Heston: wartime crashes and incidents
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Winkle Brown
Contact FAST Museum www.airsciences.org.uk/ at Farnborough for info regarding Winkle Brown.
He has recently been interviewed there & we have been waiting for the BBC to broadcast it on the "One Show", but for various reasons it has not been shown yet.
tristar 500
He has recently been interviewed there & we have been waiting for the BBC to broadcast it on the "One Show", but for various reasons it has not been shown yet.
tristar 500
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Winkle Brown
Would be interesting to know if (as the naval test pilot) Winkle Brown was at the Heston Fleet Air Arm display on 2 October 1945? I'm currently reading the book he's holding up on the FAST webpage, and on page 23 that tells us that late on the following day, 3 October, he very nearly came a cropper in fog, while ferrying an Arado 234B from Schleswig via Brussels to Farnborough - one of a complete squadron of them captured at Sola (Stavanger), Norway. He had a Luftwaffe POW pilot flying another one in close formation with him (the poor German wasn't allowed maps!), and of course they lost each other in the fog. Winkle Brown got his down, with just fumes left in the tanks, on a somewhat marginal German airfield (Nordholz), while his companion excelled himself by safely getting his aircaft into a minute Dutch grass airfield (Eelde), which just happened to also be more bomb crater than grass! That's how the Dutch obtained an Arado 234, as nobody could fly it out again. The Arado was one jet aircraft which would have given the Vampire a very good run for its money.
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Heston Display
I suspect this shot of the Sea Mosquito in the Google Life Image archive was at the display
LIFE: War 1939-1945 World War Ii Air Uk Bombers - Hosted by Google
see also the Flight Global Archive
vampire | 1945 | 1992 | Flight Archive
LIFE: War 1939-1945 World War Ii Air Uk Bombers - Hosted by Google
see also the Flight Global Archive
vampire | 1945 | 1992 | Flight Archive
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Heston Display
Thanks for the birthday issue of Flight (I was eight that very day!), duly printed off and tucked in the back of "Coming in to Land".
No sign of Winkle Brown but it seems that I was privileged to watch Geoffrey de Havilland (flying the Vampire), and possibly no less than Jeffrey Quill and Alex Henshaw too if I happened to have seen the Spiteful and the Seafire 45 performing. Don't remember the last two aircraft but the Vampire was what I was up the tree for, and "Spitfires" were commonplace at Heston after all.
Must've been mid-afternoon too, so the actual display was possibly finished by then. It was on a Tuesday and, like the Ju88 incident, I would therefore have been on my way home from school when I heard the buzz about the Vampire - probably North Hyde Lane householders standing outside watching. No wonder I ended up aviation minded!
Anyway, my clear recollection is of just a take off, and one straight and (very low) level high speed departure pass by the Vampire, so that also stacks up - relative to the tight turning passes in the actual display, as seen in the Movietone clip.
It was, of course, just under a year later, on 27 September 1946, when Geoffrey de Havilland lost his life as the second prototype DH108 broke up in a high speed dive.
(Wish I could remember what happened five minutes ago, as well as I recall events of over sixty five years ago!
)
No sign of Winkle Brown but it seems that I was privileged to watch Geoffrey de Havilland (flying the Vampire), and possibly no less than Jeffrey Quill and Alex Henshaw too if I happened to have seen the Spiteful and the Seafire 45 performing. Don't remember the last two aircraft but the Vampire was what I was up the tree for, and "Spitfires" were commonplace at Heston after all.
Must've been mid-afternoon too, so the actual display was possibly finished by then. It was on a Tuesday and, like the Ju88 incident, I would therefore have been on my way home from school when I heard the buzz about the Vampire - probably North Hyde Lane householders standing outside watching. No wonder I ended up aviation minded!
Anyway, my clear recollection is of just a take off, and one straight and (very low) level high speed departure pass by the Vampire, so that also stacks up - relative to the tight turning passes in the actual display, as seen in the Movietone clip.
