Lancaster NX611 - "Just Jane"

At the old RAF airfield of RAF East Kirby, now the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre there lives a very special project, an Avro Lancaster B.VII, NX61, which built in April 1945 by Austin Motors at Longbridge near Birmingham, now home of the MG car assembly plant. The plan is to get her once more in the air to join the two other airworthy Lancaster bombers and today she had a special visit from both them.

The remaining two airworthy Lancaster bombers have united with a grounded model for the first time in 50 years. The Canadian Vera (Lancaster B.X) and the UK-based Thumper (Lancaster B.III) flew over as Just Jane ran its engines at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Probably the first time that three Lancaster Bombers had been heard with with running engines in quiet some time.

The museum was set up by Fred and Harold Panton as a memorial to Bomber Command, and to their elder brother Pliot Officer Engineer Christopher Panton (19) who was onboard a Handley Page Halifax flying towards Nuremberg on March 30 1944 when it was shot down by night fighters. The two brothers bought a old airfield near their old home in East Kirkby, and recreated the way it looked under Bomber Command, finally buying NX611 as a centre piece for the museum.

The history of NX611is not what you would expect, as she was built just as the war in Europe ended and she was too late to see service in the far east where she was planned to fight due to the surrender of Japan which occurred shortly after. So she ended up in storage at RAF Llandow, home 38 Maintenance Unit of the RAF, until she was bought by the French in the early 50's and used as a maritime patrol aircraft and in an air sea rescue role. 

When she had finished with the French Navy she was presented to Historical Aircraft Preservation Society and flown Sydney where she was overhauled, before she was flown back to the UK. After a brief flying careerer was put up for auction in 1972 and this is where Fred and Harold Panton started showing an interest in the aircraft. In the end the auction never took place and the aircraft ended up as a gate guard at RAF Scampton until 1983 and it was at this point the brothers purchased the aircraft, with the restoration work starting in 1993. 

So far they have spent £750,000 on restoring the aircraft to it current condition and they need another £3,000,000 to finish the job and get the spare parts they will need to keep her flying. To get her into the air again they are going to need a Certificate of Airworthiness. This involves checking every component, fixing any broken parts and having key parts of the airframe  screened with x-rays and ultrasound for internal weakness. Basically disassembling the aircraft and then rebuilding her.

One of the brothers died last year but the remaining brother and the family still dream and hope that one day she will fly again. In the mean time she does fast taxi runs down the old runway at former RAF base at East Kirby to pay for her keep and the restoration work that needs doing on her. Andrew Panton is following on from his grandfathers and know the bird will fly again and would love to see her fly with her sisters in the sky, rather than having them just fly over her home.

You can find more pictures of the aircraft here as well as details of the aircraft and museum at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre official site which includes a much more detailed history than the one included here.

Lancaster - F for Freddie

61 years ago, on the night of the 3rd to the 4th September 1943, Lancaster Bomber F for Freddie flew a raid over Berlin, leaving RAF Langar in Nottinghamshire together with a BBC reporter and his engineer as passengers to record the nights events. The two broadcasters were the reporter Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and his engineer Reg Pidsley who joined the crew of the aircraft as it flew its mission over enemy occupied territory swarming with night fighters. It was possibly the most hazardous eye witness account given on the radio during the whole war.

Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and  Reg Pidsley before the flight

The aircraft from which the recording were made belonged to No.207 Squadron of Bomber Command which was at the time of the recording based at Langer. The aircraft is itself was a Lancaster B.Mk,I (ED586:EM-F) and it was crew that night was:

• Ken Letford (Pilot)
• Charlie Stewart (Flight Engineer)
• Bill Bray (Air Bomber)
• Jock Fieldhouse (Mid Upper Air Gunner)
• Con Connelly (Navigator)
• Bill Sparkes (Wireless Operator)
• Henry Devenish (Rear Air Gunner)

All were lucky enough to make it through the war accept one who was killed in action. As for the aircraft itself it was shoot down over Stettin on the night of 6th/7th January 1944 with the loss its Pilot George Edert and of all of its crew.

