Thanks for the other Gladiator pics.


Wheels

Lovely shots! Old Warden is indeed a wonderful place. I was there in 2012, and enjoyed it immensely!

The Gladiator is beautiful, and its Bristol Mercury makes a very nice, rather quiet, rumbling sound, quite unlike any other aircraft of its vintage.

Hi guys, apologies for the absence and delay in responding to your comments - I had to take our dog on it's annual summer walking holiday (guess where?)



semmern, I totally agree with you about Old Warden being a fantastic place. I always think the Bristol Mercury on the Gladiator sounds a bit flatulent myself ...

Two classic British racers took to the air - the DH88 Comet and the Percival Mew Gull. The Gull was made famous by Alex Henshaw, who attempted to take the England to Cape Town Record in 1939, taking off on 5 February 1939 from Gravesend Airport, landing at Wingfield Aerodrome at the Cape the next day, covering the 6,377 miles course in 39 hours and 25 minutes, averaging 209.44 mph while in the air.

In formation together:




DH88 Comet:



























Mew Gull:

The Comet is truly a thing of beauty. Such lines.

A definite change of pace after the 'racers' had cleared the sky ... time for the flying sewing machines

This red machine is the 1924 A.N.E.C. II which is fitted with a 32 hp Bristol Cherub engine:








Next up were two Hawker Cygnet replicas. These are powered by a modern 37hp Mosler flat twin engine, but otherwise are built to the original specifications. 'Black 6' is registered G-CAMM in honour of the original designer, Sir Sydney Camm, who went on to design many famous Hawker aircraft including the Hurricane. [Sydney Camm joined the Hawker Aircraft Company in November 1923 as a senior draughtsman. His first design was the Cygnet, the success of which led to his being appointed chief designer in 1925.]









In formation together:




Coming in to land:


PS/. No takers for the "Where did I take the dog on it's holiday?" competition ...??

Here's another clue:

This is the Shuttleworth Collection's Polikarpov Po-2.


Originally designated the U-2, it's name was changed to Po-2 in 1944, after Polikarpov's death, following the new Soviet naming system which typically used the first two letters of the designer's family name, or the design bureau that created it.

The Po-2 / U-2 was one of the most produced aircraft, and may be the most produced biplane with production possibly as high as 30,000 built between 1928 and 1959. It became famous as the aircraft used by the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, composed of an all-women pilot and ground crew complement. The unit was notorious for daring low-altitude night raids on German rear-area positions. As such, the pilots earned the nickname "Night Witches". Appropriately therefore, the aircraft was displayed by Shuttleworth's female pilots, Clare Tector.



The Collection's aircraft was built in 1944 in the Soviet Union; its operational history is unknown until it was included in a group of 30 given to Yugoslavia in 1946. which were used for glider towing and parachute training.

In 1958 it was registered YU-CLJ and flew at the Federal Aircraft Centre at URSAC until April 1961, then transferred to Murska Subota in Slovenia. Its working life ended in 1979 when it was donated to the Yugoslav National Museum who later sold to Jim Pearce, brought to the UK and registered as G-BSSY in July 1990.

The aircraft was sold on to Pat Donovan in 1996 and shipped to Seattle where restoration was begun, but then it was taken to New Zealand in December 2000. Finally it was purchased for the Shuttleworth Collection in 2004 and following comprehensive restoration the aircraft flew for the first time with the Collection on 10 January 2011.

The fuel tank holds 200 liters but there is no fuel gauge or fuel pump. The oil system – no filter, just a mesh screen – is turned on by a tap behind the starboard cowl panel, out of reach of the pilot.

Lovely pics Eric as usual.Is there a flyable PO-2 in a sim? I'm guessing IL-2 1946 has one if any.

You are right there Chucky; a right bugger to shoot down too being so slow and all.

Next up were two training aircraft used extensively by the RAF.



The North American AT 6 ‘Texan’ is the USAAC version of the very successful Harvard family, dating back to the late 1930’s. Over 17,000 of the generic type built, either as Harvards (built for British and Commonwealth air forces), SNJ’s with a deck hook for the US Navy or T6 Texans for the US Army.



