Coffman Starter asked: No, but according to the list I made about 30 years ago, I have some 123 copies from September 1942 until June 1959:

Thanks BEagle ... All classics I'll bet ;)

Fairey Rotodyne :ok:

If you have Sep 1957 (the month/year I was born) ... that would be interesting to see the Front Cover ... but only if it's not too much trouble :)

Yes, the very promising Fairey Rotodyne. Whose noise problems had virtually been solved when the programme was cancelled....:ugh:

I spotted a note on the back of the Jan '53 edition:


which pleaded: I guess I'm about 60 years too late then:


A cracking edition it was too - but weren't they all in those fascinating times of aircraft development?

The cover shot is actually titled 'Hawker P.1067' - it had yet to be named 'Hunter'!

September 1957? - I do indeed have a copy:


Any guesses as to aircraft and ship? No, it isn't a Chance-Vought Cutlass.

And look what else is inside, Coffman Starter:


I guess the Editor could look into the future!

Thanks BEagle ... That's made my day :D :ok:

I'm on the iPad at the moment ... I'll have a closer look at your challenge pic on my Mac in a mo :ok:

Many thanks ... very much appreciated ...

PS ... Any chance you can see the serials on the Chipmunks ... Now that would be spooky.

OK ... I'm going for USS Saratoga on her maiden transatlantic voyage (3/9/57) ... with the Jolly Rogers and their F8 Cougars ?

I just love those 'unapologetic' Roundels on the Hunter :ok:

Yes, Cougars on the USS Saratoga.

As for the Chipmunk serials, that's asking a lot! The 3 nearest the camera are WP 980, WD 292 and WD 285. The 4th might be WD 286, but I cannot read the others - apart from squadron codes L o C and (possibly) L o S.

Tragically, the ex-boss of my Vulcan squadron was killed (as was nearly his civilian Air Cadet ground instructor passenger) during a turn back in WP 980 at RAF St. Athan in August 1993.....:(

Many thanks BEagle ... No match on the Chipmunk serials this end ... I do appreciate your time and interest :ok:

Best ...

Coff.

BEagle ...

I thought I'd return the favour :ok:

I believe that London University Air Squadron in the early 50's was part of 65 (London) Reserve Group ... Headquartered at RAF Hendon. Initially all LUAS (as it was known then) airframes were apparently 'coded' RUL before the roundel with a further single alpha code post the roundel. This arrangement then changed to codes allocated in the range thus L-A to L-Z. So I reckon the six Chipmunks in Line Abreast shown above are highly likely to be from LUAS ... later to become your old stomping ground both as pupil and QFI :ok:

As far as I can tell WD292 (L-D) is still air-worthy as G-BCRX, likewise WD286 (L-?) as G-BBND. It would also seem WD285 (L-?) might still be air-worthy in the USA as N48110.

Best regards ...

Coff.

Ah, the Hawker P1067 as flown at Farnborough in the early 50s by every small boy's hero, Sdn Ldr Neville Duke DSO DFC, Chief Test Pilot of Hawker Aviation, not to be confused with the motor-cyclist Geoff Duke. He would start a supersonic run in a shallow dive overhead Woodley and pass over our house in Wokingham. On the Saturday, watching on TV, we would hear the double boom overhead, followed shortly by a repeat on the box. On the Sunday, my father and I would go to Farnborough and see the whole thing live.

We were there (I think that time on a Saturday as Himself had a meeting in Aldershot first) when John Derry's DH110 (Sea Vixen prototype) broke up in mid-air. The Old Man watched the tail boom spin down "like a sycamore leaf", as he put it, while my eyes were caught by the two engines arcing across the sky, one slightly higher than the other, and landing in the crowd - nowhere near where we were standing, fortunately.

It used to be possible for enterprising young 'Erberts to make a considerable sum of money picking up glass soft drinks bottles and returning them to the various stalls for the deposit. I can't say I ever saw somewhere so littered!

Do the Chipmunks in the picture have the anti-spin strakes?.
Anybody recall when they came in?

Haraka ...

Mod H231 26/8/1958 introduced the Spinning Strakes to RAF Chipmunk aircraft. BEagle is probably best placed to inspect the original pic ... But I'd bet they are pre mod aircraft.

Reference : Chipmunk 'The Poor Man's Spitfire'

..and for bonus points, the P1067 cover photo looks like the work of Charles E. Brown. Is there a credit in the Journal Beags?

Thanks Coff .
I was just trying to date the shots as it looked to me that the strakes weren't present.
Historically they were on the Tiger Moth of course, also on the unfortunate Percival Prentice.
Ref. the latter. The Prentice was having awful spin recovery problems with many ( ineffective) solutions being tried.
One day a couple of members of the Prentice design team saw a "Tigger" Moth parked at Luton proudly displaying its strakes .
The lead ( an Irishman) then expounded .
"Be Jesus- that's not a bad idea!"
or so the story goes........

F3WMB asked Sorry, no. The only other reference is on the back page:

Apologies for the pixellation in the graphics.

ULAS Chipmunk serials
 

Coff,
Just by chance, whilst looking for something else, I came across couple of photographs in Aeroplane Monthly of October 1990 showing ULAS Chipmunks in the 50's ( no strakes :) ) Taken by John Perrot they depict:
WP845 "C" flown by Tony Winship -Photo a/c flown by Gordon Corps ,later CTP at Airbus.

WB746 "H" en route to Summer Camp at St Eval in 1957.
They have no fuselage letters, having the roundel plus "bar" marking.

An interesting name to Google, particularly if combined with 'BAE'....:uhoh:

Haraka ...

Thanks for that ... :ok:

More on that mod, it would appear that the mod 'embodiment' required all RAF Chipmunks to be fitted not later than three months AFTER receipt of parts (time for embodiment was estimated at six hours for the engineers). I guess it's quite possible that there might have been supply difficulties given the size of the fleet back then. I understand that RAF Chipmunks were NOT cleared for aerobatic manoeuvres (including spinning) unless strakes were fitted post the Aug 1958 mod date.

Sorry ... I never need an excuse to 'enthuse' about the Chipmunk :)

You might be interested to know that WP804, with the extended Rudder Chord mod, was used in March 1958 to undertake pre mod spinning trials with the then proposed strakes ... and was equipped with a GQ anti-spin parachute fitted in to a modified tail cone (activation via a lever in the front cockpit). Post the trials with WP804 ... further trials were conducted with WD292, WK517, WK618, WP803 and WG403 with the strakes mod. The H231 mod appeared shortly after these final trials.

Best regards ...

Coff.

Reference : Chipmunk 'The Poor Man's Spitfire' : Rod Brown

The gliding club at the old RAF Edge Hill took delivery of a Chipmunk ex Halton I believe this summer. They have two now.

Were they classified? I have a memory that the 80s versions at least were marked 'Restricted'

Yes, they were marked 'RESTRICTED' which meant that every ATC Squadron across the Empire had them!

They did become, erm, a bit 'spotterish'. Each copy did seem to contain a Recognition Test consisting of images of front drive sprockets of WARPAC armoured fighting vehicles. I suggest if you were that close to the Soviets, identifying whether it was a Command variant was likely to be rather academic.