Lancaster bombers of 207 Squadron of Bomber Command 

The attack on Berlin on the night of 3/4 September 1943 involved 316 Lancasters and 4 Mosquitoes, which were used to dropped 'spoof' flares at a distance from the heavy bombers' route to mislead German night fighters. Although pathfinders marking mostly fell short of the target as was the bomb loads of the bomber force that followed them. However the industrial area of Siemensstadt was hit as well as the residential areas of Charlottenburg and Moabit. On the ground 422 people were recorded as being as killed while a total of 22 Lancaster Bombers were lost.

Damaged caused to a residential of Berlin during an RAF air raid

The record of the raid is rare insight into the the bombing raids and the people that flew them. Wynford Vaughan-Thomas captured both the spirit of the time, the sights he saw, the bravery of the people that flew these aircraft and the feeling they went through night after night. Each member crew knew their chances of survival were poor but they still flew mission after mission hoping they would make it through their tour of duty. Even Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and Reg Pidsley would have known they were putting themselves in grave danger by going on the mission.

A view of Berlin shortly after a RAF air raid had finished

Talking in an interview after the war, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas said "It was certainly the most terrifying eight hours I have spent in my life because I didn’t know what was coming.", before going onto to say about the sight below him: "Berlin burning seen from 19,000 feet was the most beautifully horrible sight I have ever seen." and of the flack that was flying up at him: "It was like watching somebody throwing jewellery on black velvet, winching rubies, sparkling diamonds all coming up at you."

Many Lancaster bombers never made it back to Britian

The recordings of the raid were made on direct cut acetate disks using BBC midget recorder. These machines looked like old style gramophone recorders and they were used clockwork mechanisms and batteries to power the valve amplifier. The uncut discs at the altitude in a Lancaster bomber flew at had to be placed inside his flying jacket of Reg Pidsley to warm them up, since otherwise the ultra low temperatures made the disc lacquer too brittle to cut.

If you are interested in finding out more about the bombing raids by the RAF during the Second World War I would suggest a good place to start would Night Bombers, a documentary you can watch on YouTube about a 600 bomber raid on Berlin.

FOOTNOTE: Each Lancaster Bomber was made up 55,000 components (if you excluding nuts, bolts and rivets), it required 500,000 manufacturing operations that took more than 70,000 man hours to complete. Each aircraft cost £42,000 back in 1942, which in today's money (2014) is around £1,850,000 per aircraft. On the night of the raid, the 22 aircraft lost represents the loss 1.5 million man hours of work in the construction of the aircraft and the loss of equivalent 40.7 million pounds .

RAF Hawker Hunter XG194

Thanks to a comment on the page about Harrier XV804 that is currently, as far as I'm aware still at the old RAF base of North Luffenham I can tell you something about the Hawker Hunter (XG194) that is mentioned in the post and give you some of its history. I'm happy to say it is good news too, the aircraft was saved and is now restored. Hope one day I can say the same of the Harrier (XV804) and the Phantom (XT905) and they don't end up like some of the other aircraft that were left there.

Originally, XG194 was one of 383 aircraft built for the RAF as a Mark F.6 Hawker Hunter. She was flown on 6th September 1956 by David Lockspeiser. She was delivered to Number 19 Maintenance unit at RAF St Athan on 3rd October 1956 and from there she went into service with Number 43 Squadron which at the time was based in RAF Leuchars before being transfered to Number 111 Squadron which was eventually based at RAF Wattisham from mid June 1958 after a brief stay at RAF North Luffenham at the beginning of 1958.