It was, of course, just under a year later, on 27 September 1946, when Geoffrey de Havilland lost his life as the second prototype DH108 broke up in a high speed dive.
(Wish I could remember what happened five minutes ago, as well as I recall events of over sixty five years ago!
)
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More Heston Air Display
The RAF Museum has a few pics by Charles E Brown of the show...previous page has pics of the pilots but none of Winkle Brown, though (not yet a star?)http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/resul...ightbox&page=2
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More Heston Air Display
..and I see that Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham was there. He was lucky enough to meet (well, inspect 
) me a few years later, as a Boy Scout in a parade out in front of St Pauls Cathedral - Lord Mayor's Show?
) me a few years later, as a Boy Scout in a parade out in front of St Pauls Cathedral - Lord Mayor's Show?
Sea Mosquito
I was particularly interested in the photo of the Sea Mosquito with one wing folded.
One of my early CO's in the FAA was in the initial, and only, Sea Mosquito squadron. They were working up on the aircraft and were nearing the time to embark on the carrier. His story was that the aircraft had done initial deck-landing trials successfully, using a non-folding aircraft, and little models of the aircraft had been pushed around a model of the deck and hangar to confirm that this (for the FAA) large aircraft could be manoeuvered successfully around the ship. However, one day someone arrived at the squadron and told them the deal was off; the aircraft wasn't going to go to sea.
What had happened, he said, was that although the aircraft was measured as being narrow enough to fit down the lift, no-one had taken into account the fact that the propellor tips stuck out further than the stub wings. However one turned the props, there was no way it would fit. Hence, no front-line Sea Mosquito squadrons.
One of my early CO's in the FAA was in the initial, and only, Sea Mosquito squadron. They were working up on the aircraft and were nearing the time to embark on the carrier. His story was that the aircraft had done initial deck-landing trials successfully, using a non-folding aircraft, and little models of the aircraft had been pushed around a model of the deck and hangar to confirm that this (for the FAA) large aircraft could be manoeuvered successfully around the ship. However, one day someone arrived at the squadron and told them the deal was off; the aircraft wasn't going to go to sea.
What had happened, he said, was that although the aircraft was measured as being narrow enough to fit down the lift, no-one had taken into account the fact that the propellor tips stuck out further than the stub wings. However one turned the props, there was no way it would fit. Hence, no front-line Sea Mosquito squadrons.
He didn't spot that my woggle was crooked either 
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Heston 'runway' length
On a 1945 Ordnance survey map (1inch=1mile) the distance from NE peri track corner near Fern Lane to SW peri track corner by Southall Lane (roughly 'runway' 25)measures 7/8 inch representing 4620 feet or 0.875mile (1.4km).( oversized scan in the map section of Collect Air | Woodason Aircraft Models History )
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Heston 'runway' length
That's probably about right but it was not the usable 'runway' length. In 1934, ten cubic yards of chalk were put down to create a white dotted line, indicating the approved take off and landing axis over the grass. That axis, still shown in use in the 1945 aerial photo I mentioned (crossing North Hyde Lane at the Fern Lane corner), by 1939 when an initial easterly extension had been added, provided an Air Ministry designated 1000 yards/3000 feet 'runway' plus height clearance buffer zones at either end - e.g., to clear the house the Ju88 hit.
Scaled up to also include the further easterly extension shown in the 1945 photo, and even assuming that the height clearance operating limit moved eastwards to the same extent, then the final usable length (except in extremis - e.g., Gen Curtis LeMay in a hurry in a B17!) was somewhere between the 3,850 feet I previously estimated, and say 4,000 feet absolute maximum. About 300-350 feet overrun/height clearance buffer at each end, would have been quite normal for aircraft, often with low initial climb rates in those days, operating in a built up area.
The 1945 aerial photo clearly shows a well worn touch down area on the grass surface at the western end of the 'runway' beginning almost exactly 300 feet east of the perimeter track, and extending right across to about 700 feet onto the grass. A 1935 photograph in Tim Sherwood's "Coming in to Land" appears to also show a threshold marker line at right angles to the dotted line 'runway' axis, at about 300 feet in from the peri track.
