One for the WIWOLs.....

[Molemot]

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[Al R]

I enjoyed that - nice flying shoes!

Wing Commander Jimmy Dell - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2044882/Wing-Commander-Jimmy-Dell.html)

[lightningmate]

Hmm! Like all these newsreel type items of that era, over dramatic commentary to impress the punters and somewhat lacking in fact.

Liked Jimmy's 'flying boots' :)

lm

[Rossian]

.....our hero exits house and gets into passenger seat of car. Arrives at work and gets out of driver's seat.....?Que?

Ther Ancient Mariner

[CoffmanStarter]

Liked Jimmy's 'flying boots'

Wearing brown shoes with a suit ... what is the world coming to :eek:

[BOAC]

Obviously dual-seat qualified?

[smujsmith]

Smashing to see the Royal Air Force, premier Lightning Squadron (56) led the way into this nostalgic item. After seeing the brown brogues I was amazed at how many it took to remove a pitot cover and an intake blank. Good bit of vid though, if only for the 56 Squadron stuff:ok:

Smudge

[pontifex]

Jimmy Dell and I were at Headly Court together for a time in 66 (I think.) Hell of a party man! Interesting to talk to re the TSR2. Sorry he's gone.

[thing]

Liked Jimmy's 'flying boots'

George Bulman, Hawker's chief test pilot used to wear a bowler hat when flying......

[Ripline]

....our hero exits house and gets into passenger seat of car. Arrives at work and gets out of driver's seat.....?Que?

Ford Zephyr/Zodiac. Bench front seat, column change & dash-mounted handbrake, so entry and exit easy from either side across smooth leather. You had to hang on to something metallic in dry weather when alighting as the static build-up was, literally, shocking. Superb vehicle of its time and a superior, ahem, courting environment.....;)

Ripline

[thing]

so entry and exit easy from either side across smooth leather.

Surely you mean stick to your bum plastic? Or Naugahyde or whatever it was called. I learned to drive in my Dad's Corsair, bench seat, column change etc. I remember in the hot weather driving it while wearing shorts and my legs were almost glued to the seat, sliding across would have ripped my flesh off I think.

[500N]

And remember getting in them (any car with that type of seat)
when the car had been sitting in the sun. Wearing shorts or
full length trousers it was a case of ouch !!!

[thing]

I have a black car with black leather seats and today I had a 'Ayee that's bloody hot' gently lowering body onto seat moment...Actually had 26C on the car thermometer jobby, far hotter inside.

[500N]

My first car was an old Ford Escort, crap car, crap seats, no air con.
In summer here in Aus I would swear the car got to 50 - 60 degrees
in summer and the seats were "hot" !

[thing]

My son lives in Bris, I know all about hot car seats!:) About 9 months of the year they have white cotton sheets thrown across the car seats.

[Dysonsphere]

By the time the last one got of the ground the first one would be back for fuel.:{

[onetrack]

.....our hero exits house and gets into passenger seat of car. Arrives at work and gets out of driver's seat.....?Que?

The drivers side, outside doorhandle mechanism was broken? - thus necessitating entry via the passenger side door, and sliding across the seat. It's a Ford, remember? :rolleyes:

[teeteringhead]

George Bulman, Hawker's chief test pilot used to wear a bowler hat when flying...... ... and fellow rotary mates will doubtless remember Igor Sikorsky's homburg! (from Groundschool films - I'm not that old!)

http://russiapedia.rt.com/files/prominent-russians/science-and-technology/igor-sikorsky/igor-sikorsky_2-t.jpg

[Al-bert]

TH

but was it a Homburg, or a Trilby? We were never told in ground school

The Homburg had initially been popularised in Britain by King Edward VII (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII) who often visited Bad Homburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Homburg) in Germany.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Eden_hat#cite_note-4) It was essentially a more rigid variant of the trilby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilby) which had been fashionable since George du Maurier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_du_Maurier)'s novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilby_(novel)) of that name was published in 1894

:eek:

[teeteringhead]

Al-bert

I confess the photo' I found does seem more Trilby-ish than Homburg-esque, but the films we saw were I think distinctly Homburg; I suspect the extra rigidity gave added protection.

After all, the bowler was originally a rider's "bone dome"was it not?

[edited to add:]

Deffo Homburg. From Sikorsky's own corporate website here. (http://www.sikorsky.com/About+Sikorsky/News/Press+Details?pressvcmid=eb1fa96c2e289110VgnVCM1000001382000 aRCRD) But I'll still seek a better picture!

