Footage of RAF Gaydon "At Homes" 1960s
 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...T2aWG0nwmB_rxH


Hi all,
I thought this would bring a little lightening of the mood under the current lock down situation, some of the footage at the start isn't particularly good quality, but its worth persevering with.

If I may, I'd like to also address those ppruners who have been of some assistance with two book projects recently. I'm sure you're not in the least surprised to hear that there is a hold up with progress at present, however, I shall update you all in due course with news as it comes to my attention.

Meanwhile, enjoy the trip down memory lane and all the best for now!

FB

What a great channel! The owner is clearly a top bloke for uploading that footage and in return you should totally subscribe!...yes, it is my channel! haha!

Here is another video you may find interesting...It's Finningley '81 and the only footage (as far as I am aware) of the last public Vulcan "Scramble"

Enjoy!


- copy and paste into your browser, apparently I can't post URLs as I have less than 10 posts!

Wow! A rapid recognition test, and I bet I missed some.
Thank you.

You would have thought that Gaydon, being the Valiant OCU, would have got a Valiant airborne.

They did -


https://www.scramble.nl/?option=com_showreports&view=article&ct=GB&id=1462 -

actually, looking at the other reports on that site, the appearance of F-4s at the end and the Brisfit earlier in the piece suggests that this might be an amalgamation of footage, since the Brisfit was on in 1960 and the F-4s in 1966?

Maybe changing films? That aside, what an amazing trip back to even before my time - well, as a sub-teen living well South of the equator then, no chance of me seeing that lot. Was at school near Kemble tho in the early 70's so loved the stuff out of Kemble (the Reds + loads else sadly being retired like Belfasts and Andovers) and Little Rissy stuff! Happy days - long gone sadly! Skies are so boring these days tho fortunate to have been up there for some of em. Ground-bound now - and that is absolute pants! Ah well, just lovely to see those amazing sights Thanks! H 'n' Feeling old! :-)

As an RAF-mad lad of ten years in 1947 living in Hove, I had seen D Day Dakotas and gliders, and [I think] Arnhem, and the post war skies replete with Tempests. To come were the Princess flying boat, the Brabazon and Comet, Neville Duke and timed speed runs, Farnborough days with my father, the Wyvern RN fighter, [ten years too late], Gannet, DH 110, Swift, Hunter, Valiant, Victor, Vulcan, bumbling Belfast and Beverley, Hastings, Argosy, Shackleton.
The transition to being a baby Met. man at RAF Nicosia, Mickey Martin as Staish, Javelins on the pan, and massive Para drop exercises, was natural and smooth.
I raise a glass to the good old days portrayed in the Gaydon film.
It really was like that.

You're quite right Archimedes, you'll note there is something of an interval halfway through when a British Midland Herald is seen, I think this is at Birmingham Elsdon Airport. The Gaydon footage before that is largely from 1964, the other side mostly 1966 with the F-4s, Whisky Four and Diables Rouges. Some I think is from 1969 as well; 226 OCU Lightning getting airborne.

FB

I think this was probably filmed after 1965 by which time the Valiants had gone, I went there on a ATC camp in 1966 and by then it was home to No 2 ANS with Varsities, the only other aircraft were some out of service Valetta T3's.

Richard

The 'At Home' days were to show Joe Public how his taxes were being spent.


Nowadays they would have to open the Ministry of Defence and have tours of the offices.

Good Spot FED!Cool

FB

USN Phantoms?
 

Cracking footage - nice to see a couple is Sea Vixens flying.

Looking at the F4s, I am wondering if they are US Navy aircraft. Could be wrong of course, but if you look just as they depart your screen, they appear to be in USN colour scheme. My eyes could be tricking me...............

Have a look.

TN.

Hi Tarantonight,

The Sea Vixens came from 766 NAS at Yeovilton, the F-4s were from 81st TFW, either Bentwaters or Woodbridge.

FB

Thank you for posting. The footage was more than excellent. It just goes to show how much effort the show organisers put in to get a wide variety of aircraft for the flying display.

Brilliant!.

I was there. I remember the Sea Vixens being the noisiest aircraft that I'd ever heard. The Phantoms most certainly were U.S.A.F. ones. In the static I remember thinking that I'd never seen so many stencils on an aircraft before. They went home on Sunday morning following a very low and loud fly-by over the AMQ. There was a 56 Squadron Lightning
(F 3?) that put on a damn good show.

As a youngster I attended 2 or 3 Gaydon ‘at home’ displays. Does anyone remember the ‘Scramble’ that didnt quite go to plan?

I was half way there - right country!!. Good footage of F100s and a Gnat too. TN senior flew Vixens and Phantoms back in the day. Lived to tell the tale.

W
that the one when one of the Victors didn't move? I don't/can't remember the reason but I seem to recall that it was a rather embarrising one.

Age might have scrambled the brain cells, but I remembered that it moved but not in the direction of the hard stuff and became stuck?

Wasn't that the one where the nosewheel lock was left in place and it refused to turn on to the runway?

Where is that Navy 'Nought' now? It looks in very good shape.

That sounds about right to me! Good job it wasnt for a real scramble.
The OP video brought back some great memories. The ‘At Home’ days were wondrous to a small boy. I wish I could remember more detail. ☹️

Hi all,

A bit more info on the scramble that went "wonkey" it was 1962, which was also the first year that NATO air arms attended the "At Homes" extensively as well as the Americans and Canadians.

FB

More eye candy
 

A few months ago Talking Pictures put on a documentary called Timepiece.
it was made in 1966 and carries the description "A round-the-world, round-the-clock picture of the activities of the RAF in the mid-1960s."

