More Vintage pics...............

Vulcan_to_the_Sky! · Post by **Vulcan_to_the_Sky!** » 25 Jan 2007, 23:04

Some interesting pictures there, thanks for sharing!

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 26 Jan 2007, 00:36

Kit

When Toby has time you will have somewhere to fly your flatirons FROM
(GAC Brockworth) to Moreton Valence - and the main runway is under the motorway i believe that shot is on one of the two cross wind runways that
were used as meteor parking lots during Glosters day - the reason I say that is Hill in the back ground appears to be Cleve Hill

Leif

Post by **Garry Russell** » 26 Jan 2007, 00:44

Leif

What's a flatiron..I'm guessing at the mention of Glosters and given the shape it might be a Javelin?

Not heard that one before......mind you I've never ever seen a Javelin so I've never taken a lot of notice :sad:

Garry

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 26 Jan 2007, 04:25

Garry

Thats odd - I thought it was a common name - Kit - Were you or someone in your family associated with the Javelin and or GAC? Both
my mother and father referred to it that way - as did guys on the GAC cricket team who I came in contect with - not just the shape but the fact that there was a brand of flatiron that had a triangular handle protruding
from it - there used to be one that sat on my granmothers mantle in Devon (The garbage you collect over half a century of minutia!)

Leif

ianhind · Post by **ianhind** » 26 Jan 2007, 10:30

Leif

Glad Garry asked that question about flatiron - just thought it was something I missed in another thread.

I bought (very cheap) a book with photos of Meteors/Javelins recently

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jet-Age-Photogr ... 89-7648643

Might mean even more to you!

Ian

Post by **Garry Russell** » 26 Jan 2007, 12:02

Cheers Leif

I just had to ask.

I had sort of worked it out bit others may have been wondering.

It is funny though how names you think are familiar are in fact very local, but because they are general in you daily life you don't realise.

Yep the old flat iron's granny used to have....no need for a trouser press with the weight of those things

(flatirons not Grannies)

Garry

jamesstables · Post by **jamesstables** » 26 Jan 2007, 14:55

The Whirlwind one is very nice! Looks like an earlier Mk10 based on the nose.

Would you object to me downloading a copy for the YHPG archive?

Post by **Trev Clark** » 26 Jan 2007, 15:57

Hi James,
PM me an e-mail address and I can send the full size scan. The photo was taken at Tangmere in 1963, just before 22 Sqn (D Flight I think) re-located to Thorney Island. It is an HAR 10.

kit · Post by **kit** » 26 Jan 2007, 19:23

Leif,

DispatchDragon wrote: Kit - Were you or someone in your family associated with the Javelin and or GAC?

Only indirectly. Dad's last station when he was in the RAF was Benson, and in the middle '50s it was HQ Ferry Command so we had every single RAF type through there at one time or another. GREAT fun for an aviation nut like me!

For some reason every Javelin in the RAF came through Benson at one time or another, even the home based ones, and they totally amazed me. How such a shape, with a wing that thick, could ever fly bemused me totally. I was doing 'Basic Aeronautics' at school, and gliding with the Cadets at the time, so low thickness/chord ratios were the holy grail as far as I was concerned. I just ignored the Flatirons IMMENSE chord! :dance: Everyone at Benson called them Flatirons back then, and it takes some effort to actually remember the real name....

I'm sure you're right about Cleeve Hill in the Meatbox photo too, now that I've takn a closer look. That copse on top is still there now. If you go south on the M5, and look east just after you've passed Jct 12 you can see some ex-GAC hangars there, now a garden centre I think.

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 26 Jan 2007, 21:16

Kit

Theres also a trucking (Haulage I guess in the UK) firm that uses some of the old buildings as well, Very nice chap yomped all over the place with a camera and got some fairly good shots of whats left including the control
tower which now appears to be resdential. Toby managed to place the
noise attenuators (there were two sets at GAC Brockworth referred to
as "the pits" and one set at Moreton Valence that appear to have been set up on an exsisting dispersal. The History of Moreton Valence is rather interesting besides being used by GAC post war, at the end of World war 2 it housed a
Bell Airacomet that was used in comparison with the meatbox.

Ian - SOB - Russell Adams was (along with another photographer Harold Wingham) a frequent visitor the our home in Brockworth in the late 50s
in fact I beleive he collabrated with Harold and my father on some
aerial archeological photography. small world isnt it?

Leif