All academic though really, as the point was that Heston was never a bomber base, and once Blenheims, Whitleys and Wellingtons left the main bomber force inventory, it never could have been. In particular, Heston was not "always busy with Flying Fortresses taking off and landing".
Scaled up to also include the further easterly extension shown in the 1945 photo, and even assuming that the height clearance operating limit moved eastwards to the same extent, then the final usable length (except in extremis - e.g., Gen Curtis LeMay in a hurry in a B17!) was somewhere between the 3,850 feet I previously estimated, and say 4,000 feet absolute maximum. About 300-350 feet overrun/height clearance buffer at each end, would have been quite normal for aircraft, often with low initial climb rates in those days, operating in a built up area.
The 1945 aerial photo clearly shows a well worn touch down area on the grass surface at the western end of the 'runway' beginning almost exactly 300 feet east of the perimeter track, and extending right across to about 700 feet onto the grass. A 1935 photograph in Tim Sherwood's "Coming in to Land" appears to also show a threshold marker line at right angles to the dotted line 'runway' axis, at about 300 feet in from the peri track.
All academic though really, as the point was that Heston was never a bomber base, and once Blenheims, Whitleys and Wellingtons left the main bomber force inventory, it never could have been. In particular, Heston was not "always busy with Flying Fortresses taking off and landing".
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As a kid I lived in Grange Road Hayes. My friends and I often cycled to Cranford Woods, adjacent to Heston airfield and I remember going to see a B17 on its belly near the end of the "runway". Can't imagine many other four engine aircraft willingly using the field. I learnt to swim in the summer of 1943 and from then made frequent cycle trips to Heston swimming pool, the journey taking us past the airfield. I seem to remember that most of the aircraft there were fairly boring types such as Cessna Bobcats and Fairchild Argus. In 1945 I went for my first flight from Heston in an Anson with the ATC.
Also in 1940 aged 9, we cycled to near Northolt to see where a Magister had crashed only to be disappointed as the wreck had been removed. However I did find a small piece of perspex with blood on it which stayed in my treasure box for a long time. Later in the war the road down the hill towards the Polish War Memorial, now the A4180 West End Road, had on its eastern side several small hangers disguised and painted like houses and we saw Spitfires being moved along the road to and from the airfield. Of course there are real houses there now! I like to think we were more adventurous than present day kids but most parents would now not allow their offspring to disappear for hours at a time.
Also in 1940 aged 9, we cycled to near Northolt to see where a Magister had crashed only to be disappointed as the wreck had been removed. However I did find a small piece of perspex with blood on it which stayed in my treasure box for a long time. Later in the war the road down the hill towards the Polish War Memorial, now the A4180 West End Road, had on its eastern side several small hangers disguised and painted like houses and we saw Spitfires being moved along the road to and from the airfield. Of course there are real houses there now! I like to think we were more adventurous than present day kids but most parents would now not allow their offspring to disappear for hours at a time.
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Heston Crashes and Incidents
If Curtis LeMay's "Silver Queen" was the B17F with that same name, operated by the 334th Squadron in the 95th Bomb Group, its serial number was 42-29780. Website 95thbg.org refers, and also has two good photos.
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Heston Crashes and Incidents
I've had a system email alert to a post by A30yoyo, including text of a reply he made re the 95th BG B17F but for some reason, it's not here - since deleted? Anyway, he said at that point that the nose art checked out.
Of greater interest personally is the suggestion he also made in the apparently missing post that the "Middlesex Chronicle may have carried the photo of the crashed Ju88, at some time in the '70s. He had previously sent me an email-attached copy of that same photo, which apparently also exists somewhere online (it is NOT in "War Prizes - the Album", BTW, but only in the original 1994 "War Prizes"), and it shows the nose section of the aircraft in worse condition than I remembered it. Unless the nose was damaged during early salvage operation (dragging clear may have already begun), or removed by a salvage team, to recover the centimetric radar a Ju88G-6 with that W/Nr could have been expected to carry, the state of it casts doubt on survival of the pilot and/or other crew members, if any.