Well it seems it can be viewed on the Imperial War Museum by visiting
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ect/1060021636

Run time is about 25 minutes. For what it's worth, I liked it a lot, perhaps it's my age!

XN593

It's definitely my age too, XN 593. Some great shots, I had almost forgotten what the inside of a Dominie looked like, and nice to see Kai Tak as it used to look, as the whole area is virtually unrecogniseable now. Thanks :ok:

At 11.34 in the film the Hunting H126 Jet Flap research aircraft can be seen in the air, I cannot remember seeing any film of it actually flying before despite operating over a number of years and making many flights. In the film it appears that the aircraft was fitted with a smoke system to demonstrate how the jet efflux was ducted out along the wing to the flaps and ailerons.

What a halcyon time this was when someones bright idea resulted in the building of a research aircraft just to see if it would work.

Incidentally the H126 XN714 is now homed at the Cosford museum, it had a stall speed of 32 mph!

Interesting films -memory jogging nostalgia! I featured (unseen) in a couple of shots of the Tern Hill Whirlwinds. We also did S&R standby on one of those years, parked next to a USAF Kaman Husky on similar standby. The Arrows did their usual display, the arrival being an "all points" run-in, to a pull-up join up. The one in our 'sector' arrived between us and the Husky ... below rotor head height! The Army Eagles were there with their 'clockwork mice', one of which wouldn't start The lead climbed out of his, leaving it rotors turning. and went to the failed Sioux to help out! Seems it was S O P for our khaki cousins! The display 'stars' were, undoubtedly the Diables Rouges in their Fouga Magisters. The formation take-off (in threes) had the lead going 'airborne, gear-up, roll inverted' and then climbing away!! quite spectacular!
Is Gaydon still a car test facilty?

One did that at Bessbrook. The a Wessex landed at the same site. Scratch one Sioux.

Cornish Jack,

Gaydon is now a MASSIVE automotive facility, a new design and engineering facility for Jaguar-Landrover employs 13,000, and Aston Martin also have their main base and factory there. On top of that there is an automotive museum. The original airfield layout is still visible as it is the basis of the test track for the design facility. The Air Traffic Control Tower is still there in its original state, even one of the Gaydon hangers survives though massively modified.

I've noticed from photographs and other material that Gaydon was unique among those selected to become V-Bomber stations, the rest all had typically Brick built H-Blocks, a number, usually four at least, Regulation C-Type Hangars or Js. Gaydon had a series of what appear to be prefab chalet style war economy buildings. Rustic/Grey long interconnecting ground floor apex huts accommodating everything from Messes and accommodation to admin offices, SCAF etc. The two Gaydon Hangars, as big as they were, just didn't seem enough for the size and number of aircraft; Valiants and Victors based there.

FB

FB,

The key element to each and every one of the airfields rebuilt as Class 1 V-Bomber bases was the new 9,000 foot runway, associated taxiways, a new Electrical Engineering Squadron, new SSA and 24 new dispersals for the aircraft. All have the 24 dispersals, including Gaydon. ( 8 aircraft per squadron, all intended to be 3 squadron airfields.) Gaydon WAS unique in that it was the only one of the ten selected that had not been an expansion 1935-40 type permanent station, hence it had none of the permanent buildings that all the rest had. It was a complete new build from the small temporary satellite station that Gaydon was prior to the rebuild. Everything apart from a few T2 type hangers was totally new. And as it was built in the mid fifties it had the utilitarian style of the day in its buildings. As it was always intended to be purely an OCU (another unique feature of Gaydon) there was no need for more than the 2 hangars, 1 for the OCU itself and 1 for the Engineering Wing ASF. The V-Force aircraft lived outside apart from when they were dragged into the hangar for servicing. Later of course centralised servicing came along and the need for squadron hangars vanished completely, Until of course it was brought back again in the early 70's. And if you think that Gaydon was short of hangars, take a peek at Wittering with its sole Gaydon type hangar and two small pre war C types. Sorry for prattling on...

Not at all pr00ne, Wittering was the other one I was thinking of. Coningsby I think has or had three or four J-type and a couple of T1 or 2 type. I was at Scampton in 2017 for the one and only air show there, to say that the RAF had moved back in around 2001 it was in an absolute derelict state. The Officers' Mess had all its windows covered in chip-board with construction site metal fencing around it, one Hangar looked set for demolition and most of the rest of the station infrastructure seemed abandoned likewise.

FB

Incidentally the H126 XN714 is now homed at the Cosford museum, it had a stall speed of 32 mph!
Not really comparative, I suppose, but my one ride in a Single Pin with M Plt 'Bim' Ward was a bit of a capability demo - take-off across the runway (Khormaksar) and maintaining level (ish) flight with the ASI showing 17kts! Bim said that control forces were much the same as a fully loaded Lancaster!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d75511c449.jpg
Interesting observations pr00ne. Dad's admin office for the Valiants at Gaydon was a wooden hut next to the pan. The attached photo was taken from there at the end of the '64 show using a 1938 Kodak box brownie camera.

Coningsby also has a Gaydon type hangar, supplementing the two J type, the B1 and a row of T2's. The most mysterious location for a Gaydon type hangar for me was Acklington, and possibly Valley.

That's right, Acklington seemed to have one of everything, a Gaydon Hangar added belatedly and not too many years before closure and a large Naval Hangar, don't know the name of it but it had side opening doors.

FB

I don't have sound. My computer or no sound on the film?

Hi ACW342,

There is sound but its instrumental music.

FB

The Valettas were not "out of service" in 1966. I was there in 1967/68 as a student navigator and we flew 2 sorties in the "flying classroom" valettas.