Flying under bridges, what & where?

[smuff2000]

I found this image on pixdaus and couldn't identify the aircraft, looks like an early jet trainer but not one I am familiar with.

Any idea what it is or even where it might be, the bridge doesnt look too high!

http://www.pixdaus.com/pics/wJ7XjJ8Ajuap.jpg

[KERDUNKER]

L29 Delfin.......... (could almost be a Pucara minus engines):)

[DennisK]

Ref the above ... see the 'Rotorheads' forum for a best ever piccy of dear Ray Hanna taking his Spit under the bridge. An absolute classic. God bless you up there Ray.

While on the subject, does anyone have a picture or information on the Gloster Meteor Mk 1V that did the Clifton Suspension Bridge in February 1974. It was the same day that Bill Pegg put the Bristol Britannia down on the mud flats after losing all four engines.

I was based at 209 AFS Weston Zoyland at the time, and remember how another pilot attempted the same stunt a few months later in a Vampire. Must have flown down from Valley.

Sadly he didn't quite get it right and failed to pull up before the curve in the river and struck the side of the gorge.

Safe flying to all out there.

DRK

[pulse1]

I thought that the Vampire was from the RAF Auxiliary squadron based at Filton. It was the last day of flying operations for the Auxiliary squadrons. One imagines that the pilot had spent many years looking at the Clifton Suspension bridge and this was his last chance to do it.

A sad day for many reasons.

[norwich]

Re. Photo at original post, have a look at this clip, link below (I hope), is it the same bridge ?? If so it is at Szolnok, Hungary ?? Keith.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/475642/flying_under_bridge_inverted/

[Warmtoast]

I thought that the Vampire was from the RAF Auxiliary squadron based at Filton.

It was and took place on Sunday, 3 Feb 1957 as this contemporary press cutting shows:


JET PILOT KILLED IN AVON GORGE - VAMPIRE FLOWN UNDER BRIDGE -
UNITS FINAL PARADE

An hour before the Duke of Gloucester was due to take the salute at the disbandment parade of 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, at Filton, Bristol, yesterday [Sunday, Feb 03, 1957], a Vampire jet fighter attached to the squadron crashed into a bank of the River Avon after having flown under Clifton suspension bridge.

The pilot, Flying Officer J. G. Crossley, aged 28, was killed. The suspension bridge spans the Avon Gorge and carries a road 245ft. above the river. The aircraft narrowly missed the bridge, according to eye witnesses, and dived into a steep slope on the Somerset side of the river, near Pill, about two miles from the bridge. The impact caused a slight landslide which almost reached a railway line below. No trains were run on the line, which connects Bristol and Portishead, for several hours. The wreckage of the aircraft caught fire and Bristol and Somerset firemen had to lay a hose for more than a quarter of a mile across the hillside. The body of the pilot was found among the wreckage.

Flying Officer Crossley, a single man, was employed by the flight test department of a subsidiary of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. He lived in Bristol, but his home was at Blackburn.

Mr. William Rodgers, prospective Labour candidate in the forthcoming by-election at Bristol West, said last night that he was admiring the view from the suspension bridge when he heard the scream of jet engines. “The aircraft came in very low” he said. He watched it disappear up the gorge and round a bend. There was a loud explosion and immediately smoke billowed up."

Mr. A. H. Fenn, proprietor of a kiosk on the bridge, said: “There was a strong wind, and as the aircraft continued up the gorge it appeared to roll or bank to the left I imagine the strong cross-wind must have caught him as he was banking."

Squadron Leader M. C. Collings, officer commanding the squadron, said the aircraft was being tested as a reserve for the parade fly-past No route had been laid down for it, but the pilot had not permission to attempt to fly under the bridge.

The Duke of Gloucester, who is honorary Air Commodore of the squadron, knew nothing of the crash until after the parade He was told of it by Air Marshal Sir Thomas Pike, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Fighter Command.

ROYAL TRIBUTE
At the parade, the first to be held by a Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadron since the recent disbandment announcement, the Duke said: The reasons for the Government’s decision have been given and we must however difficult it is, loyally accept them. I can only say that I fully understand and sympathize most sincerely with your feelings at this moment. The fame of your squadron and of the rest of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force will, I know, live on long after disbandment.”

