RAF Henlow
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I remember doing similar at Saints in 76 for the B of B day, we got to the mess and were foiled by road signs and lights, angle grinder sorted those and welder tacked them back upright, later after a return the other direction the welder did a full job on the sign bases.
Is that the one now at Cosford?
Is that the one now at Cosford?
ShyTorque
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.
Last edited by Whopity; 18th Jun 2020 at 15:11.
I was stationed at Henlow in 1975. I came home from work one afternoon, looked out of my window and saw this. It is now at Cosford.
Last edited by wub; 19th Jun 2020 at 14:24.
Another Blue Sqn flight project to clean and polish it, 1975 I think. It was transported across the airfield from the black hangar on a hovercraft. There was part of a Valiant in that hangar and I believe a Comet.
There was also a V2 rocket in there. The building was known as ‘The Pickle Factory’. Folklore has it that it was built back to front with the large doors facing away from the airfield, and so the foreman in charge of the project was ‘in a pickle’.
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ShyTorque
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.
Shytorque:
I was the Training Officer on 311 Blue running 4 weeks behind you. My office was in the same barack block my father had lived in when he trained there in the 1930s
wub:
Re the Pickle Factory, it was named the pickle fatctory when it was first built in the 1930s because it was built on the wrong airfield, should have been Hendon. My father in law had been there on the Parachute Trials Unit in 1933. My wife's grandfather had been the SWO when the Station Commander took the parade on his horse! The black hangar where the TSR2 had been stored was on the Henlow road near the farm.
I was the Training Officer on 311 Blue running 4 weeks behind you. My office was in the same barack block my father had lived in when he trained there in the 1930s
wub:
Re the Pickle Factory, it was named the pickle fatctory when it was first built in the 1930s because it was built on the wrong airfield, should have been Hendon. My father in law had been there on the Parachute Trials Unit in 1933. My wife's grandfather had been the SWO when the Station Commander took the parade on his horse! The black hangar where the TSR2 had been stored was on the Henlow road near the farm.
Last edited by Whopity; 19th Jun 2020 at 08:47.
The Comet left Henlow to become RAF Lyneham's gate guardian and now only its nose section survives at Old Sarum. The RAFM also stored their ex South African Lockheed Ventura there before moving it up to Cosford. I followed the Ventura through Arlesey on its way from the A1 to Henlow making me a few minutes late for work at RAFSEE.
Lucky me - I was 306 Entry (Red Sqn), the only stupid pushing we had to do was an old fire-cart (the type which, as a squaddie, I used to practice heaving around Templer Barracks in Ashford when part of the Fire Picquet); hadn't realised we were among the last to see the P1 on-site.
Can sympathise with the traffic around Arlesey - our family lived in Ickleford, were still there when I went through OCTU. Oh, and I used to see the Comet nose-section when heading into Old Sarum for a refuel in my final job - had no idea I'd been following it around.
Can sympathise with the traffic around Arlesey - our family lived in Ickleford, were still there when I went through OCTU. Oh, and I used to see the Comet nose-section when heading into Old Sarum for a refuel in my final job - had no idea I'd been following it around.
I remember the Hangar being called the TSR2 Hangar, late 78/early 79. Rumours were it contained a TSR2. Now I know they were true!!
I did OCC there in 75; I was criticised for not living in the Mess; I wasn't allowed to as I lived in a quarter there! None of the OCTU Flight Commanders did very well on OCC, we had a better job than the OCC instructors and got a hard time as a result. Sadly, the guy who sat behind me was killed in a Canberra a week later.
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Two of my 310 course colleagues didn’t survive their first tours.
RIP Steve Belcher (Nimrod multiple bird strike and triple engine failure on takeoff).
RIP John Cathie (Jaguar/Jaguar mid air, formation run and break)
RIP Steve Belcher (Nimrod multiple bird strike and triple engine failure on takeoff).
RIP John Cathie (Jaguar/Jaguar mid air, formation run and break)
