RMAF Herald

[rosscogswell]

Hello all.

First, thank you all for the wonderful aircraft you produce and which give the flight sim community such pleasure.
My dad was seconded to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1965 to work on what was then the fabulous new Dart Herald and I spent many happy hours watching them flying over my school. Naturally, the herald is one of my favourite aircraft from this site and it is an absolute joy to fly.
I know that most of the RMAF Heralds finally came back to the UK to serve with local airlines and in fact I did actually get to travel on one which was then running newspapers from Southend to Dusseldorf. It would have been a Series 400 I guess.
I wonder if any one has considered doing the RMAF colours on this wonderful model? During our time in malaysia, dad did bring back FM1028 to Radlet (I think) for work on the spars. He was away for some time i remember! If I remember correctly all the RMAF heralds came back in the sixties for such work, so the scheme might have been seen occasionally in the south of England. (have I justified the RMAF colours enough?)
Anyway, all the aircraft here give such pleasure just as they are, so thank you all once again.

[TSR2]

Hi Ross,

Facinating info there. She is a lovely aircraft. The public model at the minute is rather old, but one of the repaint chaps might be able to give it a bash. Do you have in links to photos etc of these colours so they could see if they have enough info to go on. Alas, I'd have a go myself, but I'm rubbish at such things

[Techy111]

Think this is the chappie...?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10264618@N03/4159573448/

Tony

[NigelC]

I remember them arriving at Blackpool to go into BIA's hangar for preparation for service.

FM1024-FM1028 if memory serves me.

Nigel

[Garry Russell]

There were eight FM-1021-FM1028.

All eight were bought by BAF but one had been damaged in a wheels up landing a couple of years before and was broken up for spares.

The 400 featuered parachute doors. The first four were delivered without and were due to be returned to HP for mods later but in the event, this was not done. The first 'trooping' Herald was FM-1024 and was shown at Farnborough. FROG reissued their 1/72 scale model as FM-1024

The ones that did have the parachute doors were modified to standard and all seven had their engines replaced and were by the time they entered civil service, with all the other updates and civil mods done, pretty much Srs. 200 standard although there was a missing window on the starboard.

BAF took two from BAF right at the start.....G-BEYF and G-BEYK one of which was bought and the other leased although the leased one was later purchased....the ownership is a detail asa basically both went straight to BIA and remained thier into the Air UK days.

The two for BIA were accepted in ex Malayasian form, but from the post above they seem to have been contracted to mod two of BAF's??

The damaged aircraft that never made it back home was FM-1025 which was to have become G-BEYI

[rosscogswell]

Thanks Techy111 - you are spot on with the picture! My trawling was fruitless though I may be able to get colour shots next time I'm home.

Also thanks to Garry for the facinating detail of the returning aircraft.

I found an excellent book Handley Page Herald by G.Cowell. In the section about the Malaysian Heralds there's a picture of FM-1022 (in black and white) at Luton duringthe winter of 1964/5 ready for delivery to Malaysia. Also this:

"The second batch of four heralds was fitted with autopilots, inward opening sliding rear doors and an improved compass display. In early 1965 the first of the original aircraft left for the UK for autopilot installation and compass modification - the sliding doors having been decided against. Pilots demanded that autopilots be fitted to all aircraft so eventually all eight machines eventually came back to the UK to have them installed. the autopilots were bought from Handley Page."

This makes sense now as my dad worked in E&I wing which would explain his presence on the a/c going back to UK for the autopilot fit.

[Garry Russell]

Thanks Ross

The door bit ties in nicely with my post about the parchute fit

[Garry Russell]

Pic of a drop

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/ ... 00008.html

[Techy111]

Had a really good look around Garry....cannot find anything for a correct paint of this bird....info is a bit rare methinks...?

Tony

[Garry Russell]

Ther are a few pics around but tbh I can't find any just now

It's a well known subject