He recalled that 501 Squadron went quickly to France when the last war began and one morning “bagged” 18 enemy aircraft before breakfast. Later the squadron played a distinguished part in the Battle of Britain, and it was Sergeant James Lacy, a member of the squadron, who shot down the Heinkel which bombed Buckingham Palace.

The parade included both personnel of 501 Squadron and of 2501 Field Squadron. Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment. A solitary Vampire jet fighter flew past as the Duke took the salute.

PILOT’S FLIGHT WAS “UNAUTHORIZED”
Flying Officer John Greenwood Crossley, aged 28, the pilot who crashed and died in the Avon Gorge after flying a Vampire aircraft under the Clifton suspension bridge last Sunday, was on an unauthorized flight, it was stated at the inquest yesterday at Flax Bourton, near Bristol.

Corporal Robert Charles Troll, of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, stationed with 501 Squadron at Filton, said that at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday he saw Crossley sitting in a Vampire starting the engines. “He then climbed out, dashed round to the starboard side, disconnected the starting appliance, and then climbed back into the aircraft as if he was in a hurry. ... I made signs to prevent him from taking off because the nose wheel chock was behind the wheel and danger might ensue. He ignored me completely”

The inquest was adjourned until February 26.

[spekesoftly]

While on the subject, does anyone have a picture or information on the Gloster Meteor Mk 1V that did the Clifton Suspension Bridge in February 1974. It was the same day that Bill Pegg put the Bristol Brittannia down on the mud flats after losing all four engines.DennisK,

Probably just a typo, but I think you mean February 1954 for the Bill Pegg Britannia incident.

[smuff2000]

Keith,

It certainly looks very similar to the bridge in the picture, and bearing in mind the type, now confirmed as a Delphin, it would seem likely to be the same bridge.

Paul

[steve757]

here you go http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_OF0v1dwYC8&feature=related

[Double Zero]

"Engines" - plural, on a Vampire ? No wonder it was unauthorised.

It's amazing how many authors - even ones who make big money - seem to count the intakes !

On the A30 In Hampshire there is a roundabout with a nameplate 'Spitfire Bridge', so named after a pilot flying under the bridge in WW2 ( successfully ); I read that the aircraft in question was in fact a P-40, but to Joe Public watching I suppose everything was a Spitfire...

Then again wasn't there a chap in a Hunter who made an impression by flying under Tower Bridge ? I'd imagine that had a remarkable effect on his carreer, I hope for the better.

[corsair]

The king of bridge flying must be Derek Piggott who flew under a railway bridge while filming 'The Blue Max' in Ireland. I have read somewhere he did something like 30 times. I saw the bridge a while ago. I for one would not like to have flown under it once, never mind thirty times.

Can't find a youtube video of it though.

[treadigraph]

The king of bridge flying must be Derek Piggott

There wasn't much clearance (five feet each side?) between the wingtips and the brickwork!

Buy the film (The Blue Max) or the book (Delta Papa by Derek Piggott). Neither will disappoint you, especially the film if you like Ursula Andress!

PS, Double Zero, do a PPRuNe search on Hunter and Tower Bridge within the AH&S forum for more gen on that episode. Well worth it for some authoritative opinion!

[BEagle]

Re. the Vampire, a QFI of the era told me that the pilot hadn't even been strapped in....

Not thought to be suicide, more a last chance to do something he'd always fancied trying.

Personally I feel that the RAF has never recovered from the infamous Sandys 1957 White Paper.:mad:

[ICT_SLB]

More up to date bridge flying, when I worked at the Lazy B I was told that the usual last flight for a retiring A-6 driver from NAS Whidbey Island was under the Deception Pass Bridge (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Pass_Bridge) - now that's low!

[Dan4096]

Doesn't the Vampire have a twin-boom tail configuration? I might have seen wrong, but the aircraft in the image looks like it has a conventional tail. :confused:

[spekesoftly]

Dan,

The aircraft in post #1 is identified as a L29 Delfin in post #2. The DH Vampire mentioned in other posts refer to a different 'flying under bridges' event.

