Tracing an Aircraft Hisory

[x34gunner]

Would anyone know how I could trace the service history of my ex RAF Bulldog? Is there an archive somewhere which keeps that sort of thing? I'd love to know which units it served on etc.

Fred.

[NutLoose]

Any help?

Demobbed - Out of Service British Military Aircraft (http://www.demobbed.org.uk/aircraft.php?type=278)

Try googling its military codes, you will get them here

GINFO Database Search | Aircraft Register | Operations and Safety (http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1)

[x34gunner]

No unfortunately there is nothing in G-INFO and I have googled the subject to death :sad: There must be an archive somewhere...Hendon, Wyton, Cosford, Stafford????

[Mandator]

Hi Fred: You need to get onto the plane-spotters. There are nerdy magazines and journals out there which will have more detail on the history of your aircraft than you could ever imagine. You will, however, have to disclose the aircraft ID - people won't be help to help without this.

As for your suggested locations - DORIS at Hendon might have the aircraft movement card but the rest, probably a waste of time. In any event, Bulldog has been out of service 13 years now. Almost all of the aircraft allotment records perhaps held at Wyton would have been trashed in 2001.

[NutLoose]

Do you have the serial? Or build number off the dataplate.

Register and ask here as well

Historic Aviation (http://forum.keypublishing.com/forumdisplay.php?4-Historic-Aviation)

[x34gunner]

Hi Mandator,

Thanks,

Is there a spotters forum on here then....? :ok:

I don't mind disclosing the identity, XX537 (G-CBCB)

:-)

[Hipper]

Presumably you've seen this site too:


UK Serials (http://www.ukserials.com/)

[x34gunner]

Done, I'll let you know :)

[x34gunner]

Yes thanks, no real info on there.

[lauriebe]

X34G,

Your Bulldog served with: CFS, 2 FTS, YUAS, RNEFTS, ELUAS and YUAS again. Unfortunately, I do not have date to tie up those moves. This info is from the Air-Britain book, 'RAF Aircraft XA100 to XZ999'.

The RAF Musuem at Hendon should have a copy of the RAF F78, Aircraft Movement Record Card which will fill in the blank spaces. They can be contacted online and are very helpful.

Try Doris ( Dept of Information and Research) on the link below:

Departments - London | Contact | RAF Museum (http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/contact-us/departments-london.aspx)

Hope that helps.

[olddog]

I was on ELUAS from Jun 81 - Aug 84 and again Mar 92 - Nov 95. XX537 was on the Fleet, numbered 02, on both occasions and was nominally the CFI's steed. I have no reason to believe that she moved from Turnhouse between my tours. She may have transferred away from ELUAS when the Sqn moved to Leuchars in late 95/early 96.

[Old-Duffer]

It rather depends on what you are going to do with this aircraft.


If you are flying it, how do you know its provenance and maintenance history and that of its engine and hence how did you get a CofA or whatever? When you acquired it, did you not also get the wad of documentation built up over its life?


From my own rather cowardly point of view, I'd be more concerned that I have an audit trail of this aircraft's operating history than worry too much about who used it in any detail.


At DORIS in the RAF Museum Hendon, they have a microfilmed copy of the Aircraft Movements Card and this will tell you to whom it was allocated and when.


Old Duffer

[ImageGear]

In this case, Google might not always be your friend - AltaVista seems to have quite a few more results available including a nice shot at Linton in 1999.

Doing a search using other engines often yields results which are not found by the great and the good.

Linton Airshow 1999 (http://www.ffour.force9.co.uk/airshows99/linton/linton.htm)

[Nervous SLF]

Sorry to intrude but if you have DuckDuckGo as a search engine you can type in XX537 G_CBCB and get this page which has
photos and info about said aircraft.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=XX537++G-CBCB

.

[x34gunner]

I have written to Doris :-)

[x34gunner]

That's good int, thanks. I have actually had a chap send me a summary of movements for the aircraft.

Interesting stuff.