Sights and Sounds
Where do I start,
I lived west side of Bath
Earliest Memory, D-Day the sky full of Aircraft towing Gliders, from "Charmy Down" airfield north of Bath.
Post war ,Mass formations of 8th Airforce B17s/B24s/P51s flying West back to the USA
First Airshow 1952 Colerne,Mass take off /fly past by Brigands/Buckmasters.
Plus three B50 Washingtons.
Top of List the "Blue note" from a really fast Meteor/Hunter pass
1954 Farnborough,(Public Saturday) Sound barrier broken by the Hunter Swift,Javelin,DH110,and Supermarine 525.Then the subsequent "silent" transonic high speed very low level pass(Cacooned in Shock waves due to earlier Thunderstorm) with a delay before the sound arrived
Earlier memories,
The sound of the Brabazon, lived west side of Bath so saw it very many times, best was Colerne Airshow 1953, Brabazon did a fairwell appearence.
Pre Scapping.
Did 3 Flybys with the final a touch and go .
A flyover by 6 x B-36 Peacemakers.(Engines:6 Turning,4 Burning) going back to the USA after a UK deployment/Visit
Allowed a day off school by my Father to witness them.
The flew over Bath at Staggered heights ,so first quite High.then lower until the last one seeemed to fill the sky, Fantastic sound.
(You can get an idea from watching the Film "Stategic Air Command " with James Stewart, I think there are extracts on U-Tube.)
Other sounds.
Canadair Sabre breaking sound Barrier at an Early "Filton" Airshow.
The resonance whine from the back end of a Javelin.
The European debut of the F104 at "Bentwaters" 1959/1960?
On "Sproat Lake" Vancouver Island on the lake while Mars Flying boat did its stuff. Takeoff, Touch and go near the boat I was in, a full water drop, then a head on landing ,amazing sounds.
Others of note, Hastings clawing out of Colerne (Evening/Night could see the exhaust flames)
1987, A night flight out of Miami with Aerochago Boeing 377 Freighter to Domincan Republic, followed next day with a flight to San Juan in their Short "Connie," freight rigged, no sound proofing , the sounds on those two flights are a very special memory.
Others
Lightning /Phantom/Sr71/V Bombers/ Shakleton/ Any Merlin engined aircraft.
Early 707/DC 8s Starting up/Taxiing. Musn't forget in the 70s/80s I lived in Bracknell and the absolute magic sound of a Sunday evening of the East African Super VC10 climbing out of Heathrow ,WOW.
Hope I hav'nt gone on too long .
Hope I've quite some time left for me to enjoy a lot more yet.
Last edited by Old Photo.Fanatic; 24th Apr 2009 at 12:15.