It was while she was with Number 111 Squadron that she was flown by Squadron Leader Roger Topp as the lead plane in the Black Arrows display team. Before he hand over command of the squadron to Squadron Leader Peter Latham he requested that the team should attempt to break the current world record for the number of aircraft to complete a loop that was held by Pakistan Air Force who had successfully looped 16 North American F-86 Sabres. He got the permission he needed and seconded another 10 Hunters from 5 other RAF fighter squadrons, presumably flown by the best pilots of the time.

It was at Farnborough, 1958 that the aircraft all came together to to preform the record attempt. First the 12 all-black Hunters of the Black Arrows thundered into the arena and these were joined by 10 other hunters. It was at this point the people watching knew something special was going to happen. In close formation all 22 aircraft pulled up into the sky and completed a full loop, not once but twice before six aircraft peeled away and the remaining preformed a 16 aircraft roll, which is record that has never been beaten. Leading that formation was XG194 with Squadron Leader Roger Topp at the controls.

At the end of 1961 the Black Arrows were disbanded and when the Hunters F.6's of Number 111 Squadron where replaced by F.1A English Electric Lightings in April 1961, XG194 was transfered to RAF Middleton St. George and Number 92 Squadron where she was part of the Blue Diamonds RAF Display Team. In April 1963 the Hunters of Number 92 Squadron where replaced with F.2 English Electric Lightings and it not clear what became of XG194 for a couple of years.

Eventually she selected as one of the 128 F.6's to be converted in to the F.G.A.9 variant. In March 1965 and she was once again operational with Number 1 Squadron in a ground attack role at RAF Waterbeach. There she stayed until the F.G.A.9 Hunters where replaced with the first Hawker Siddeley Harriers to come in to squadron service in 1969. At some point XG194 was transfer RNAS/RAF Brawdy where she would have been used as in an advanced training role with Number 79 Squadron which was based there until she was retired some time in the early 1980's.

Eventually the end came to her flying life, but it wasn't quite her time to go the scrap yard like many Hunters of her time. Instead she was converted, for the last time, into a eastern block fighter and used as an instructional airframe. For a while she was well looked after in this role being kept in a hanger and rolled out when she was needed by the RAF and the Army. Over time she became runway dressing North Luffenham and there she stayed slowly decaying and visible to those that care to look at old RAF bases on Google Maps satellite imagery.

I thought, like many, that XG194 would one day she would end up being either dragged to the edge of the airfield and left to decay or end up as paint ball targets like the two Jet Provosts (XN544 and XP629) which sold to the to Gunsmoke Paintball Park in Suffolk back in 2007. So when I noticed it wasn't on the recent Google Maps satellite imagery I started to wonder about her fate. It was then that I discovered she had been rescued from North Luffenham by Wattisham Station Heritage.

Looking at the pictures of her rescue, XG194, was urgently in need of some love and she got it. She was moved from North Luffenham on 28th November 2009 and the long process of restoring her was started by the team there until finally on 28th April 2012 she was once again reunited with Squadron Leader Roger Top who sat in her cockpit again after he last flew her, over over 53 years ago. Finally completed in October 2012 she was reunited again with its famous Squadron Leader for his 90th Birthday in May 2013. It lovely to know there was a happy ending for XG194 with it being restored and reunited with an old friend. 

Finally don't confuse XG194 with WT723 which was an F.4 Hunter which was converted to a GA.11 and delivered to Fleet Air Arm in 1962, with whom she served until 1993. Unlike XG194 she is in flying condition and at one point she was own and flown by Hunter Flying Ltd's in the livery of XG194. Since early 2014 WT723 has been repainted in her old 764NAS livery as platform '692' and is once again on the air show circuit.

De Havilland Comet - 65th Birthday

At Hatfield on the 27th July 1949, famous test pilot John Cummingham boarded the an aircraft designed, purely as a jet airliner, for the its first flight. The aircraft was a De Haviland Comet G-ALVG which was the first of two prototypes ordered by the British Government to specification 22/46 which was drawn up just after the war had finished in 1946 on the recommendation of the Bradazon Committe. At the time moving away from the reliance of piston engines was seen as the only way to beat the lead the American Aircraft industry had in transport aircraft.