[DennisK]

For spekesoftly.

Yup ... you'll have to make allowances as the memory cells fades somewhat.

1954 it was of course, and how can one's brain let slip two decades ... I ask myself.

Interested pruners might like to check the adjacent thread on what one local newspaper headlined ... The Night it Rained Meteors.

Sadly it was that year at Weston Zoyland. I was on a night flying exercise when four Meteors were lost along with two pilots who were diverted to nearby Merryfield as fog closed Weston Zoyland.

Having been held in the overhead position for 30 minutes, my aircraft ran out of fuel and I was more than lucky enough to complete a forced landing.

Any other pruners have info on that happening.

Are either Brian Armstrong or Bunny Austin still around?

Take care all,

Dennis Kenyon.

[airgirl]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for the photo of Ray Hanna flying under the bridge that DennisK mentions please. Had a bit of a look in Rotorheads but couldn't find it.

Thanks

[spekesoftly]

Here it is:-

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3540993&postcount=192

[Double Zero]

Beagle,

Thanks for the tip re. Hunter & Tower Bridge.

I reckon everyone here feels the same about Duncan Sandys, 'Dr.' Beeching too for that matter; they knobbled Britain way beyond Goering's wildest dreams - *****:mad: agreed.

I'd love to invent a time machine just to go back and lump them one !

I might have been tempted to suppose modern pilots wouldn't attempt such things as flying under bridges; but having seen an F3 blowing away turf about 6' under the nozzles as it climbed ( and I must say, skidded forward a good deal at an elaborate A of A ) plus a GR5 putting a wingtip between hangar gutters at a Scottish range, I think the spirit remains.

I did photo' a pass by a Seajet on delivery, I was on a platform about 20' or a bit more high - as the a/c passed ****** fast I couldn't help thinking the platform's poor lateral support couldn't take it; I have a copy of the video taken by the guy alongside me, which basically goes: very loud & powerful Jet efflux, then audible eddies, then my voice saying " Holy **** ! "

[Union Jack]

On the A30 In Hampshire there is a roundabout with a nameplate 'Spitfire Bridge', so named after a pilot flying under the bridge in WW2 ( successfully ); I read that the aircraft in question was in fact a P-40, but to Joe Public watching I suppose everything was a Spitfire...

Well remembered Double Zero, although the bridge was actually over what was then A33, the Winchester bypass, now greatly widened to accommodate the M3 between J9 and J10.

The following link, which shows the bridge as it was until the early 1980s, confirms both that it was indeed a Tomahawk, and that the deed, like the subsequent return to base, was not completely successful .....

http://tinyurl.com/6hhgz6

As someone else said, a bit too late to rename that bridge, although I gather that there was a plan to rename a bridge in Southampton "Spitfire Bridge" in view of the local connections, but it didn't come to fruition.

Jack

PS

More up to date bridge flying, when I worked at the Lazy B I was told that the usual last flight for a retiring A-6 driver from NAS Whidbey Island was under the Deception Pass Bridge (http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Pass_Bridge) - now that's low!

No - that's high, at least compared with the other bridges so far, about 180 feet or so depending on the tide, which for comparitive purposes is about ten feet more than the deepwater channel arch of the Forth Bridge - about which there must be some similar stories

[603DX]

Re. the Hunter and Tower Bridge, I actually had a good view of the event in central London. I was working as a site engineer supervising building of a block of flats near Vauxhall Bridge, in early April 1968. While checking the steel reinforcement of the highest floor slab before concreting, with my eye level about 50 feet above ground level, the Hunter roared past travelling downriver approximately 300 yards away.

I saw it pass over Vauxhall and Westminster Bridges, and very close to the then-new Vickers Millbank tower block. Anyone on the upper floors would definitely have been looking down onto it, and from my own vantage point I saw its full side view! Other tallish buildings then blocked my view of it as it swept towards Tower Bridge, so I didn't see it passing between the lower road deck and the upper pedestrian deck level, but the news media were full of it afterwards.

