Spirited Victor

[Cows getting bigger]

I came across this picture the other day. Is it an early Farnborough appearance?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Cows getting bigger

I came across this picture the other day. Is it an early Farnborough appearance?

Yes, 1955 at a guess (second prototype).

[chevvron]

Normal landing on 25(now 24) at Farnborough. The narrow strip of concrete underneath widened out to full runway width just right of shot and the threshold was roughly at the intersection with the short runway (30 in those days; changed to 29 in about '76).
In my 28 years working in the 'old' tower from where this was taken(we moved to the present tower in late 2002), I saw the same aspect with many different types from the BD 5J to the Antonov 225.(You could almost lean off the side of the balcony and touch the 225's wingtip - at least that's what it felt like!)

[Lyneham Lad]

Considering the way the 225's little brother blasted turf and general debris into the air, the 225's take-off at Farnborough would have been quite a sight.
Farnborough 1988.

[Warmtoast]

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I saw the same aspect with many different types from the BD 5J to the Antonov 225

Photograped the former at Farnborough, not sure of the date.

[Reverserbucket]

Reminded of the BD5 watching Octopussy yesterday afternoon.

[Offchocks]

I'm guessing but if the Victor was the second prototype, then it was most likely being flown by either Hedley "Hazel" Hazelden or Spud Murphy.

[Herod]

it was most likely being flown by either Hedley "Hazel" Hazelden or Spud Murphy.

Both of whom worked for Air Anglia, of fond memory.

[Warmtoast]

I photographed WB775 the second prototype Victor at the Biggin BOB display in September 1954 as seen here. The prototype had crashed about a month earlier ISTR.







Flying low and near the spectators was allowed in those days!

[chevvron]

Originally Posted by Warmtoast

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Photograped the former at Farnborough, not sure of the date.

1976 if I remember correctly. Seemed to need an awful lot of runway for takeoff.
The pilot of the BD5J (smallest aircraft in the display) also flew the Airbus A300 (largest). He wanted to fly the A300 and land and hop staight into the BD5 but the Flying Control Committee wouldn't let him and required at least 30 min between displays.

[Offchocks]

Originally Posted by Herod

Both of whom worked for Air Anglia, of fond memory.

Yes fond memories of these gentlemen and Air Anglia. Spud gave me my first airline job as a DC3 FO and later I flew many times with Hazel on the F27.
Spud would have been the best Chief Pilot that I have ever had.

Sorry for the thread drift.

[cyflyer]

Just in case anyone was planning on going to Bruntingthorpe to see the Victor do its thing this forthcoming august 27th, I've just seen that it has been cancelled.
Open Days | Bruntingthorpe Aircraft Museum

[cyflyer]

Despite the earlier reports that Cold War Jets day was cancelled, and still is officially, on the 'Teasing Tina' Victor website it says that despite the cancellation of the show, there will be a scaled down event with some of the jets, including the Victor, and VC10 doing their start-up/taxi runs. They are calling it 'Jet Thunder' event. A few days ago it said it would be limited to 500 people, now it makes no mention of the 500 people. I suppose you can't limit it to a certain number of people without pre-selling tickets, because what happens when more people turn up that have travelled from afar, they get turned away at the gate ? I don't think so. So it appears there will be some jet activity, albeit scaled down, and as there is no mention on the Bruntingthorpe website, I guess there are keeping it low key to avoid bigger crowds.

[jensdad]

Originally Posted by Offchocks

Spud would have been the best Chief Pilot that I have ever had.

Often wondered where the old F27 G-SPUD got its reg from!

[Herod]

Yes, that's right ref G-SPUD. Sadly, it went off somewhere (Manx I think) and was re-registered. When it came back, the old registration wasn't allowed to be reapplied, so it ended it's days as G-BLFJ

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by cyflyer

Despite the earlier reports that Cold War Jets day was cancelled, and still is officially, on the 'Teasing Tina' Victor website it says that despite the cancellation of the show, there will be a scaled down event with some of the jets, including the Victor, and VC10 doing their start-up/taxi runs.

Reportedly to include the Victor, 2 Buccaneers, Canberra, VC-10, Jet Provost and Delphin (sic).

Jet Thunder Event Sunday 27th August

[cyflyer]

Sounds good enough to me. Some show is better than no show. I'll be there. Since going for the first time in May, I promised myself to go to both shows in the year. Hope they can include the Lightning. Top trio for me were Victor, VC10, and Lightning.

[cyflyer]

Just keeping my fellow Victor fans abreast of things, and after checking the constantly evolving official Bruntingthorpe website today, they have revised their earlier 'event cancelled' to the down scaled version as on the Victor site.

Whilst there won’t be a formal event on the day, we will still be exercising a small number of the aircraft. Please note that as this will not be a formal event there will not be any trade stands

Open Days | Bruntingthorpe Aircraft Museum

[cyflyer]

Reportedly to include the Victor, 2 Buccaneers, Canberra, VC-10, Jet Provost and Delphin

As indeed this was the case and the actual line-up. However, there were very few people attending, I estimate 100-150 people in the crowd, because the organisers basically made a c0ck-up. "Due to the unprecedented level of automotive commercial activity on the airfield at this time", the show was cancelled. When I parked up, in an empty field with half a dozen other cars, I thought, "what is going on here, this the same space as the previous show, where's all the commercial activity, the place is empty ?" The parking volunteer said, basically, they thought it was going to be busy and cancelled the show, then found that the commercial vehicles were moved, but it was too late to organise the full show again ! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. The good thing, we had an exclusive show to a very small crowd, I was much closer to the aircraft than would normally be, there were two runs of some of the aircraft, and the weather was glorious ! All in all, it wasn't bad day, not a total loss, and I'm glad I went. I would post some video and photos if I could figure how as the photo hosting sites such as photobucket have pulled the plug on free web hosting of photos. Will post when I figure it out !