De Havilland Comet Prototype at Hatfield

The aircraft was designed to carry 36 passengers in comfort in special  reclining "Slumberseats" and at high speed. It was powered by four H.2 Ghost 50 Mk.1 turbojets each of which produced 5,050 lbf thrust. It was a clean, low-drag design which many design elements that were fairly uncommon at the time, including a swept-wing leading edge, integral wing fuel tanks and a tricycle undercarriage, and of course it jet engines which allowed it to fly faster than any other airliner of it time. The aircraft was flown by a crew of 4 which included 2 pilots, a navigator and a  flight engineer. Inside the cabin there was a galley for the preparation of hot and cold food, a bar, separate male and female toilets and enough space for the provision of safety equipment including life rafts and life vests for everyone onboard. 

The construction of the aircraft used a high proportion of alloys, plastics, and other materials new to civil aviation. The reasons for this being high cabin pressure and fast operating speeds, which were unprecedented in commercial aviation at the time, as well as the need to reduce the weight of the aircraft to accommodate limited the amount thrust generated by the early turbojet engines. The Comet's thin metal skin was composed of advanced new alloys and was both riveted and chemically bonded, which saved weight and reduced the risk of fatigue cracks spreading from the rivets. The skin of the aircraft was at the time highly experimental and it allowed the aircraft operate in extreme heat and cold at high speeds. As part of routine operating procedures the skin of the aircraft had to be checked by the operators of the aircraft. 

Cutaway diagram of a De Havilland Comet 1

Early flight testing went extremely well for a aircraft that different from passenger planes that had gone before it and within a few months later the Aircraft appeared at September 1949's Farnborough Air show. After leaving the show the prototype started a long series of tests and trial flights which were aimed at studying the characteristics of the engines, fuel consumption and the flying times over the main commercial air routes of the time. During this process the first prototype was joined by a second prototype to speed up the testing process. During the tests the two aircraft made several non-stop flights on the old Empire routes. Between January 1951 and September 1952 a total of ten of this revolutionary aircraft were delivered to BOAC, and at first were used to familiarise pilots with the new type of aircraft.

The first commercial flight took place 2nd May 1952 with the introduction of the first regular jet passenger service from London to Johannesburg  using a Comet 1. This was quickly followed by a regular service from London to Tokyo which cut the flying time in half. So successful were these flights that interest in the aircraft started to mount and soon orders were place by other companies. The French UAT company, Canadian Pacffic and Air France commissioned various models of longer range and able to carry up to 40 passengers from De Havilland. These became known as the Comet 1A and in total 10 aircraft were completed in this version. Soon there were talk of more versions, the Comet 2 with an even larger passenger capacity and the Comet 3 which was further lengthened from the Comet 2 which drew orders from Pan American Airlines and Air India.

BOAC De Havilland Comet 1 at Heathrow Airport in May 1952

The first ever accident occurred to a Comet 1 occurred during takeoff at Karachi, Pakistan on 3 March 1953 and involved a Canadian Pacific Airlines Comet 1A, this accident was blamed on Pilot error due to trying to climb the aircraft too steeply. Then on 2nd May 1953 (G-ALYV) a Comet 1 crashed at Calcutta while climbing after take off killing all 43 people onboard the plane. At the time this accident was also put down air traffic and flight procedures. At the time it was just considered as the inevitable part of the development of a revolutionary aircraft, that was until two similar crashes occurred shortly after. The first of these crashes was on 10th January 1954 (G-ALYP) crashed near the island of Elba killing 35 people and then the second on the 8th April 1954 (G-ALYY) near Stromboli killing another 21 people. This grounded the whole fleet of Comets and started one of the longest technical investigations carried out in commercial aviation to find the cause of the crash.

