RAF Cosford, the training wing, Picture intensive

[NutLoose]

Had a visit last week and took some pictures, bit of a quick tour. but hey ho, I will upload some images for you to see of the Jags and Tornado's etc that now inhabit the place as and when I process them, the first one has got to be one of the RAF's longest serving training aids and I was pleasantly surprised to still see her teaching future generations, it was at Saints when I did my course way back in 76 some 40 plus years ago, and she wasn't new then. sorry for any poor quality in the shots, the lighting was tricky with some hangars not having the lighting on and the light source coming in through the windows.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47715307981_ee69e297e5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fGrqFP)
JP trainer Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fGrqFP) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46798901845_78468d84a9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2eisB52)
Jaguar training Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2eisB52) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/40748211793_1292fd0229_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/255MeHK)
Jaguar training wing Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/255MeHK) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47708024501_bd7f35bf55_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fFN6yz)
Jags and Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fFN6yz) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[NutLoose]

My old WO would be turning in his grave at the sight of this first image, panels lying on the floor next to an empty rack.... and a training establishment to boot.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47708018671_9f2b78161b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fFN4Q4)
Sea Kings Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fFN4Q4) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/33830716978_bf3b430fc4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/TxvgvL)
Sea King trio Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/TxvgvL) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[NutLoose]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47715547231_bfc3e06459_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fGsDNP)
Six Sqn Jags Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fGsDNP) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/40749151143_dca13c9652_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/255S3Xr)
Display Jag Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/255S3Xr) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[NutLoose]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/33838431868_e244487c6e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/TybNT7)
Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/TybNT7) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47715712231_25662b2af5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fGtuRD)
XV Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fGtuRD) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[NutLoose]

More to follow if you wish :)

[flipflopman RB199]

Great pics Nutty,

A few of us have been banging Cosford’s drum for many years now! As a training establishment it really is second to none and the old JP in your first picture still gives a first class insight into many of the standard airframe construction methods.

[Chris Kebab]

Great pictures.

Are the staff still allowed to drive the Jags?

[NutLoose]

When I was there for a night shoot some time back the staff told me they had ceased to do it as it had come down from on high, however one of the organisers of this one said they had recently, so I do not know for sure.

[NutLoose]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47668095242_d967a1ea6d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fCgrZ5)
Gr4 Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fCgrZ5) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/32777545497_f578b526db_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RWrujM)
025 Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/RWrujM) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/32777600527_6e96b9728d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RWrLFz)
F3 Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/RWrLFz) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46804395515_b5f373f3bc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2eiWL9t)
XV front Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2eiWL9t) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[NutLoose]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47720630161_dbd3c4113b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fGUGMx)
110 Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fGUGMx) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/32777422307_33e9242654_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RWqRGP)
054 Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/RWqRGP) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47667699032_b8c1deb333_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fCeqcS)
outside stored Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fCeqcS) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47715712231_25662b2af5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fGtuRD)
XV Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/2fGtuRD) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/33838431868_e244487c6e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/TybNT7)
Tornado Cosford (https://flic.kr/p/TybNT7) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[Bob Viking]

Any photos of xx840? Last Jag I flew (and last person to fly it). Sadly it was a T Bird but that meant I got to share the flight with a good friend.

BV

[Chris Kebab]

Any photos of xx840? Last Jag I flew (and last person to fly it). Sadly it was a T Bird but that meant I got to share the flight with a good friend.

BV
Bob - popped it into Google Images - seems it was a popular photogs jet! https://www.google.com/search?q=xx840&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN4fix0fLhAhUfTRUIHfJBBCoQ_AUIECgD&biw=1920&bih=947

[Just This Once...]

Any photos of xx840? Last Jag I flew (and last person to fly it). Sadly it was a T Bird but that meant I got to share the flight with a good friend.

BV

Still has your 'Last flown by...' graffiti below the front cockpit.

[Bob Viking]

Excellent. Thankyou. That’s what I was wondering. No need for a photo on here though.

I prefer the term calligraphy to graffiti though. Although with my handwriting maybe I should have been a GP rather than a pilot.

BV

[NutLoose]

I do not see it in the current crop I took Bob, however all is not lost, I probably have it from some of my previous visits and will have a look.

here are a few of the Tbirds from various times

https://live.staticflickr.com/4668/39579812235_2fe67cc972_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/23iwTeM)
****ty Six TBird (https://flic.kr/p/23iwTeM) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/4621/39589839695_bea53ef7cd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/23jqh42)
T Birds (https://flic.kr/p/23jqh42) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/4616/26654861858_1cb8b3545c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/GBp8ML)
Night Cat (https://flic.kr/p/GBp8ML) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1759/27609146737_53b72675e4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/J4J6rk)
Jaguar.. In the shadow of the trainer lurked the fighter it would become. (https://flic.kr/p/J4J6rk) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1756/42497624601_350884eae4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/27Knrcx)
Jaguar T2 (https://flic.kr/p/27Knrcx) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1725/42446523652_ca284c0fca_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/27ERwEG)
Jaguar Pair (https://flic.kr/p/27ERwEG) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[spannermonkey]

Some really great pictures :ok:

I still vividly remember going through Cosford on various courses in the 90's and the JPs that used to trundle around the airfield with instructors who would follow the marshaling signals of us trainees even when we got our left and right mixed up - so funny looking back. A great Station and some amazing memories and these pictures do a real justice to those who have been through what I consider to be a fantastic training system.

