Hawker Hunter through Tower Bridge
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LOM
D*** , now I know why you were taking such an interest in the Itchen Bridge as we trundled over it in the Bedford . . .can't for the life on me remember our drivers name? I'm sure you can!
FS
D*** , now I know why you were taking such an interest in the Itchen Bridge as we trundled over it in the Bedford . . .can't for the life on me remember our drivers name? I'm sure you can!
FS
It's not that fascinating. MANY years ago Fake Sealion and I were at UAS together and we had an old MT Bedford J2 as transport from the university to the airfield. Bob Stubbs was the driver. I think that the Itchen Bridge comment (which is a giveaway as to the UAS and era) is a bit of poetic license!
Cool Mod
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Ummmm. FWIW,
I have flown a Druine Turbulent under a hand held banner about 7 feet off the ground in line astern with 6 other Turbs. Not very fast (about 70kts I think), quite exciting really (absolutely) certainly good fun. Then we would cut toilet rolls also in line astern, burst balloons and flour bomb 'anything.' Then we had a tied together formation (Tiger Club stuff) of four Turbs from takeoff, display, formation flying, to touch down still tied together! Never broke a link!
Try that in Hunters, Jags Hawks or Lightnings!
I have flown a Druine Turbulent under a hand held banner about 7 feet off the ground in line astern with 6 other Turbs. Not very fast (about 70kts I think), quite exciting really (absolutely) certainly good fun. Then we would cut toilet rolls also in line astern, burst balloons and flour bomb 'anything.' Then we had a tied together formation (Tiger Club stuff) of four Turbs from takeoff, display, formation flying, to touch down still tied together! Never broke a link!
Try that in Hunters, Jags Hawks or Lightnings!
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C'mon, let us into this fascinating bit, please ---
Despite everything - just goes to show that this forum REALLY does still work as a Rumour Network as intended !
No LOMCEVAK has not flown under the Itchen Bridge . . . . .
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Then we would cut toilet rolls
All good fun & games until one amazingly lodged itself in the cowling having gone through the prop disk
We all stopped doing that trick pretty sharpish.
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I say again, to fly through Tower Bridge on a whim, while it was covered in traffic and people, was not ' good airmanship ', it was plain foolhardy, or despite Flying Lawyer's objections, the colloquial term ' criminally stupid ' springs to mind.
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@Double Zero
From the article referenced in post #31, which purports to be by the pilot himself:
The 'talk' is that at the last nano-second Al Pollock didn't think he'd allowed for his fin to clear -also he was supposed to be at full throttle - so please allow me for remarking some alarm at this ' stunt '.
Swiftly I concluded Sydney Camm's favourite fighter would have to fly as close to the top structure as possible. Rather like a reverse skip bombing run with target cues above! At the last split second before I crossed underneath, the steel girders suddenly seemed to explode all about my cockpit, above, below and about my ears, totally engulfing canopy and one's traditional sense of flying fun! That microsecond my mind felt quite certain I had overcooked it and the top span would certainly take my fin off the next millisecond. Something then happened which had only occurred once before to me, when I had mushed after pull-out from an FAC attack with over-sufficient aircraft weight and "g" and insufficient speed, power and thought! Thinking I had hit the ground but missing Cloud Ninety Nine by a whisker, my heart actually had missed a couple of beats with the shock of expected imminent disaster. After that there was the acute, physical reaction as the heart fires up to full stroke again, just like a fighter's fuel pump, trying hard to catch up again. My Hunter flew on, rather unexpectedly finding itself still completely functional and not a finless wonder and I headed out over Greenwich and Hornchurch, heading towards Clacton.
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Slightly off thread , but still in the vein of 'Non-authorised' flights over London. Was there an incident with a fast Jet Pilot , somewhat lacking in gruntl with the press, lining up with Fleet Street and sending a sonic boom down said street?
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"Fleet St. bang" - Could have been 'Dicky' Martin in Javelin (WT830?? )
Profile 179 page 6 states
" Shortly afterwards (Martin replacing Waterton - my italics) sonic bangs were heard for the first time from a Javelin. This was not publicly demonstrated, and at the time there had been a lot of adverse comment about the long Javelin development programme and the lack of results. On the night of 4th. July (1954) many thousands of Londoners heard the bang of a Javelin's supersonic passage. Mr. Maudling, then Minister of Supply, explained to the House on 11th. July that "the aircraft was cruising at high altitude and near the speed of sound when the pilot's oxygen supply suddenly failed; during the ensuing confusion he inadvertently exceeded the speed of sound causing the bang".
Apologies for extending the thread creep, but does this fit the scenario ?
Profile 179 page 6 states
" Shortly afterwards (Martin replacing Waterton - my italics) sonic bangs were heard for the first time from a Javelin. This was not publicly demonstrated, and at the time there had been a lot of adverse comment about the long Javelin development programme and the lack of results. On the night of 4th. July (1954) many thousands of Londoners heard the bang of a Javelin's supersonic passage. Mr. Maudling, then Minister of Supply, explained to the House on 11th. July that "the aircraft was cruising at high altitude and near the speed of sound when the pilot's oxygen supply suddenly failed; during the ensuing confusion he inadvertently exceeded the speed of sound causing the bang".