 The first De Havilland Comet 1A to crash in January 1953

The initial expert investigation of the grounded Comet fleet failed to reveal any mechanical or structural defects with the aircraft, but such was the magnitude of the accidents and loss of confidence in jet travel that the cause had to be found. This lead to extensive flying trials with one of the Canadian Comet 1A's together with water tank pressure testing of one of the Comet 1's at Farnborough together with microscopic examinations of the remains of the salvaged wreck G-ALYY which was recovered from the sea bed near Elba. This eventually correctly pinpointed the failure of one of the corners of the rear ADF window caused by the metal fatigue due to the repeated pressurisation cycles. This in turn was probably partly due to the fact the skin of the aircraft had to be thin in order to reduce weight because of the relatively poor performance of the engines compared to those of today. The final report on the accidents concluded that the aircraft had been developed with the knowledge of the day and it was clear that still much to be learnt about the metallurgical aspects of aircraft design.

After the accidents the aircraft was redesigned using the knowledge gained from the experiments done to determine the fatal losses of the airframes of the Comet 1's the completed Comet 2 rebuilt and strengthened as was the single Comet 3. Rather than to end the line altogether De Havilland, realising it was a structural problem rather than a design problem, went on to produce a new version of the Comet, known as the Comet 4. Like all the the aircraft that followed the Comet 1's it had more powerful Rolls Royce Avon engines which could produce 10,500 ldf thrust each, nearly twice as much as the original engines. This not only allowed the skin of the aircraft to be thicker but also meant the aircraft could hold more passengers and fuel which allowed it to at last cross the Atlantic. This version of the aircraft made its first flight 27th April 1958 and showing confidence in the design BOAC ordered 19 aircraft to be used on the North Atlantic route.

Prior to the introduction of the BOAC Comet 4's the older Comets were being put to good use on trial flights and test flights. With the only Comet 3 becoming the first jet airliner to circumnavigate the globe in February 1957, setting a record for the passage between Perth and Sydney with an average speed 5001 mph. Then on the 4th October 1959 that two Comet 4's operated the worlds first transatlantic jet airliner service between London and New York, with one aircraft taking off from London at the same time as the other left New York.  Shortly after this the Comets took over all BOAC's London to New York flights, and later routes to Ceylon, Australia, Tokyo, Johannesburg. As time went on the 19 aircraft were used on more and more routes and during their first two years in service they flew 27,000,000 miles and carried 327,000 passengers with a total flying time of 68,000 hours.

The success of the Comet 4's especially at high attitude airfields in hot climates resulted in order from around the world for different versions of the aircraft. With the Comet 4A being ordered by Capital Airlines with a reduced cruising altitude to operate on short and medium range flights in America, but once these order were cancelled  the aircraft attached the interest of BEAC who ordered a stretched version of the Comet 4 known as the Comet 4B which could hold up to 101 passengers, nearly tripling the seating capacity of the original Comet 1's. These were were used on flights throughout Europe, Middle East and the Soviet Union . Again the interest drew more interest from overseas and the Comet 4C was produced with the same seating capacity as the 4B but with a longer range. By May 1960 De Havilland had orders for over 50 aircraft in the Comet 4 range, as well as orders for aircraft for the RAF.

Dan Air London De Havilland Comet 4C

De Havilland Comet 4 Cockpit 

De Havilland Comet 4 Flight Engineers deck

The cabin of a Dan Air London De Havilland Comet 4C

By the early 1970's the Comets started to appear on the second hand market. Slowly flights by the major airlines came to a halt with the last Comet scheduled service out of Heathrow being flown on 11th November 1972 by Sudan Airways.  And when the last Airtours Comet landed at Gatwick from Paris on 31st October 1973, Dan Air London became the last operator of the type. They had been slowly buying all the reaming Comet 4's in service during the 1960's and 70's. At the time the airline needed to replace it ageing piston fleet and saw the Comet 4's as a relatively cheap second hand aircraft which had a lot flying hours left on the airframes. This situation had arisen because the major airlines that had originally first brought the Comet 4s had quite quickly replaced them with more modern types. To make sure it had enough spares the company also brought Comets for scrap and dismantled them for parts from overseas airlines, which allowed them to fly on until 1980.