If there were in fact casualties, the local story of the pilot calming getting out to use a telephone call box close by, must have been purely apocryphal. It also makes me feel very bad about grubbing around for a bit of souvenir Perspex, if somebody might have lost his life (surely "his" in those days) there.
When time permits (which may not be for a week or three), I'm therefore intending to search both Middlesex Chronicle records from 1945 (that could well have been one of their photos), and CFE records at the National Archives, to look for more information: mission, cause, time, date, casualties.... Fairey Aviation was known to have been studying advanced technology in other aircraft at the time, hands on, looking for features to upgrade the Spearfish - albeit abandoned, due to cessation of healthy orders in that immediate post war period. It's thought to have been the reason a Northrop Black Widow (with its remotely operated barbetted guns) was in much evidence at Heston about that time. Were they also looking at German technology in that late model Ju88, and/or other captured aircraft? If they were not, they would have been on their own, as every other British manufacturer of anything from sockets to rockets was freely pouring over captured techonology in 1945.
Does anybody already have other relevant information, including confirmation that the Chronicle printed the photo in the '70s and, if so, about when?
Is there a weblink to the photo which you can post A30yoyo, to let other readers of this thread have a look - might jog some more memories?
Of greater interest personally is the suggestion he also made in the apparently missing post that the "Middlesex Chronicle may have carried the photo of the crashed Ju88, at some time in the '70s. He had previously sent me an email-attached copy of that same photo, which apparently also exists somewhere online (it is NOT in "War Prizes - the Album", BTW, but only in the original 1994 "War Prizes"), and it shows the nose section of the aircraft in worse condition than I remembered it. Unless the nose was damaged during early salvage operation (dragging clear may have already begun), or removed by a salvage team, to recover the centimetric radar a Ju88G-6 with that W/Nr could have been expected to carry, the state of it casts doubt on survival of the pilot and/or other crew members, if any.
If there were in fact casualties, the local story of the pilot calming getting out to use a telephone call box close by, must have been purely apocryphal. It also makes me feel very bad about grubbing around for a bit of souvenir Perspex, if somebody might have lost his life (surely "his" in those days) there.
When time permits (which may not be for a week or three), I'm therefore intending to search both Middlesex Chronicle records from 1945 (that could well have been one of their photos), and CFE records at the National Archives, to look for more information: mission, cause, time, date, casualties.... Fairey Aviation was known to have been studying advanced technology in other aircraft at the time, hands on, looking for features to upgrade the Spearfish - albeit abandoned, due to cessation of healthy orders in that immediate post war period. It's thought to have been the reason a Northrop Black Widow (with its remotely operated barbetted guns) was in much evidence at Heston about that time. Were they also looking at German technology in that late model Ju88, and/or other captured aircraft? If they were not, they would have been on their own, as every other British manufacturer of anything from sockets to rockets was freely pouring over captured techonology in 1945.
Does anybody already have other relevant information, including confirmation that the Chronicle printed the photo in the '70s and, if so, about when?
Is there a weblink to the photo which you can post A30yoyo, to let other readers of this thread have a look - might jog some more memories?
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Sorry about the deletion...I attempted to attach a couple of pics and failed, got p****d off and went to bed (actually got locked out walking the dog and had to wake the Mrs by lobbing 2p coins up at her bedroom window!) The LEMB has info on Airmin32 but its a sign-up group so can't link to it but apparently the pic is (also?) in 'Junkers Ju88- Star of the Luftwaffe' by Manfred Griehl (presumably German text. The LEMB says this Ju-88 was fitted with a 'Kiel Gerat' device making it rare.
