Danny relates two more oddments from Geilenkirchen.
GK produced a monthly Station Magazine. Among the more popular regular columns was "....SO I BOUGHT A ...." In this, a buyer of a new car of a model not previously described extolled the virtues of his purchase. I took it upon myself to write about the Peugeot.
To the best of my recollection, this was the result (written about '60):
"In the dawn of motoring history, a French automobile engineer pondered the problem of suiting the very limited rpm range of his engine to the varying road speeds of his car. With a flash of inspiration, he removed the change-speed mechanism from his lathe and incorporated it into the transmission.
"C'ést brusque et brutale", said he after a couple of turns round the block, "mais ça marche". Not only had he invented the gearbox essentially as we know it today, but he'd laid down the philosophy which was to motivate a whole generation of French car designers.
At home we reserve the highest praise for cars in which "the loudest sound at 60 mph is the ticking of the clock" - ("We'll have to do something about that clock, old boy") . These attributes leave your average Frenchman cold. He has paid for his engine and does not mind hearing it working. His roads are long and straight but rough and narrow, and they are lined each side with trees (planted by Napoleon to shade his Grande Armée on the march), but which also stop you leaving the carriageway and ploughing up good agricultural land.
A specification emerges for a car which goes fast, exactly where it is pointed, with soft suspension to soak up all the bumps, and (when the inevitable load of hay appears half way round a bend) can be hauled to a standstill without capsizing or taking to the woods.
For three generations, the Peugeot family has prospered by providing just such vehicles to Frenchmen of modest means. You will look in vain for walnut veneer cappings, carpets or leather seats (the interior is all plastic and rubber, you can wash it out with a mop and bucket). A very low compression ratio (6.25:1) * lets you use the vilest petrol available. (on this account, and because of their rugged build, they are popular in E. Africa - it's said in Durban that they're the only things that the Zulu cab drivers can't break !)
"Rough and ready" they may be. "Go" they certainly do.
(For this excellent piece of advertising copy, I received not a sou, nor a cent, nor a pfennig). Ah well.
Note *: I'm sure this was the handbook figure then , but research now says 7:1 on that engine (still low).
*******************
GK was closed for runway repairs for a few weeks (the Squadrons must have been flown out somewhere, but I can't remember where). ATC put its feet up, but of course we were still manned.
But the GAF took advantage of the empty airfield to use it for working-up a display team they'd recently formed. This was a 4 x F.104 "Starfighter" affair, with (we were told) a USAF Major leading and three GAF pilots. Our South taxiway would be an ideal "crowd line" for them to use as a reference point.
I particularly remember them practising barrel-rolls low-ish over the runway. We spectators were turning pale with horror, there were sharp intakes of breath - Local Control brought the Crash crews to readiness. For "The Widowmaker" was far from the ideal mount for formation aerobatics. With a wing loading of over 100 lb/sq.ft, before hanging anything on it, I would guess (knowing nothing about them) that it would only be happy at 250 knots or more. But at that speed the spectators would hardly have time to get their noses out of the ice-cream before the barrel-roll was out of sight.
So they were doing it as slowly as they dared, and that was the trouble. The things were clearly only marginally in control, sashaying about all over the place as they struggled to hold position. There was no future in this, we thought. Nor was there. Last thing we heard some time later, they had rolled themselves into a ball and gone into an opencast mine somewhere (all dead).
(Wiki has the story, but tells a different account of the disaster, and does not mention the mine. Apparently all further attempts to form a GAF Display Team were forbidden)
'Night, all.
Danny42C.
There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.
PS: Warmtoast, Yes, Dm 9:£ sounds more like it. The £ ended on Black Wednesday in '92 at Dm 2.77:£ !....D.