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

[Jon.M]

Hi Trev

As to the Hastings....did you ever go to Staverton?. I think that may have ended up there

I'm thinking Skyfame museum for the Protctor and Autogyro .

Just a wild guess really :think:

Garry

Garry, Trev,

Damn good guess I think. I visited the Skyfame museum many times in the early seventies and those three were all there.

Funny how the York sticks in the memory better than the Hastings. How can you forget something that big?

http://staverton.fotopic.net/p8570132.html

Jon

[Trev Clark]

Hi Jon, that makes a lot of sense. I found the photo at an aerojumble, but never visited the Staverton museum :sad:
O T how did you end up at Monza, that name just gives a life long motor racing enthusiast like me, goose bumps :k:

[Garry Russell]

Hi Jon

Well by then Yorks were rare. Hastings weren't so not perhaps so impressionable and from pics and films I have seen of Staverton the York seems to have stuck out a bit.

On top of that the high wing and three fin setup was something that would catch the imagination.

That type of museum was rare then

If it hadn't been for them and the Dan Air Preservation group wanting to keep on of each type of sentimental reasons there would be no Yorks at all :think:

Garry

[Jon.M]

Trev,

How does a lad from Cheltenham end up living in Monza? That's now nearly a 20 year long story involving no planning whatsoever, just what seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm a chiropractor and it's mostly down to where I got offered jobs.

We can hear the cars on the circuit with the wind in the right direction. We are on a direct line between Linate and the circuit and on the weekend of the grand prix we have a constant stream of helicopters going low overhead.

Monza's a posh place, refusing to accept it's now a suburb of Milan. Not only was it the capital of the kingdom of Lombardy but more recently the kings of Italy had their villa here. Well the Villa's still here and the latest of the Savoias wants it back. :tuttut: The racing circuit is at the bottom of the kings garden.

As a bike racing fan despite Monza's history, Mugello is the place to go now. It's just north of Florence and I've never been there.

Garry,

I was thinking about the Skyfame museum last night. If I remember rightly the owner's brother was a pilot killed during WWII.

Of the planes there I remember:

Avro York, Fairy Firefly, Hawker Tempest 2, a Mosquito with no engines, a SARO jet flying boat with one engine the other having powered Donald Campbell's boat, a Magister? and the autogyro. That's not a complete list though.

Jon

[DispatchDragon]

Jon

There was also one of the last flying Oxfords - I saw it fly twice I think
luverly sound


Leif

[Jon.M]

Don't remember anything from the museum flying Leif. I visited regularly between about 1972 - 74 and had the impression that the financial situation wasn't good. There were few visitors apart from at the air displays.

Jon

[Garry Russell]

Hi Jon

I don't really know anything about the museum other than what cropped up in contemporary publications.

I never went there and the first time I was ever in that area was well afterwards (1988)

Museums of this sort were not in vogue at that time so I doubt if it had much official support and if it was down just to entrance fees it would surely have become an impossible struggle. :think:

OK at first as these were flown in, parked aircraft rather than rebuild restorations, but once the rot started and intense care became necessary it must have been hard.

It seemed to just fade away..but there might have been other not well reported reasons.

The mags of the time didn't cover the personalities behind ventures to the extent they do now.

But at least if did save some aircraft from destruction long enough for them to be picked up by the later preservation groups.

It would be nice if someone could come up with a definitive history :think:

Garry