I wouldn't get too bogged down searching the Middlesex Chronicle archives as its only a vague memory of a crash photo across a road at Heston (but there was something published and my best guess is the Seventies
I wouldn't get too bogged down searching the Middlesex Chronicle archives as its only a vague memory of a crash photo across a road at Heston (but there was something published and my best guess is the Seventies
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Heston Crashes and Incidents
No prob re the deletion. Guessed something like that must have happened (although my guesswork didn't extend as far as you chucking 2p coins at your missus ), and also guessed that the Ju88 photo must be behind a log-in somewhere.
I'll try to sign up and navigate around the LEMB site (a new one to me) in a mo' - but my first reaction is: verrrrry interrresting!
"Gerät", a noun taken from the old High German simply means tool or device, so has no especial meaning as an I.D. - the Luftwaffe used it to broadly refer to various "systems", e.g., X-Gerät or Y-Gerät, their well known long range radio guidance bombing systems.
I can't find any reference to a "Kiel-Gerät" but if "Kiel" was actually "Kehl", i.e., "Kehl-Gerät", that would probably slot a number of jigsaw pieces neatly into place. Kehl was a series of (low VHF) radio transmitter systems whose guidance signals were used to communicate with corresponding Straßburg series receivers, mounted in Hs293 or Fritz-X radio guided anti-ship missiles. Kehl, BTW, is the town on the opposite side of the Rhine from Straßburg.
If AirMin 32 was a a Kehl-equipped Ju88G-6, then I'm fairly sure it would have had a glazed nose as I originally thought (for the Kehl operator, who needed visual line of sight to the missile, until its impact) - rather than a night fighter's centimetric radar, faired in, radome nose. I also think it would pretty clearly have been of great interest to Fairey's in the context of Spearfish development, and would have been very smartly retrieved by a salvage crew if intact post-crash.
Rare, it would have been, as the Hs293 at least (an underslung, rocket-propelled winged missile) was not known to have been operationally launched from Ju88's - He111 or Do217 being the norm. However, both missiles were developed-on, with sophisticated tail lighting systems to aid their visual guidance at night - so planned operation using a Ju88 night fighter platform (perhaps reverted to wing-mounted Yagi radar aerial arrays) could have been logical.
I'll try LEMB now, to see if there's anything there to support or dstroy my hypothesis - but at least I've chanced my arm by stating the hypothesis first, in true scientific manner
EDIT: Have now registered to LEMB ("Luftwaffe Experten Message Board") but it looks as though it can take up to eight hours before I'll have access, so I'll get back with any further info from there then.
), and also guessed that the Ju88 photo must be behind a log-in somewhere.I'll try to sign up and navigate around the LEMB site (a new one to me) in a mo' - but my first reaction is: verrrrry interrresting!
"Gerät", a noun taken from the old High German simply means tool or device, so has no especial meaning as an I.D. - the Luftwaffe used it to broadly refer to various "systems", e.g., X-Gerät or Y-Gerät, their well known long range radio guidance bombing systems.
I can't find any reference to a "Kiel-Gerät" but if "Kiel" was actually "Kehl", i.e., "Kehl-Gerät", that would probably slot a number of jigsaw pieces neatly into place. Kehl was a series of (low VHF) radio transmitter systems whose guidance signals were used to communicate with corresponding Straßburg series receivers, mounted in Hs293 or Fritz-X radio guided anti-ship missiles. Kehl, BTW, is the town on the opposite side of the Rhine from Straßburg.
If AirMin 32 was a a Kehl-equipped Ju88G-6, then I'm fairly sure it would have had a glazed nose as I originally thought (for the Kehl operator, who needed visual line of sight to the missile, until its impact) - rather than a night fighter's centimetric radar, faired in, radome nose. I also think it would pretty clearly have been of great interest to Fairey's in the context of Spearfish development, and would have been very smartly retrieved by a salvage crew if intact post-crash.
