WHAT, WHERE and WHEN
 

No prizes for what aircraft, where it is and when the photo was taken.
I will be impressed with 3 out of 3
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ed/oldprop.jpg

Vicker Varsity, outside a hanger, during the day!:} I'd guess at Brooklands/Weybridge but that's as far as I'd go.

Varsity has tricycle gear - not a taildragger.
Prototype Viking?

A Valetta?

It is an RAF Valetta transport aircraft and my best guess is either a new build at the Brooklands factory in 1950, or more likely at Brooklands for modification to nav trainer in the middle fifties. Parked on the grass with wheels covered is normally indicative of an extended stay.

Yes, definitely a Valetta. Looks to me as if the starboard wingtip is missing. Possible signs of damage/metal repair to the nose as well. Not much help, am I...

1. RAF Valetta
2. RAF Melksham (Wingtips cut off to get in the hanger) Instructional aircraft
3. Late 50s ?? Say 58 ??

One point to treadigraph for the first correct aircraft type.
Virgo is on the right lines!
Keep guessing.

How about Weeton............or Halton...........Cosford........St Athan ........Locking ???

I took the photo on one of my many visits during school holidays,to my dad at work, (a civvie working for the 'ministry').I would ride in on my bike through the main gate(security?), past the beautiful black Hunter and silver Meteor. Why didn't I take pictures of them?

Tangmere used to have a Meteor and Hunter as gate guardians............but a clipped wing (extra maneouverability whilst engaged in supply dropping during the Malayan campaign ???????) Valetta ?

Just had a thought..........the two black hangars...............Farnborough ???

1 ITS Bridgenorth. Closed 1963, so- 1961?
The Hunter was F.5 WP191, Meteor was F.3 EE405, scrapped when station closed. On the parade ground, exposed to elements and boys, were Hurricane LF686, now in Smithsonian, and, latterly Spitfire Vc AR614, now airworthy as N614VC.

Its not a Valetta, its a Valletta

Not Tangmere, Farnborough or Bridgenorth. I dont know if it was the parade ground but there was a large area full of Swifts being dismantled which my brother and me played in.

The only place I know of that had a large number of Swifts was St. Athan.

We also played in a bomber that I was told at the time was a Stirling, but have since discovered was a Lincoln. Looking back I remember some of the engines on the grass under the wings were straight , not round!! Great fun in the cockpit though, for a 12 yearold.

WD159 at the RAF Colerne museum (before it closed)?

Catterick Fire School, 1962?

Have you seen Catterick recently? The army have gone and built houses close to the runway! Normally they just put up a fence inside the peri-track so the runways can still be used, but you can't get off the airfield.
Anyway the airfield isn't Halton, the hangars are the wrong design, but it could be Bovingdon, which did operate Vallettas.

How about RAF Valley, or Warton (Pre BAC/EE days), or even Squires Gate.

I think a load of Swifts were chopped up at Aldergrove............dunno if there was ever a Lincoln there ?

Shawbury MU used to put buzz saws through a lot of obsolete aircraft so... ??
The Va(single 'L')etta featured largely in my first log book; all those entries COULD have been mis-spelled - but I think not.:=

Weston-Super-Mare?

The Vickers product is "Valetta" according to British Civil Aircraft Volume III (strangely enough!) but the place on Malta is "Valletta" as viewed on the appropriate page of my Oxford Cheapskate's Atlas...

I had to be real carefull sometimes going to visit my dad on my bike because the roads were full of Bedford lorries with L plates on. Some days there seemed like hundreds coming out of the gate. Still, I learned to ride my dads motorbike in the grounds of the hospital across the road from the main gate when I was fourteen!

In that case, it has to be Halton .... yes??

If it was pre 1960 maybe, but I've never seen hangars of that design at Halton post 1960.

Maybe if the Hospital was not quite opposite the main gate, the picture of the hangars could be Hangers 546 & 547 at the top of the site at Cosford, now occupied by the Museum.

How about a Valetta at Benson in the mid 50's. There was a ferry sqdn there about then and, as an ATC cadet, I had a ride from there to Kemble, Hawarden and St Athan.

Sorry Cornish Jack, not Halton. ZH875, the hospital was directly opposite the main gate, and the station Officers Mess was in the hospital grounds.

Not Wroughton, perchance?

Conan

Nah wrong types of hangar again; Wroughton has C and L types; those look like T2's with corrugated asbestos rather than corrugated iron skinning. It's more likely Bitteswell or Barkston Heath.

I think it particularly sad that the type of hangar is generating more conversation than the lump of metal in front of them.
Anyway, Kenley 1959.:confused:

second try, location = Colerne Wilts?

OK Conan, I'll reveal the location of the Valetta shortly, after you see this, taken a few miles down the road, and a few years earlier I would think, not by me though. Interesting eh!

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...d/dba0fe32.jpg

Has Innsworth been mentioned yet?

Not Innsworth, ZH. You were in the right area on one ocasion. One of Virgo's wild guesses was right, though.:D

Excuse Me ! Virgo does NOT make wild guesses - he carefully studies the options, weighs the pros and cons, considers all the evidence and then makes a well informed judgement.......................if he got close, it's the third good decision he's made.............The first was to join the RAF in the early 50s and the second was to leave it in the late 60s !

OK Virgo
The Valetta, it was, at 'Weeton Camp' as we locals called it, 1962 ish.
M7469, WD168. The gate guardians werer Hunter F5 WP147, and Meteor F4 RA449. The Lincoln mentioned was RF510. I don't remember all this from when I was 12, a couple of years ago I was given a list of aircraft at Weeton in the late 50s - early 60s when I was trying to determine whether the bomber I remember there was a Stirling or not. The list makes interesting reading, it includes lists of aircraft that took part in flying displays at Battle of Britain days. The one for September 1958 includes one each of the V bombers, Javelins, Hunters, Vampire, Canberra, Meteor, Comet, Hastings, Lincoln and Shackleton, and two types I'm not farmilliar with,
3 RB66s from 10TRW Alconbury, and one KB50J from 420ARS Sculthorpe.
Can anyone enlighten me on those?
The Meteor in the other photo was at Kirkham.:ok:

Fishtailed,

RB66, recon version of the B66 twin engined bomber also know as the 'Destroyer' &
KB50J, air refuelling version of the B50 which in turn was a development (and to uneducated eyes, looked the same as) the B29

Hope that helps.

RT