aaah...de Havilland

[Timothy]

A journalist friend has written to me:

We had a terrific flight from Booker last evening...great fun, very enlightening. Thanks so much for your efforts in making it happen. Bernard was charm personified.

We got to talking about the project I'm undertaking to create an archive of de Havilland memories....of ALL kinds. I wonder if the message board you used to locate Bernard might be a good place to try and find people to interview?

Very many thanks again and all best wishes

I suspect that this would actually be a better place to start. If any is particularly interested in DH please would they PM me and I will put you in touch with the guy.

[treadigraph]

If he hasn't already got the name, I think Stuart McKay at the DH Moth Club might be an excellent person to contact.

[Planemike]

There is also of course the de Havilland Heritage Centre at Salisbury Hall.

www..dehavillandmuseum.co.uk

Planemike

[PAXboy]

I'm using an old thread to ask a question about Salisbury Hall. The website says that it is no longer open to the public. Does anyone know if this is temporary or permanent?

[pvmw]

their website says;

Museum open from;

First Sunday of March to last Sunday of October (unless otherwise stated on the home page of this web site)

they are open for 3 days in November

[PAXboy]

Thanks pvmw. I only found a page stating that it was closed to the public. Much appreciated as I was gaining the information for friends of a long time employee of deH in the development side. The gentleman was there throughout the war and through Comet and so on, he has just died at the age of 99. The friends wanted to know more about the museums.

[Planemike]

Opens 27, 28 & 29th Nov Fri, Sat & Sun to allow the Museum to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first flight of the Mosquito.


PAXboy your contact would undoubtly have been involved in some way.

[PAXboy]

Yes, I did not know him and, as many engineers do, he was very private about his private life. Being a widower with no children, there is very little information on what he did. However, it seems he was with DH from before 1939 until his retirement. He was born in 1916 and was only 14 when Amy Johnson flew the Gipsy Moth to Australia!

[Stationair8]

Worth a visit to this fantastic museum.

Spent a day there in August, great place, great bunch of volunteers and a great bookshop!

Standing underneath a Mosquito, and thinking about the people who designed it,
the factory workers who built, the pilots that flew them and the ground crews that maintained certainly brings life into perspective!

Wouldn't be great to have a Mossie flying in the UK?

[treadigraph]

Originally Posted by Stationair8

Worth a visit to this fantastic museum.

Wouldn't be great to have a Mossie flying in the UK?

Ahem - just possibly your - and my - and others' wishes may just be granted...

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/570125-biggin-hill-mosquito.html

[DHfan]

The report about no longer open to the public probably refers to Salisbury Hall itself. That hasn't been open for many years.

I was taken there in the early 60s and remember it as the only stately joint I wasn't bored rigid by as a kid!

Although W4050 in the back garden probably helped...

[PAXboy]

Thanks DHfan, that is probably what I found.