Rare, it would have been, as the Hs293 at least (an underslung, rocket-propelled winged missile) was not known to have been operationally launched from Ju88's - He111 or Do217 being the norm. However, both missiles were developed-on, with sophisticated tail lighting systems to aid their visual guidance at night - so planned operation using a Ju88 night fighter platform (perhaps reverted to wing-mounted Yagi radar aerial arrays) could have been logical.
I'll try LEMB now, to see if there's anything there to support or dstroy my hypothesis - but at least I've chanced my arm by stating the hypothesis first, in true scientific manner
EDIT: Have now registered to LEMB ("Luftwaffe Experten Message Board") but it looks as though it can take up to eight hours before I'll have access, so I'll get back with any further info from there then.
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Heston Ju-88 Kiel Gerat
Your Ju88 was apparently fitted when captured with FUG 220 and FUG 280 kit, the latter being the Kiel Gerat a lead sulphite photocell technology I-R viewing gadget (mounted in the nose)
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Heston Crashes and Incidents/Heston Ju88 Kiel Gerat
Hi Ayoyo30. Yes, confess I got it wrong - and tried to post earlier to say so, and to give an update, but due to an internet connection failure, I had been logged out, and the post was lost. Grrrrrr!
So - nowt to do with anti-shipping missiles, although I'll not delete that hypothesis in case there's stuff there still of some interest. In particular, my update now might just give a more rational explanation for the previously mentioned Northrop Black Widow at Heston. I may be wrong but the view expressed elsewhere that it was in order for Fairey's to consider a similar remote gun control system, as a Spearfish development, somehow never quite rang true for me.
With full access now to LEMB, and having also trawled relevant stuff at w2f, here's a distillation of what I eventually found: "Kiel-Gerät" just seems to have been an Air Ministry shorthand for the Kiel-Z night fighter infrared target tracking system. Kiel-Z used FuG.280 (FunkGerät.280) opto-electronic hardware developed by Karl Zeiss, Jena. All other online references found are to either Kiel-Z or FuG.280.
Kiel-Z was originally Me110-trialled in 1941 but was found lacking. After further development, it was undergoing late pre-service trials in March 1945, using three or four Ju88G-6's. The Heston Ju88 was one of those aircraft and had been captured shortly after cessation of hostilities in NW Europe on 4 May 1945, at Grove, Jutland, Denmark. Winkle Brown tells us that German pilots with key technology to protect had defected to there, rather than see their aircraft fall into Soviet hands.
Ultra intercept decrypts report the full details of two aircraft interception trials conducted near Vechta, north of Osnabruch, on 12 and 14 March 1945, respectively, and ADI (Science) in the UK had appended its coment, as follows:
"(1) This information indicates that the FuG280 is the Kiel Apparatus mentioned in ADI Report 251. It is an infra-red detector, picking up the radiation from the engines and exhausts of our bombers. The sensitive element is a lead sulphite cell with a 25 centimetre diameter scanning mirror covering a forward view of 20 degrees total side-to-side and up and down, the indications are presented on a cathode ray tube in unison with the mirror. The maximum range against a bomber is about 5 kilometres.
(2) The latest experiments show that the field of view is rather narrow for covering an evading aircraft, but that the apparatus otherwise is good up to 2 kilometres range. Method of use under trial is to put the Kiel on by SN2 at 1,000 metres range, and to approach from below, so that the target is viewed against the sky, giving a smooth infrared background.
(3) Information indicates that Kiel must be very near service trial stage."
As the Kiel-Z system was a precursor of many of the infrared detection and scanning systems we are now so familiar with, then, apart from its military significance, Air Ministry 32 was one important Ju88 it was a great pity we lost. As the scanning mirror/detector unit would have been nose mounted, it now seems even more possible that the nose section had been very smartly removed post-crash by a salvage team, or even by local ground crew.