[Meester proach]

There’s a pretty bloody good airforce in those hangars ! Shame !

[Just This Once...]

I prefer the term calligraphy to graffiti though. Although with my handwriting maybe I should have been a GP rather than a pilot.

BV

I was surprised that you constrained yourself to just one colour.

;)

[Ogre]

I take it from the art work on the wall of the hanger wall it was the old indoor sports arena? I recall running around that track in the early 80's.

[ORAC]

https://twitter.com/raf_cosford/status/1248869772286140417?s=21


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x328/image_346d1d70274fbeb56fbecc3657bbaf14c6fdbfb0.jpeg

[chevvron]

Were some of those airframes transferred from Halton?
I remember visits to the Old and New workshops at Halton in the '80s and they were packed full of airframes; wonder what those buildings contain nowadays?
I also remember when we were flying microlights at Halton in the '90s, they often used to be training Flight Line mechanics in marshalling using the JPs on the airfield and doing engine runs on the Gnats, then after a couple of years, seeing a line of both those types on the main apron being dismantled having been sold to civilian operators; I don't recall any Jags on the airfield though.

[Martin the Martian]

Are all the JP5s gone now? The last time I visited they were still using them for the flight line training. I know they'd replaced them with Jags for that job but I thought they still had some left.

[Jobza Guddun]

I think they've all been sold off now. Flight Line training is now all simulated, no live aircraft handling activity any more.

[XL189]

How times have changed since I was there in the early 80's when there were Shackleton, Victor, Canberra, Argosy, Gnat & JP!

[Mortmeister]

I'd forgotten what 'fine looking bird' the Jaguar T-bird was.
Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of working on a Jag, they were a 'Plumbers Dream' apparently!

It's a shame the Sea Vixens and Buccaneers have gone from when I was a trainee there. The Sea Vixen underwater escape 'add on' to the AAES was always a good challenge!
Great shots Nutty and I share your disdain at Sea King panels on the hangar floor with an empty rack beside. Many a good Sqn WO would go apoplectic with rage at that!

[NutLoose]

Thank you, I went through St Athan and Halton, never did Cosford, so a visit to the hangars was on my bucket list, I have done several visits to the schools outside area which I have posted. For what it’s worth, they still have a Bucc, my picture wasn’t that great so it never was uploaded, I will try to improve it and post it..

The odd thing about the Jag was unlike most aircraft, the Tbird actually is one aircraft that looks better as a twin than a single.. full of curves in all the right places.

[NutLoose]

When I visited and took the photos, there were several JP5 still dum...parked outside the hangars plus the cutaway inside still earning its crust...

not seen so many jags outside since


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/700x424/image_06a2d3f1cf8742b43bf368fdc43a7c789bf76d94.jpeg

and YES I’m on it.

[Fareastdriver]

I had a nostalgic return to a Provost T1 that I flew at Tern Hill in 1961. I was being used as a marshalling trainer at the Apprentices School at the Aldergrove Maintenance Unit. In the late seventies the School was closing and the Provost was being disposed of. The knew that I was trained on them so they invited me to do its final ground runs before it went. The sound of a Leonides at 3,000 rpm +8 boost and the blue flame coming out of the exhaust was something that I never experienced again.

It now resides in a museum in Muscat.

[NutLoose]

We used a Pembroke at Saints, the whole course cramming in it to taxy out to the area then taking turns to Marshal it, each having a go in the cockpit after our turn, we then all piled in keeping the weight forward to stop it tipping onto it’s tail for the return to the sheds..

[NutLoose]

I'd forgotten what 'fine looking bird' the Jaguar T-bird was.
Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of working on a Jag, they were a 'Plumbers Dream' apparently!

It's a shame the Sea Vixens and Buccaneers have gone from when I was a trainee there. The Sea Vixen underwater escape 'add on' to the AAES was always a good challenge!
Great shots Nutty and I share your disdain at Sea King panels on the hangar floor with an empty rack beside. Many a good Sqn WO would go apoplectic with rage at that!

As promised the surviving Bucc at Cosford

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47975530528_b7188b9ded_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2g6r8Ms)
Cosford Airside Bucc (https://flic.kr/p/2g6r8Ms) by Tony Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/photos/142550108@N08/), on Flickr

[weemonkey]

Great shots and some memories there!!