The newspaper accounts next day claimed that the pilot was due to leave the RAF quite soon anyway, and that he and colleagues were very dissatisfied with the half-hearted way in which the service was celebrating the 50th anniversary of its formation on 1st April 1918. He had accordingly decided to mark the occasion in a more robust and appropriate manner!

[larssnowpharter]

There wasn't much clearance (five feet each side?) between the wingtips and the brickwork!

One has it on good authority that the low level route in the Blue Max as well as the aircraft going under the bridge was first pioneered by a certain Sgt Sean Tracey flying a Magister out of Baldonnel in the 40s.

Info provided by the guy who followed him!

[treadigraph]

Lars, from memory of watching the film (I've lent my copy to someone, so can't check!) the first pass is through the main span of the bridge which probably easily accommodated a Maggie.

The second and third passes are through a narrower arch to the left of the main span. I suspect if a Maggie got through that one it was with some considerable bank on! :}

I think Derek Piggott flew the Triplane through the narrow arch some twenty times!

I wonder if anyone can find a pic of it on the web - I've had a quick google but no luck and I'd better do some work!

A great film which kicks CGI firmly into touch in my opinion. A shame that much of the final sequence flown by Piggott in the Morane 230 was left out of the film.

I'd love to have seen that Hunter through Tower Bridge (or Chris Draper and his Orster).

Cheers

Treadders

[RETDPI]

Chris Draper (who was not a boastful man) reckoned he could have taken a formation of three Austers under most of the bridges on his second trip!

[larssnowpharter]

I think you are right; or at least your memory coincides with mine!

The guy who followed the Maggie and recounted the story of following Sean Tracey, was me Dad!

[Warmtoast]

Tower Bridge fly-through.

Flt. Lt. Alan Richard Pollock the pilot of the Hunter that flew through Tower Bridge in April 1968 wrote an article " Why I Flew my Hunter Through Tower Bridge - 5th April 1968" for "Flypast" magazine.

His article can be seen here: http://www.rafjever.org/4sqnper004.htm


I rather liked the cartoon that appears towards the end of his account!

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/UnderTowerBridge-Cartoon.jpg

[603DX]

Warmtoast: Thank you so much for that posting! It's great to have frail memory corroborated so resoundingly by such a comprehensive article.

[Mike7777777]

here you go http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_OF0v1...eature=related (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_OF0v1dwYC8&feature=related)

Wonderful video, spoilt by the editing and the "script", two star appearances though, the Spit and Mr Hanna. Oh for the rest of the footage from the camera on the Spit.

Is Merlin-addiction a recognised medical complaint?

[27mm]

If it isn't, it ought to be. My daughter gave me a presentation pack of "Spitfire" ale for Xmas - it came with a chapel-key widget that plays the sound of a Spitfire flypast each time a bottle is opened. I've drunk an awful lot of beer as a result.......

[rojread]

One character that I thought would get a mention is the guy in the early '50s who flew under I think it was 9 bridges on the Thames. I was at a rowing club just upriver of Hammersmith Bridge, getting into an eight after school and heard this plane roar past. Not sure but it may have been a Tiger. (I hadn't discovered aviation at that time)!

It was in all the papers the next day and I think he earned the nickname 'The Mad Major' - just before they pulled his licence. (Wonder if he's any relation to Maurice Kirk)?

[treadigraph]

Roj, read posts 24 and 25 - the Mad Major was Chris Draper as mentioned, he missed out Tower Bridge as he'd already been through it before the war!