Bearing in mind that the post-crash photo shows a nose removed far enough back for the pilot, if not other crew, to have been sure to have perished if that had been due to impact, the following incredible development today makes post-crash nose removal seem even more likely:
A posting has been received today from a newbie to the Yahoo Heston Airport Group, to say that he/she was a (family visiting) baby, asleep in the house when the Ju88 struck, that he/she is fine, other occupants were unhurt, and the (Canadian) pilot, who survived, was also fine, asking if everybody was OK first - before perhaps heading for the call box, as per the local legend. Seriously, that has happened today - now I will never again express surprise at the web's powers to find information!! (I also feel much better now, BTW, about pinching a bit of the Canadian's Perspex.)
Finally, the thought now occurs that, whether or not it was Fairey Aviation, somebody at Heston was probably very interested in the Kiel-Z system and its Ju88 mount. Was that same somebody also responsible for the presence, at about that same time, of the most advanced allied radar night fighter, a Northrop Black Widow?
David
So - nowt to do with anti-shipping missiles, although I'll not delete that hypothesis in case there's stuff there still of some interest. In particular, my update now might just give a more rational explanation for the previously mentioned Northrop Black Widow at Heston. I may be wrong but the view expressed elsewhere that it was in order for Fairey's to consider a similar remote gun control system, as a Spearfish development, somehow never quite rang true for me.
With full access now to LEMB, and having also trawled relevant stuff at w2f, here's a distillation of what I eventually found: "Kiel-Gerät" just seems to have been an Air Ministry shorthand for the Kiel-Z night fighter infrared target tracking system. Kiel-Z used FuG.280 (FunkGerät.280) opto-electronic hardware developed by Karl Zeiss, Jena. All other online references found are to either Kiel-Z or FuG.280.
Kiel-Z was originally Me110-trialled in 1941 but was found lacking. After further development, it was undergoing late pre-service trials in March 1945, using three or four Ju88G-6's. The Heston Ju88 was one of those aircraft and had been captured shortly after cessation of hostilities in NW Europe on 4 May 1945, at Grove, Jutland, Denmark. Winkle Brown tells us that German pilots with key technology to protect had defected to there, rather than see their aircraft fall into Soviet hands.
Ultra intercept decrypts report the full details of two aircraft interception trials conducted near Vechta, north of Osnabruch, on 12 and 14 March 1945, respectively, and ADI (Science) in the UK had appended its coment, as follows:
"(1) This information indicates that the FuG280 is the Kiel Apparatus mentioned in ADI Report 251. It is an infra-red detector, picking up the radiation from the engines and exhausts of our bombers. The sensitive element is a lead sulphite cell with a 25 centimetre diameter scanning mirror covering a forward view of 20 degrees total side-to-side and up and down, the indications are presented on a cathode ray tube in unison with the mirror. The maximum range against a bomber is about 5 kilometres.
(2) The latest experiments show that the field of view is rather narrow for covering an evading aircraft, but that the apparatus otherwise is good up to 2 kilometres range. Method of use under trial is to put the Kiel on by SN2 at 1,000 metres range, and to approach from below, so that the target is viewed against the sky, giving a smooth infrared background.
(3) Information indicates that Kiel must be very near service trial stage."
As the Kiel-Z system was a precursor of many of the infrared detection and scanning systems we are now so familiar with, then, apart from its military significance, Air Ministry 32 was one important Ju88 it was a great pity we lost. As the scanning mirror/detector unit would have been nose mounted, it now seems even more possible that the nose section had been very smartly removed post-crash by a salvage team, or even by local ground crew.
Bearing in mind that the post-crash photo shows a nose removed far enough back for the pilot, if not other crew, to have been sure to have perished if that had been due to impact, the following incredible development today makes post-crash nose removal seem even more likely:
A posting has been received today from a newbie to the Yahoo Heston Airport Group, to say that he/she was a (family visiting) baby, asleep in the house when the Ju88 struck, that he/she is fine, other occupants were unhurt, and the (Canadian) pilot, who survived, was also fine, asking if everybody was OK first - before perhaps heading for the call box, as per the local legend. Seriously, that has happened today - now I will never again express surprise at the web's powers to find information!! (I also feel much better now, BTW, about pinching a bit of the Canadian's Perspex.)
