The picture of the L4 Mobat that you have, could it be an M40 Recoilless Rifle? ISTR the definitive breech opening handle was a feature for recognition tests. Great pix by the way!

hval,
super pics. I did a tour on JATE the unit which succeeded ATDU. Alas most of my pics of airdrop trials went 'walkabout' during one of my moves. At the risk of promoting thread drift does anyone have any pics of Hercules airdrop trials ?

What Limits,

You may be correct. I always thought that the Mobat breech was similar to the Wombat breech. I checked on the wonder web before I posted. The wonder web shows what I have labeled as Mobat as being Mobat. However, I also came across photographs that show the L4 Mobat as you and I think.

ancientaviator62.

I used to have a photograph of a hercules carrying out an airdrop. Unfortunately an ex girlfriend kept that photo and a number of others, including harrier deployment to the field and the such.

The radio on the left is indeed a Wireless Set No. 88. Well known to many CCF cadets of the 1960s, it replaced the old wartime WS 38 Mk 2/3 which used 7.3-9 MHz AM.

With 4 crystal controlled VHF-FM channels, the WS 88 Type A used 40.2-42.15 MHz and the Type B used 38.01-39.7 MHz. A less-than-massive 250mW transmitter power gave the thing a range of only about 2 miles. No volume control or squelch, so the operator who wore that clumsy headset had white noise blasting out his ears the whole time. The second pouch contained a huge, heavy HT/LT battery, 90 V HT and 1½ V LT. Tx/Rx was controlled by that suspicious looking object, the 'pressel switch', next to the 'officer's handset'... But it was much, much more user friendly than the old 38 set with its frequent need for calibration and retuning.

When the Type A was issued to schools near London, it was found that Channel B on 41.4 MHz interfered with BBC Channel 1 sound from the Crystal Palace TV transmitter on 41.5 MHz. To stop any mischief, the Type A was modified with a large rivet to block the frequency selector from Channel A or B. But in conditions of good 'lift', it wasn't unknown for continental TV to break through even on Channels C and D!

The radio on the right is a 'Station Radio A40', which replaced the '88 set'. It had 6 channels in the 47-54 MHz range but still used valve technology; however, it did at least have slightly better range than the 88 set.

BEagle,

Thank you for the information. Much appreciated.

No problemo!

Back in 1966, I struggled to get more than a couple of miles out of either the 38 set or the vastly better 88 set.... Broadcast radio was BBC only (the few remaining pirates were soon to disappear), most people only listened to MW/LW and TV was 2 channel black and white 405-line VHF. Vinyl was king as far as music was concerned, with a 2-side single costing 6/8d. The 'musicassette' was just about to make its presence known...

15 years later, I was getting twice the range (and often considerably more) on any one of 40 FM channels in the 27 Mhz band car-to-car. Broadcast radio now included FM stereo and commercial FM stations; TV was now 3 channel colour 625-line UHF, with Ch 4 about to launch. Stereo cassettes were selling well, but weren't much use except in car stereo systems...and something called 'CD' was about to appear!

15 years after that and I could call from my car in the UK to the crewroom at MPA on GSM phone. Radio hadn't changed much, just a few more commercial stations and BBC Radio 1 on VHF. But TV now included dozens, if not hundreds of satellite-based TV channels..... CD autochangers were in virtually every car, although many still had cassette systems as standard.

15 years further on and the Internet has revolutionised the world. You can make videocalls to any part of the world; radio from anywhere is available with a few clicks of a mouse and the concept of fixed-schedule TV whether from satellite, digital terrestrial or Internet platforms is becoming history, with the proliferation of video-on-demand systems. Every kid has a smartphone and thousands of music tracks stored on an iToy.....

Whatever will the next 15 years bring?

I wonder if these are the trials a friend (sadly now passed away) told me about some years ago.
During the trials he was "volunteered" as one of the Beverley rear crew for a demonstration drop over Salisbury plan in front of a load of Brass, some of them from NATO.
The load was an Austin Champ and a 25 Pdr Field Gun and Limber.
Due to time constraints on the DZ the take off process at base was a bit rushed and some of the load checks were done a little on the quick side.

Anyway the run into the DZ went OK and the load was pushed down the runners and went merrily out the back with no sign of a chute deployment. Apparently someone had forgotten to remove the pins from the chute packs!

When the dust had settled on the ground the poor old Austin Champ was no more than 18" tall and the 25 Pdr gun barrel was bent like a banana!

It was an expensive trial for the Champ fleet as on another occasions the locks on the pallet failed when the a/c rotated on takeoff and the whole think went out the back and bounced down the runway shedding bits as it went.

Brokenlink,

It would be nice if your friends trials were linked to these photos.

I recognise one of the two NCOs in the last 17 pdr photo as George Rogers who was the AD craftsman at Boscombe Down when I arrived there in 1987. He was a fund of stories of Heavy Drops gone wrong during his army and civil service career. They included the specially bulled Land Rover for a demonstration drop for the Queen wrecked during rehersal. The Catepillar D2 bulldozer that separated from its platform in mid-air over Salisbury plain (its still there, all they did was shovel the soil back into the crater). The parachute extracted load from a Beverley during take off and most horrifically the MSP that left an Argosy mains extracted even though it was rigged as extractor retarder (luckily all the canopies passed under the tailplane)

Apparantly at an airstrip at Long Sumardo in North Boneo there are the entombed remins of an Air Portable Grader which was dropped when they were building the runway.

As they found out on many occasions; static electritrity tends to make the parachute nylon stick together if the load is prepared the previous night.

Started my time on Bevs with 30 and we were tasked with detachments to Abingdon for Para and heavy Drop training to sequence with 47 and 53. Never having done any heavy drops previously, the first run was with a L and Rover at Watchfield. Load left the freight bay and next thing was a message from the ground controller "Please tell the Captain that the load took 10 seconds to leave the aircraft and 5 seconds to reach the ground!" I duly passed on the message which generated an immediate max rate turn and a low level run across the DZ to have a look at the rather U/S Landy - no 'chutes = terminal velocity arrival (or thereabouts).
Just had a look in 'the book' and only did the one drop at Watchfield Mar 3rd '59 but in 120, not 122. Did have several trips in 122 though.
Of note in the OP's piccy is (are) the freight bay 'Elephant Ears' fitted to allow combined HD and Para combined. Initial trials with dummies from the boom with the freight doors removed caused some puzzlement - the dummies left the boom and then disappeared!!! Quick search revealed that they had come to rest in the freight bay!! Airflow without the doors produced strong flows into the freight bay and the ultimate solution was fitting the 'ears'.
A vey 'individual' aircraft and when (on very rare occasions!!) it was used for what it was designed for, it was quite unbeatable.

So where is the pic of a load of ping pong balls??

hval,

Great pictures and anecdotes.

Who are the guys in the "funny hats" attending to the Oto Melara?

India Four Two,

I believe that those chaps with the natty hats with the feather in are Alpini, who are Italian mountain warfare soldiers.

Interesting thread hval. What caught my eye was VX275's post(No.5) A Skeeter being airdropped(never mind the Auster!!) A photo of a Skeeter on the MSP, that's something I would like to see, bet no has has that......................?