The last flight undertaken by a Comet 4B (G-APYD) was on 1st November 1979 and it was flown to Science Museum site at Wroughton by Joe Wright and his copilot Bryn Wayt from Gatwick. This left just Dan Air's final Comet 4C's flying with G-BDIW making the last commercial flight on 9th November 1980 after being chartered by a group of enthusiasts. With the demise of the last Comet 4, someone at Dan-Air calculated that during the fleet's life, the legendary Comet had flown a total of some 238,000 hours in Dan-Air service, which equated to a distance of 94,500,000 miles!

Thankfully there exists a number of Comets that have been preserved including one that is still able to move under its own power around the world that will allow generations to come to see what early jet passenger flight was like in the 1950's and 60's.

Footnote - Previous to the first flight of the Comet other piston engine based aircraft had been converted in the UK to use and test fly jet engines. The first hybrid piston/jet airline to fly in the UK was the Avro Nene-Lancastrian which first flew on 14 August 1946 and flew the first international all-jet passenger flight from London to Paris on 23 November 1946 with its two piston engines turned off. This was followed by a pure jet conversion of the a Vickers Viking (Type 618), again with Rolls Royce Nene Engines, which first took to the air on 6th April 1948. On the 39th anniversary of Bleriot's crossing of the Channel, on 25th July 251948, the Viking loaded with passengers left London Heathrow and flew to Villacoublay, Paris, in 34 min 7 sec, less than half the regular scheduled time and was the first, albeit experimental jet airliner. 

The Last Time

Some time ago I published a post about a very special lady, not the sort of lady that you see walking down the street but a aircraft, a Avro Vulcan, XH558. She is the last flying example in the world and today she made a reappearance over Rutland and maybe for the last time.

With the closing of RAF Cottesmore we have seen less of her but her flying days are coming to the end with the end of her engine life. Hopefully they will find away to keep her going but this could be the last summer she is in the air. It will be a great shame to she her go and I will miss her familiar and distinctive shape in our skies as much as I miss the Harriers that once flew from RAF Cottesmore.

The Vulcan is Back

Rutland had a welcome visitor today the only Avro Vulcan still flying, XH558  back in the air again after having two of her engines replaced and missing the early part of the 2012 display session.

Back in late May, at noon on the 28th to be precise, HX558 suffered a dual engine failure, on engines numbers 1 and 2 on the port side, as the engines powered up for take off on a routine training flight. All four engines were shut down immediately and everyone left the aircraft safely. Initial reports suggested that the both engines had ingested something.

On further examination over the coming weeks it became clear that both engines were beyond repair both having suffered damage to their turbine blades. The sequence of events appeared to be that engine number one suffered a compressor blade failure and resulting debris was sucked into the other engine. It turned out that the cause of the initial ingestion was some silica gel desiccant bags that had been left in the engine. Thankfully there was however no structural damage to the airframe .

After weeks of work the both engines were replaced with spare units the Vulcan to the Sky Trust had in store. These engines were first powered up, one on them of the first time in 30 years, on the weekend of the 23rd June and the testing was successfully completed by the 29th June and the Trust were waiting approval to fly again.

The Vulcan returned to the skies again for flight testing of the engines on the 3rd July. The crew reported no concerns. The second flight occurred today to develop the crew currency needed for our 2012 display routine. 

It was that fight that was visible over Rutland today as the crew practiced for it's next display. It was quite a sight and one I didn't think we would see over Rutland again. HX558 use to a regular visitor to RAF Cottesmore in the past and she would appear low in the sky as she took off from the base. With the base gone I thought we had lost HX558 and the only place I would see her was at an air show, thankfully she returned today to grace the skies with her beauty.

