk before dinner down to the foreshore...
Day 4
Tankest at Bovington
This was the Big One for us and it did not disappoint. It was a perfect English summers day, not too hot. (See new post)
My house-sitter Julien was busy and my friend and colleague Alex had very kindly agreed to take me. Ring Alex - can he come sooner. "Yeah sure, I can leave now I guess." Thank God. I finished packing about 5 minutes before Alex appeared.
Of course after all that drama I sailed through check-in and Customs in one hour flat and had two hours to burn. Internet access at Melbourne Airport SUCKS.
When I got to the boarding gate for the flight to Hong Kong my pass didn't go through the first time. The hostess twigged... I had been upgraded to Business. There is a first time for everything. I got several hours sleep. The Chinese guy next to me roared strips off the hostess for giving me a bottle of water and not him. She ended up literally on a knee begging for forgiveness. I don't who he was. He spent most of the flight asleep to general relief.
Our sleep was broken by turbulence over the South China Sea, which lasted quite some time.
Hong Kong Airport is BIG. I wandered around but the shops were overwhelmingly high fashion and not of interest. Every big label I could think of was represented - it was quite extraordinary. Singapore is better though - greater variety. Internet access at Hong Kong airport SUCKS.
The flight to London was routine. The hotel was like an Ibis, modest. The internet access SUCKED even though I paid 10 pounds, although I discovered later that the real problem was the appallingly slow DHS web page particularly the Citrix applications. 45 seconds per click guys.
As I unpacked some stuff, I wondered why I had packed both sets of travel manicure packs. I mean Nigel, you don't have more than the usual quote of nails. I discovered some other things that, on reflection, I could have left home. I'm pretty sure Panadol is available in the UK and Europe and Betadine. A couple of books I didn't need to bring. But my biggest mistake was caused by the last minute abbreviation of packing time (so entirely my own fault). My specially bought backpack with wheels didn't have enough space for everything I thought I needed on board, so I got down the much larger small bag with wheels I have for short trips. When loaded, it weighed 10kg and I was only just allowed to take it on the flight. I brought my smallest pack and just flattened it and threw it in my suitcase.
Day 1
The next morning was an unmitigated disaster. Do not ever try to pick up a rental car at Heathrow first thing on a weekday morning. There were 70 people ahead of me. I've never seen anything like it. Not only was I half an hour late meeting Paul due to a timetabling error on my part, but it was just unbelievable. The care we eventually got was an almost brand new Kia Cee Diesel which seems a perfectly good car.
After a fairly routine drive we got to our first museum, the De Havilland Museum in the northern outskirts of London.
We tried to get into Bletchley Park but unfortunately we were a bit late.
We stayed at a large country style hotel called the Mount on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. It was quite a place, obviously given to receptions and functions as well as having more than 100 rooms.
Day 2
RAF Museum North Cosford
This very large museum concentrates on WW2 and the Cold War. It has a complete set of V-bombers, the British nuclear strike bombers of the 1950s, and an impressive collection of British transport aircraft of the era. The Cold War displays were well done but the overall impression wasn't convincing: a Leopard tank and a BMP representing all the armor on both sides?
In complete contrast to the nuclear armed bomber above this is a fine example of a big utility aircraft called the Twin Pioneer, which was widely used in Malaya.
Day 3
The next day we set out for Bournemouth, basically from the centre of England to the south west coast. It was quite a pleasant drive, but fairly long. We went via Oxford, and I must confess to going slightly berserk in the big bookshop there.
We made time to visit the Solent museum at Southampton, which is great.
Bournemouth is lovely and bigger than I remembered. The hotel was on an "island" of hotels, a bit run down, and compact but surprisingly comfortable. With parking. Just. We had to park around the back, which was a tapas restaurant!
We went for a walk before dinner down to the foreshore...
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| This fine building is close to the foreshore at Bournemouth. |
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| Parking Bournemouth style. We decided that it must encourage a certain amount of friendliness! |
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| Bournemouth foreshore. |
Tankest at Bovington
This was the Big One for us and it did not disappoint. It was a perfect English summers day, not too hot. (See new post)
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