This Texan was built in 1942 and is one of 3,000 AT 6-D models. It differs from the basic Harvard pilot training aircraft in that it has a fixed forward firing .30” machine gun (firing through the propeller arc) and the rear perspex canopy opens forward, leaving the rear aspect clear to fit a pintle mounted .30” hand operated machine gun.















The Hunting (Percival) Piston Provost T.1 is owned by the Shuttleworth Collection. It was produced in 1950 and has what appears to be a rather inappropriate camouflage paint scheme with RAF roundels. None of the RAF trainers sported this paint scheme; however, a number of Provosts were sold to Oman where they were used operationally, and RAF roundels were required for the delivery flights from the UK, hence the camouflage / roundel combination. Not sure how effective a grey and green camouflage scheme would be in Oman ...

Next up were two contrasting displays. Firstly the slow and graceful Fauvel AV-36 glider followed by a very energetic Extra 330C.







"I can see you ..."








The high energy Extra 330C:








With sparklers ..."Oooohhh...!"

After the Extra 350 and the Glider, we returned to a WW1 theme in the shape of three Bristols – a Bristol Scout, a Bristol M1C and a Bristol F2.b.

First up the replica Bristol Scout:


















Coming into land with a Sopwith Pup in the background:

Great shots Eric, now I have a hankering to go watch Wings again

Indeed Alicatt. It was a great shame that a mooted second series was never made. Budget cuts one assumes.

"Wings" - now there's a blast from the past! Thanks for posting the link, Alicatt Quite a bit of filming was done at Old Warden (the Boxkite and Avro 504k are part of the Shuttleworth Collection). Some interesting details about the film locations, models etc.., in this thread:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?77579-Wings-BBC

BD-123, they did make two series (25 episodes in total) - see here for details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(BBC_TV_series)

Here's a link to a YouTube channel listing all 25 episodes for your delight and delectation ...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeagipoZmyfk2R9o0G_f2s_S0wHcG0KaZ

I have the boxed set of the 25 episodes on DVD, but I remember it from when it was first broadcast, loved it then and still do now.
The other series that was around then was Flambards, there was not so much flying in it but it did also have horses so it was a bit of a win win for me

Lucky you I think my mum and gran used to watch 'Flambards' (don't think I watched it myself).

Do you remember "Piece of Cake"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMyhvsD5ceI

Similar to "Wings" but with Spitfires ...

Oh look Tim has grown up into a Squadron Leader

Some good flying in Piece of Cake by Ray Hanna, he was a year younger than I am now when he did the stunt with the bridge near Barnard Castle (an old stomping ground of mine too)

Yep I have it on DVD too, and Pathfinders as well, about the Lancaster Squadron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzxl9WOnYw

Tho not the full episodes

Wonderful shots.
Some of them DO look like screenshots from a video game though.


Wheels

You are right Flats, got 'em on DVD so can't use the fog of time as an excuse! Third series I meant, with the introduction of the Pup or maybe Bristol Scout, the prototype seen being drooled over by the excitable Captain Triggers in the aircraft works.

'Piece of Cake'? Excellent once one had got over the use of Spitfires in France, later marks too! Slightly bigger budget than Wings I warrant.

Don't suppose we will see the like being made again by our TV companies here.

Alicatt, haven't heard of 'Pathfinder' - will have to look it up on YouTube.

BD-123, you're probably right about not getting any more TV series like 'Wings' etc.., which is ironic since it should be easier than ever to find authentic aircraft (or create CGI equivalents). I suspect that there are far more flyable WW1 and WW2 aircraft now than there were back in the 70's.

Thanks for your comments wheelsup_cavu

Some more screen shots from RoF ... errr, I mean photos from Old Warden ...

The Bristol F2.b takes to the air:






...and does a nice fly-by with the Scout:




Up goes the Bristol M1C:














..and back the other way...




Next up ... Vulcan XH558's final public display ...