If you search PPRuNe for "Christopher Draper" you'll find quite a thread on the subject as I recall. :ok:

Don't give Maurice ideas! The UK Psychiatric systems is already creaking at the seams... :E

Cheers

Treadders

[luffers79]

Reference posts 4 and 6 above :-
An ex C.O. of mine told me that he was on the Court of Inquiry about the Clifton Suspension Bridge accident. He mentioned the corporals evidence, exactly as stated above.
However ... he said that the stupid idea to hold "Farewell/Closing down" parties the night before the RAF Auxiliaries had their final (Nationwide) local Formation Flypasts was asking for trouble. The one at Filton had some participants celebrating ALL night !! The pilot was only noticed to be wearing a Dinner Jacket by the corporal when he, having started the engine undetected, jumped out to push the trolleyacc away. The corporal rushed over & tried to heave a chock under a wheel of the, now, taxying Vampire - without success, which continued across the grass until it reached the runway & took off. His hood was open & his straps were flapping outside against the fuselage.
He also said that the pilot had previously made a phone call home to his mother & told her to be on the bridge with his fiancee at 9 o´clock - when they would see something special. Apparently they saw him swoop down & under the bridge & attempt to do a Barrel Roll which "mushed" into a cliff face.

Another bridge (over the Southern end of the Kiel Canal in Northern Germany) was a very popular challenge - (but not much of one - at, I believe, 43 metres clearance above water level) for those of us in 2TAF in the ´50´s.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/luffers79/SELD4M6-xgI/AAAAAAAAGXE/3XUp1WXhe54/s144/img106.jpg

In fact we were not made "operational" on my squadron until we had (Unofficially !!) flown under it. Only then were we presented with our squadron tie -which was almost immediately dunked in the squadrons special brew - Pimms 79. Great days !! :ok:.

PS.
It was not Bill Pegg that put the Britannia down on the River Severn mud flats but his deputy Cyril/Cecil (?) Gibb. I was on a high level dual cross country exercise from Finningley to Chivenor that day in a Meteor 7 & we decided to have a look at it (from about 30, 000 ft.). I think every aircraft in the UK had also gone to have a look (civil & military !!). All the way down aircraft were orbitting - reminded me of water swirling out of a bath !!

[spekesoftly]

It was not Bill Pegg that put the Britannia down on the River Severn mud flats but his deputy Cyril/Cecil (?) Gibb.

I beg to differ. On 31st May 1954 Walter Gibb was at the controls of a prototype Britannia that suffered a flap malfunction and considerable height loss before recovery, but it was Bill Pegg who put GALRX down on the Severn mud flats on the 4th February 1954.

[dhavillandpilot]

My father in 1948 flew a Beaufighter under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The flight went from Richmond Air Force Base along the Parramatta River, under the bridge then along the harbour to Manly, where he circled the Hospital (all trying to impress his future wife - my mother).

Today if you did that they would have scrambled a couple of F18's and shot you down.:rolleyes:

[fauteuil volant]

Why am I not surprised that a thread with a subject matter such as this can't be in existence for too long without Maurice Kirk's name creeping in? I wonder if his veterinary practice was as dull as his flying career. If not then I'm glad that I was not born a sheep!

[Busta]

How about Mike Bondesio AFC in a shacking great f**kleton under the Lisbon Harbour Bridge, some years ago, some engines out.

Nothing matters very much, most things don't matter at all.

[corsair]

Today if you did that they would have scrambled a couple of F18's and shot you down.

Not if you did it in an F18 which is after all the not quite natural descendant of the Beau.

[babil]

DKenyon - this is a reply to your post way back in 2008. The two pilots killed that night were P/O Tilley and P/O Fry, both of whom were my students!!!! Although they had been briefed to climb to FL 20 and do a QGH at Merryfield, for some unknown reason they tried to do it VFR at night. I agonised over this for some considerable time but cannot explain their action. I also know the Clifton Suspension Bridge VERY well.

[BEagle]

Welcome to PPRuNe, babil!

I well recall seeing, as a youngster of about 4 or 5 years old, the 'scrap aircraft' compound at Weston Zoyland piled high with silver painted wreckage bearing RAF markings.

[jcp99]

<P>I believe the this may well have been my father. He sadly passed away just before christmas and we have since learned that while stationed at RAF Merryfield he may well have flown a vampire under clifton on 26th / 27th February 1954.&nbsp; We don't have a lot of details as it was hushed up and made a court marshalable offence following the earlier crash.&nbsp; If anyone does have a photo or news reference to this i'd be very interested to see it.&nbsp; He did also fly a meteor on the same two days so it could be either type of plane. &nbsp;</P>