Imagine if you could have been there the day Igor Sikorsky flew his first helicopter or watched him chatting about aviation with Charles Lindbergh and Eddie Rickenbacker in your living room. What would it have been like to fly around with Sikorsky, suit and tie, homburg hat plumped squarely on his head, in the first practical helicopter?

[edited again for the new picture!]

http://www.aviastar.org/foto/gallery/sikorsky/sik_vs-300_5.jpg

[Tankertrashnav]

Had a Zephyr Mk II convertible when I was at Seletar. The hot plastic problem was solved by having a custom set of cloth seat covers made up down Jalan Kayu for a few bucks.

Entertaining young ladies in your room in the mess was almost a hanging offence in 1967, so the bench seat, without a floor mounted gear change to get in the way, solved that problem!

[BOAC]

My first motor too in 1964. Cost me £55. Front seat likewise well used. Sold to the well-remembered 'Wee George Brown' at Leeming in 1966 (who no doubt continued the tradition....) and he kept it running into the 80's and possibly the 90's I believe. Great motor, silky smooth 6 cylinder 2.6??L engine.

[teeteringhead]

Didn't Staishes used to have "Z cars" (Zephyr or Zodiac) as staff cars ....?

[AtomKraft]

Was it a Ford Cresta?

Nice car- funny how the car dates the film.

[teeteringhead]

Cresta was a Vauxhall - notorious rust-bucket IIRC.

[CoffmanStarter]

WARNING ... Thread nose dive !!! PULL UP ... PULL UP !!!

Anyway ... my first car was one of these (in silver) ...

http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2008/05/17/19/58/1968_hillman_imp-pic-23259.jpeg

Used to service it during Metal Work at school ... Vne about 50 MPH ... above that it was great help with A Level Physics homework ... natural resonance !!!

Coff.

[Tankertrashnav]

Didn't Staishes used to have "Z cars" (Zephyr or Zodiac) as staff cars ....? 20th Jun 2013 16:30


They certainly did - they had Mk II Zephyrs in the mid 60s to replace the awful Standard Vanguards which preceded them. A bit later the Staish at Kai Tak had a black Zephyr Mk III and he had workshops knock up a false roof which fitted on like a roof rack. Painted white it helped keep the car a bit cooler in those pre air-conditioning days

[Wander00]

Whilst I was at Cranditz, my then fiancé's uncle remarried and was off for 2 weeks honeymoon. He wanted car his car safe from the clutches of his son in law so offered to lend it to me - a brand new Zodiac Mk3. Caused a bit of a stir in the cadets' garage.

[Al-bert]

TH


Quote:
Imagine if you could have been there the day Igor Sikorsky flew his first helicopter or watched him chatting about aviation with Charles Lindbergh and Eddie Rickenbacker in your living room. What would it have been like to fly around with Sikorsky, suit and tie, homburg hat plumped squarely on his head, in the first practical helicopter?

TH, I am indebted to you, thank you for clearing that up, it has bothered me for years and I must now purchse the correct headgear (Homburg) in honour of Igor. Btw, he must have had a very large living room. I couldn't imagine it in mine....:ooh:

[ian16th]

I had a 1966 Ford Corsair, it definitely had bucket seats and a floormonted gear shift.

[ian16th]

Coff,

My 1st new car, a 1971 Imp!

My 2nd was a 1972 Sunbeam (Imp) Sport.

Oh happy daze!

[smujsmith]

My first car, in 1971, was a Rose taupe and White Morris Oxford, it cost £90 and was financed by my SWMBO to be. It was a great bit of engineering, but, was frightening to drive when doing 70 downhill, take your foot off and there were sparks from everywhere. After serious, Halton trained, investigation I was unable to NFF it, the voltage regulator was in need of adjustment. It's registration was 578 RTX, I called it ruttocks, and will never forget the corn growing in the boot. It had previously been owned by a Welsh farmer, and employed in moving sacks of corn around. You never forget your first car :ok:

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b572/smujsmith/image_zpsd3a1615c.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/smujsmith/media/image_zpsd3a1615c.jpg.html)

Smudge

[Wander00]

My first car - 1956 Ford Prefect with sidevalve 1172cc engine, followed by a Ford Anglia with 997cc OHV engine. Then the first SWMBO decided we needed a dog and an estate car - a Mini estate car.............................