Apologies for extending the thread creep, but does this fit the scenario ?
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Way back in the 70's my brother wanted me to photo him going between the arches of the Ribblehead Viaduct, but it was me who lost the bottle and refused to partake in that move, but he assured me it was fine he had already done it, But I still backed away,...
Peter R-B
Vfr
...Peter R-B
Vfr
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Hunter low flying
For a comparison of times gone past, could I refer you to Alex Henshaw's low flying demonstration over Birmingham, as recorded in his book "Sigh for a Merlin"...................it was crowded then & I think he infers that he did it as an act of pique.................unrehearsed............but brilliantly skilfull flying
Did A Major Draper fly an Auster under all London bridges and then hand in his ppl
His 1979 Obitury
His signed book "The Mad Major" is currently on offer on eBay at £6.99
Last edited by Warmtoast; 23rd Jan 2010 at 09:33. Reason: Correction of Typo
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Ah ...... Major Draper.
Another pilot whom I would have regarded it as an honour to represent FOC - but I was under two at the time!
Conditional Discharge and ten guineas costs - a very sensible decision by the Stipendiary Magistrate Mr Frank Milton who, by the time I appeared before him as a very young barrister 20 years later, was Sir Frank Milton and Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate. Tough when required and merciful when appropriate; a good combination.
Our grey, obsessively risk-averse modern world doesn't seem to produce as many 'characters'. Unfortunately.
Another pilot whom I would have regarded it as an honour to represent FOC - but I was under two at the time!
Conditional Discharge and ten guineas costs - a very sensible decision by the Stipendiary Magistrate Mr Frank Milton who, by the time I appeared before him as a very young barrister 20 years later, was Sir Frank Milton and Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate. Tough when required and merciful when appropriate; a good combination.
Our grey, obsessively risk-averse modern world doesn't seem to produce as many 'characters'. Unfortunately.
With all the details of 1930's and later flights under the Thames bridges it's hard to realise that the first flight through Tower Bridge took place in 1912. As commented in the press at the time:
Here he is doing it. And below his 1955 obituray.
By Hydro-aeroplane up the Thames.
August 1912
ALTHOUGH London was deprived by the appalling weather of the sight of M. Beaumont piloting his hydro-aeroplane up the Thames, the visit of Mr. F. K. McClean more than compensated for the loss. Remembering an appointment in town on Saturday morning, Mr. McClean thought it would be a good idea to come up on his Short machine, and so at 6 a.m. he had it brought out of its shed at Harty Ferry, in the Isle of Sheppey, and after seeing everything in order he started off. Following the coast round Leysdown, Warden Point to Sheerness, he continued over the Thames. At Gravesend the smoke of the various factories rather troubled the aviator but he made good progress. Approaching London Mr. McClean brought his machine lower down and negotiated the Tower Bridge between the lower and upper spans, but the remaining bridges to Westminster he flew underneath, the water being just touched at Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges. He reached Westminster about 8.30 and was taken ashore to Westminster Pier on a Port of London Launch. The return journey on Sunday afternoon was not so successful owing to restrictions as to rising from the water which had been imposed by the police. The bridges had all been safely negotiated, and when near Shadwell Basin Mr. McClean started to manoeuvre to get into the air at the point designated by the river authorities. He had made one circuit when the machine side-slipped, and either through hitting a barge or by sudden contact with the water one of the floats was damaged. The machine was then towed into .Shadwell Dock, this operation being superintended by Mr. McClean from the driving seat, and dismantled for its return by road to Eastchurch.
August 1912
ALTHOUGH London was deprived by the appalling weather of the sight of M. Beaumont piloting his hydro-aeroplane up the Thames, the visit of Mr. F. K. McClean more than compensated for the loss. Remembering an appointment in town on Saturday morning, Mr. McClean thought it would be a good idea to come up on his Short machine, and so at 6 a.m. he had it brought out of its shed at Harty Ferry, in the Isle of Sheppey, and after seeing everything in order he started off. Following the coast round Leysdown, Warden Point to Sheerness, he continued over the Thames. At Gravesend the smoke of the various factories rather troubled the aviator but he made good progress. Approaching London Mr. McClean brought his machine lower down and negotiated the Tower Bridge between the lower and upper spans, but the remaining bridges to Westminster he flew underneath, the water being just touched at Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges. He reached Westminster about 8.30 and was taken ashore to Westminster Pier on a Port of London Launch. The return journey on Sunday afternoon was not so successful owing to restrictions as to rising from the water which had been imposed by the police. The bridges had all been safely negotiated, and when near Shadwell Basin Mr. McClean started to manoeuvre to get into the air at the point designated by the river authorities. He had made one circuit when the machine side-slipped, and either through hitting a barge or by sudden contact with the water one of the floats was damaged. The machine was then towed into .Shadwell Dock, this operation being superintended by Mr. McClean from the driving seat, and dismantled for its return by road to Eastchurch.
Here he is doing it. And below his 1955 obituray.