Finally, the thought now occurs that, whether or not it was Fairey Aviation, somebody at Heston was probably very interested in the Kiel-Z system and its Ju88 mount. Was that same somebody also responsible for the presence, at about that same time, of the most advanced allied radar night fighter, a Northrop Black Widow?
David
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Ju88 crash and B17 Silver Queen
The first of these photos is of the Ju88 some time after its crash.
I think, although I can't be sure, that salvage had already begun and the aircraft had been dragged clear of the house, far enough to allow removal of the nose section containing the Kiel-Z infrared detector and mirror scanning system components, part of the overall FuG.280 target tracking system.
I've reproduced the photo here, a bit smaller than intended, so please take my word for it that the object between the man's shoulder and the aircraft's bent starboard propeller is the Fern Lane telephone call box, the pilot was alleged to have used to call ATC at Heston for assistance!
A30yoyo, who sent the photo to me, said that he photoshopped it but I don't know to what extent - perhaps it really was a B17 after all
The caption on the second photo makes it self-explanatory.
I think, although I can't be sure, that salvage had already begun and the aircraft had been dragged clear of the house, far enough to allow removal of the nose section containing the Kiel-Z infrared detector and mirror scanning system components, part of the overall FuG.280 target tracking system.
I've reproduced the photo here, a bit smaller than intended, so please take my word for it that the object between the man's shoulder and the aircraft's bent starboard propeller is the Fern Lane telephone call box, the pilot was alleged to have used to call ATC at Heston for assistance!
A30yoyo, who sent the photo to me, said that he photoshopped it but I don't know to what extent - perhaps it really was a B17 after all
The caption on the second photo makes it self-explanatory.
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Ju88G-6 Fern Lane crash - Kiel-Z and FuG.220/SN-2
Here's the FuG.280 infrared target tracking system nose installation, as it would have been before the crash. The dipole aerials around it are for the FuG.220 radar ("SN-2" system, as referenced in the ADI Science critique of the Ultra decrypts), which the Heston Ju88 was also recorded as carrying. Other Ju88's sometimes had centimetric, higher frequency, radar systems, with fully faired in nose cone radar aerials, but that area was given over to the FuG.280 infrared in the case of "Air Ministry 32".
..and here's the infrared detector and scanning mirror, with the covers off. I imagine that the heat signal-shielding grid on the glass cover, corresponded with a matching grid on the face of the cathode ray tube in the cockpit, used by the operator. If the operator was not the pilot himself, then he would be able to quickly guide the pilot towards the target with simple grid sector voice steering guidance e.g., "low left", "middle centre", "upper right", etc.
..and here's the infrared detector and scanning mirror, with the covers off. I imagine that the heat signal-shielding grid on the glass cover, corresponded with a matching grid on the face of the cathode ray tube in the cockpit, used by the operator. If the operator was not the pilot himself, then he would be able to quickly guide the pilot towards the target with simple grid sector voice steering guidance e.g., "low left", "middle centre", "upper right", etc.
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Fern Lane Ju88 crash
Have just got my used/good condition copy of "War Prizes" via Amazon (thanks for the lead, Kieron) - looks brilliant and, on Page 84, there's some more information on the aircraft. It was delivered from Schleswig, Germany to CFE West Raynham, on 25 September 1945, by Flight Lieutenant D.G.M. Gough. When it crashed at Heston, on 15 October 1945 (so CFE only had it for 20 days), it was inbound from a trip to Germany, collecting spares for an Me 262 also operated by CFE. Why Heston? Customs clearance? Crash pilot not confirmed but I'll see if Flt Lt Gough crops up anywhere else in the book, perhaps confirming that he was Canadian, for example - at least we now know the mission the aircraft was on. The crash photograph, on Page 85, is very much clearer than the scanned copy we've previously seen here, ex the web, but it still doesn't show the baby sleeping inside the house, who we now know about, and have recently heard from!