I was a bit worried that we may drop off the first page. So here goes with the article on Snoopy.
My interest in this goes back to my last years at school seeing it being built at Marshall. In the 80s I got involved in a bit of design work to upgrade the secure comms. I visited Farnborough several times and still have Gibbs Business card. I remember the Mods Ctee mtg to clear my modification and went though the check list, Restraint OK, Did you wish to check my stress calcs, Weight and Moment, EMC and Tempest, Spares, Flight Test, DA approvals, Air Pubs etc. etc. One of the other modifications on the agenda was painting a chicken on the side. never heard so much discussion over politics, who was paying, it was an RAF A/c not belonging to the Met Office FFS give me a tin of Humbrol enamel and I will pop out and do it whilst you lot argue the toss. The Design Authority wanted to charge a fortune for a Cover Mod and drawings. I think it did get done in the end. I had previously done some artwork on aircraft, painting red gooses on the dorsal dielectric panels on a big hemp aircraft we had at Wyton. A tin of Post Office Red, a bit of white and light sea grey. I think the chief Dopy was on leave or posted at the time.
Years later I became involved again in Snoopy when Boscombe (Not sure if it was DERA or Q2 at the time) had bought the aircraft for £1. I think The Herc IPT had retained some Type Airworthiness Authority status. We were short of Ks and started to lay plans for flat flooring the aircraft, putting the cloud and clunk back on the nose and using the aircraft for Airdrop and parachute trials. This never came off. It was good to see the airframe used for A400M engine development. The aircraft was sat in quite a sorry state at Cambridge last year.
I think the aircraft has been discussed on this forum previously. Genghis is the expert. He posted some links to the Met Office historical stuff. The barbers pole is at Exeter he tells me. I remember Harry telling me how they went through nose undercarriages.