The Nimrod in question

21st July

This was the eagerly anticipatedtrip to RAF Cosford to visit the‘Cold War Aircraft’ section of theRAF Museum housed there and visitthe Large Model Association’s FlyingDay.

The weather was dull but the wind must havebeen favourable, as the mini bus picked up atTony’s, at Chiseldon, 5 minutes early. (that'sgoing to be something to live up to). Wearrived at Cosford at about 11:00 a.m. in onehop. And ‘14 old farts and two children’ (toquote the driver) disembarked and headed forthe museum cafe where unfortunately we were too late for the Breakfast Menu (not thatbacon rolls are very healthy anyway) The first aircraft encountered outside the cafe was the

Nimrod XV249 pictured here, and this got a realy good coat of looking at before moving intothe first hangar..

Cosford trip special edition

The first hangar is the Research and Developmenthangar where all the wonderful aircraft from myboyhood visits to the Farnborough Air Show and local

flying from BoscombeDown, and later, arestored.

Above is the Bristol 188Research aircraft used toinvestigate the effects ofheat on aircraft structuresas experienced at highspeeds.

Left is the BAC TSR2Which I was luckyenough to see on itsmaiden flight fromBoscombe Down.

On the left there is a picture of the Prone Pilot MeteorWK935 which, as it’s name suggests allowed the pilotto lie down whilst flying to see if there was any benefitin this position to cope with the stresses of flying these,now faster, aircraft.

Bristol Type 188 XF926

BAC TSR 2 XR220

M oving out ofthe Researchhangar into theWar Planes Sectionyou are immediatelygreeted by Spitfie 1K9942.

Then across the aisle wehave Hurricane IIC LF738.

The first Hurrican flew inNovember 1936

Just across the way is theNorth American P51DMustang 44-73415

T here aresomeGerman andJapanese aircraftalso and the first ifyou follow round isthe MesserschmittMe410A -1 U2

Here we have theMitsubishi Ki - 46Dinah whose designwas coveted by theGermans. In the leftforeground is themanned bomb theYokosuka MXY7Ohka.

To complete thetrio of twinenginedwarplanes the isthe de HavillandMosquito TT35serial TA639

Whilst we were wanderingaround , meeting at variouspoints and aircraft, there wasa discussion by the Avro Lincoln B2serial RF398, regarding the lineage ofthe Lincoln with special refernce to theLancaster.

Wikipedia came up with the followinginformation (reformatted).:- The AvroType 694 named the Lincoln was adirect development of the Lancasterand was originally called theLancaster IV and V but later the

Lincoln I and II. It was the last piston engined bomber to serve in the RAF. It becameoperational in August 1945 with proposed useagainst the Japanese mainland but too late. Itwas used however in the 50’s by the RAF inKenya and Malaya.

It was designed with stronger. Larger, higheraspect wings and fitted with two stage

superchargedMerlin 85’s. Ithad longerrange , greaterpayload and ahigher operationceiling. The first Lincolns joined No 57 Squadron at EastKirby in 1945.

A Lincoln of Central Gunnery School RF532 ‘C’ was shotdown 20 miles NE of Luneberg, Germany By a Soviet Mig15 as it was flying to Berlin on a training flight

32 RAF squadrons were equipped with the Lincoln atvarious times from 1945 until they were finally replacedby jet bombers by 1963.

Crew of 7. Wingspan 120 ft. Empty weight 43,400lbs.Loaded weight 75,000lbs. Max Take-off 82,000lbs. Max

speed 319mph. Service ceiling 30,500ft. Armament three pairs of 0.50 in innose, dorsal and tail turrets. Up to14,000lbs of bombs could be carried.,4 aircraft have survived, two inArgentina, one in Australia and theCosford example. There were someconversions to civil use such as theAvro 695 Lincilnian. The finaldevopment was of course the LincolnASR 3 which was the originaldesignation of the Shackleton.

Just outside the War Planes hangar are two polythene ‘growers tunnels’ where theremains of the Dornier Do17, recovered from the Goodwin Sands this year, are beingpreserved and prepared for display. On August 26th 1940 this aircraft was part of a group which attacked Debden andHornchurch airfields in SE England. It was crewed by Feldwebel Willi Effmert (pilot),.UffzHerman Ritzel (bomb aimer), wireless operator Unteroffizier Helmut Reinhart and GefreiterHeinz Huhn. This aircraft, it is believed, became separated from the others above clouds

before reaching it’s targetand was attacked byBoulton and Paul Defiantsof No 264 Sqdn based atHornchurch. Two of thecrew were killed in theattack (Reinhart andHuhn) and Willi Effmertmanaged to crash land atlow tide on the GoodwinSands. Both engines andthe cockpit weredamaged in the attackand between one and sixDorniers were thought tohave been brought downwith the loss of threeDefiants. The Defiants

were considered obseletewhen brought into the

Battle of Britain, and the bravery of their crews is to be admired. These aircraft were verysoon taken out of the front line and made use of as night fighters and target tugs etc.

The Dornier seems to be largely intact and even the tyres remain inflated. The citric acidspraying and subsequentchemical stabilisation willtake up to five years and theaircraft will remain on showall that time.

It will take probably anothertwo years of restoration tobring the aircraft up todisplay condition and it isproposed to put it on showopposite the Hurricanerecovered simillarly, at theLondon site.

These remains areextremely rare as the highaluminium content wasscavenged seriously duringthe conflict to keep otheraircraft serviceable.

This is a £600,000 project funded by the RAF Museum and a grant from the NationalHeritage Memorial Fund of £345,000.

The fuselage of the ‘Flying Pencil’ in its tunnel being sprayed to remove thesalts absorbed during 70 years in the sea.

The engines and some of the other recovered parts undergoing thesame treatment in the second tunnel.

Unfortunately time pressed before we had visited Hangar 1 where some of the olderaircraft are on display. I can remember from our previous visit the Anson, Dove andPembroke aircraft as used by the Western Communications Squadron when basedat RAF Andover, where the glide path passed rightover my parent’s house.

All the time we were on site you could hear themodel aircraftflying and what aneye opener it wasto reach the ‘flightline. Somefantastic modelswere on showready to flyincluding a Vulcan with(my estimate) a 6.00mtrwingspan. All of theflying was carried out toa very high displaystandard and certainaircraft really stood out.The Tiger Mothpictured, a ChanceVought Corsair fitted with a model radial engine whichsounded authentic, and could that plane move. The jets

gave a brilliant display and the pair of ‘Red Arrow’ Hawks were superb. Too many greatdisplays to mention but the finale with the Vulcan was something else.

Then it was back to the minibus for the triphome , broken by a meal in the Air Baloon atBirdlip. There was an interesting tour ofSwindon to round off an excellent day out.

Now for something different. Here is a selection of bits and pieces please indentifyaircraft and list on the back of ten pound notes. SOLUTION NEXT ISSUE.

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