dragartist

If you mean did she have odd lumps all over her body, that's the one. We instinctively ducked when it was spun up in the test house at the Gyle.

Well Tuc, I am pleased you went to such lengths to get it in balance. When delivered it came with a pair of lifting bard but you would have had to have been precious McKenzie to lift it. we developed an adaptor to a low level hydraulic lift bomb trolley. elf and safety was just kicking off with directions on two man lifts etc. how the guys managed with the previous D2 I know not. the D2 was a pair of Dolly Partons (or a pair of pairs - nudge wink!)


I designed the RAM screens. the supports were filament wound GRP tubes but we could not get any. A company in Runcorn supplied enough for 3 a/c sets and spare. they had a minimum order of a ton. we needed a few yds. they did not invoice us at the paperwork cost more than the goods. 20+ years later I am buying bones for crash test dummies from the same outfit on the back of the goodwill they extended.


The team at BAe were quite supportive of what we were doing.


There was a cap com picture of a young dragartist with hair showing some airship what we had been upto

Was this the aircraft that suffered an engine (or two) fire and ditched?

I recall sending a signal (remember them?) to the SE section at Kinloss congratulating them on their part in the very successful epic "Six aircrew and a dinghy" from my EA position at HQSTC...Only to be chastised by "them upstairs" for being flippant. :=

Tuc, I`m sure you will be pleased to know that our office managed many commercial bypass operations during GW1 and Kosovo..I guess someone paid the bills eventually :ok:

ah, the dolly and the double dolly. I think those two were limited to 150rpm iirc. I think it was a valve or switch that was set on the hydraulic pedestal. The other hydraulically spun antennae could go at 300rpm. Spinning the big aerials on the ground used to shake the whole aircraft. We used to avoid spinning those when the aircraft was on jacks.

S-D

Except it was 7 POB.

Er, yes!

S-D

Yes. I went to Wyton to see the extent of the problem with the hydraulic engineers from Ferranti. (They were taking over the electrical pedestals as well). I'd worked on many aircraft types but never been pulled back to safe distance like that while some poor Corporal was sent in to switch it on while on jacks. Frightening to watch it shaking. I just thought £50k on a computer station was good value to get her flying. After all, AMSO were pi##ing millions down the drain every day at the time.


These are the stories about British industry we should hear more of. On my last job in MoD I discovered a company in Yorkshire who were supplying our recce troops with free kit, because BOWMAN refused to buy it. (Well, who ever thought a radio would need an aerial? Daft idea)

Tuc,
Certainly the RAM screen support tube material was gifted to the MoD. At the time there appeared to be public support for the MoD.


I did not have visibility to know for sure what commercial arrangements were made between MoD and BAe. One could only trust the RPO up at Woodford. Feared that the MoD paid twice for the design and some manufacturing effort when we put BOZ and MAWs on the R. As it was a DA MoD we worked on BAe Drawing blanks and had a book of BAe Drawing numbers. Odd numbers for Port. Even Numbers for Starboard (or the other way round). A drawing could have two drawing numbers- Our system we drew both LH and Rt hand parts. I was being paid as a Civil Servant but did fear that BAe were also charging by the drawing we were producing. We just got on with it, got the drawings approved up at Woodford whilst the guys were tin bashing and machining parts at risk.


Another daft thing being unofficially sub contracted to BAe, BAe had booked flights to visit NMSU for a trial fit of the Pylons or something so we could travel together. When I submitted my approval to travel form it bounced back because MoD could not accept BAe providing air travel, they thought it was hospitality! the fact that we had been working hand in glove many long hours counted for nothing.


Same era - I had a consignment of 38999 connectors delivered for my attn. These were for MAWs. I could not figure the quantity to learn later that I had the worlds supply including those assigned for Chinook. OK the LRUs probably cost squillions but there was no F640 for the connectors just a packing crate with my name scrawled on it

Official report - XW666
 

Hi S-D, not sure if you still read this thread but I thought I might drop you a note anyway. Would you be able to send me a copy of the report on XW666 ? I might have had a ride on this one during my time at Bruggen 74 to 77. scrounged a jollie departing early one Friday evening for what I thought would be a quick trip to Leeming then a 48 hour homer. Not to be, spent hours over the North Sea arriving at Leeming well after midnight. But that's another story ! Cheers anyway . . .

Interesting this thread should resurrect the week the new Beast (ZZ666) arrived at Waddington!

Ditching is the correct term, forced landing would be onto a runway.