Harrier XV804

Sitting on the ground at the former RAF base at North Luffenham there is a lone Harrier VX804 slowly decaying away and much unloved. The Harrier in question is XV804 a former a GR.1 that was converted to GR.3.

VX804 is currently listed as an Instructional airframe but I wouldn't have thought she had been used in that role for years with the RAF leaving the base many years ago. As far as I can find out she has been standing in the same place on her own wheels for the last eleven years at least if not longer, so it is amazing that she is still standing at all. Although now showing her after being left outside for so long it would make a wonderful project for a museum to restore to her former glory as a static display.

It is incredible what was left at the former RAF base at North Luffenham when the RAF moved out. There seems to be loads of stuff there some of which would make excellent museum pieces, including a Phantom F4 and enough bits to probably make a complete Bloodhound exhibit. Sadly the Hawker Hunter there looks like it is beyond saving now, as can been seen in the photographs on the Aviation Forum.

Given the history of the RAF in Rutand it would be lovely to have even a static museum to those that have served in the county and the important role it played in the cold war.

Makes You Think

Last night I while hoping through the channels I caught a glimpse of one of some of the Harries of former RAF Cottesmore. Intrigued today I watched the programme on BBC iPlayer. I guess it just conformed what I already thought about the Governments stupid move to scrap this most capable of aircraft as well as the carriers that carried her.

The programme told the story of the Hawker (later BEA systems) Harrier and it]s use in the Falklands War which was 30 years ago. It told of how 20 Sea Harriers faced a Argentinean  Air Force comprising over 200 aircraft some of which could fly twice as fast as the Harrier. In rolling seas the Harriers flew over 600 combat missions with hardly a single mission being lost due to aircraft failures. More than that they shot down 23 aircraft without a single Harrier being lost in combat.

With the world the way it is today what is need is aircraft that can operate from almost anywhere that a conflict that we are involved is taking place. Versatile aircraft that can be based on ships or on make shift landing area's that are easy to defend on the ground. The one aircraft we had that can do that was the Harrier and it was the one aircraft that we decided to get rid of in the strategic defence review which has done so much to leave us defenceless. 

What I still find unbelievable is that one of the finest aircraft that Britain has ever produced was scrapped when it was in service with so many other nations in front line service including the USA. In fact it is to the USA that the British Harriers were sold for next to nothing. These aircraft weren't out of date and a lot of money was spent upgrading them and the systems on them making them effectively new aircraft. Even their base had lots of money spent on it and the facilities there over recent years.

My personal thought why they were scraped is for the same reason that the people in power were reluctant to buy them when they were first built, there simply didn't understand what they could do and what a fine aircraft they actually were. It took the Falklands war to prove that and some 30 years later that lesson has been forgotten and so they were scraped. The thing now they have gone the chances of another Falklands war is back but this time there will be no Harriers to win the island back. If the RAF really think that a couple of Typhoon Fighters can defend the islands then they are as crazy as the politicians who threw away one of the best aircraft in service.

Leeds Bradford Airport

If there is one airport that holds a lot of special memories for me it is Leeds Bradford Airport in West Yorkshire, but more than that it is possibly one of the best Airports in England to view commercial aircraft landing and taking off. If the wind is in the right direction and they are using runway 14 the views you get are wonderful. 

Flight LS 315 - Boeing 737-33A - Departing to Paris

Flight BE 398 - De Havilland DHC-8-400 Dash 8 - Departing to Knock

Flight LS 272 - Boeing 757-200 - Arriving from Alicante

I just happened to be in the area today and in the area and I took these photographs in the thirty or so minutes I was there. They were all taken from the end or runway 14, the runway in use, and required hardly any zoom to get pictures that filled the frame. If your in the area of the airport and have a family it worth having a look at the timetable and stopping to have a look. Often when the weather is good at weekends you can even get an ice cream while you wait.