Wonwings Diary-a blog with a difference.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-British Airways may sell BA Connect.

Proposed sale of BA Connect

British Airways has announced that it has reached agreement in principle to sell the regional operation of its subsidiary airline BA Connect to Flybe.

BA Connect also operates from London City Airport and between Manchester and New York. The airline said these services will not form part of the proposed sale nor will the regional ground handling business, British AirwaysRegional Ltd.

Chief executive Willie Walsh said: Point to point regional operations are not a strategic part of our business and we believe that such activities are better undertaken by a regional low cost airline.

Despite the best efforts of the entire team at BA Connect, we do not see any prospect of profitability in its current form.

The proposed sale to Flybe provides the best opportunity to secure the long-term future for the many dedicated staff in BA Connect. British Airways will have a 15 per cent investment in Flybe on completion of the disposal.

London City services complement our mainline business at Heathrow. For this reason they are not included in the proposed sale.

It is envisaged that once the sale of the regional business of BA Connect to Flybe is completed, there will be a transition period until the start of the summer schedule on March 25, 2007 while the handover of responsibilities is undertaken.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Something that was not to be-Baginton Smithy

THE OLD SMITHY BAGINTON



News cutting dated 25-08-1964

A new tenant for the Old Smithy at Baginton village was found during 0ctober 2006,an artist blacksmith is renovating the forge in order to get it up and running again,here is a small flashback to 1964 when the place was used as an artists studio.

When I first went to work at Baginton airport back in 1960 as a trainee aircraft fitter,I used to pass the Old Smithy every day on my bike,the place is near to the entrance at the airport,the place always used to intrigue me and over the years I have seen a steady procession of new tenants come and go,some of them had very little if any regard for this historic building,what it really needed was someone to move in with feelings for the place.

Three years ago I wrote to the Parish council who were in the process of being the benefactors for the Old Smithy from the Coventry council,my intentions was to have a go at creating an art studio in the building,as one of the stipulations was that it must be used for some craft purpose within the community,and what could be better than art and crafts ?

Anyway over the months correspondence came back and forth between myself and the council and I heard nothing more in the past 12 months about the place ? however it appears that someone has been found as a suitable tenant,an artist welder who creates sculptures in metal,I met him yesterday as he was knee deep and busy starting to restore the building,he certainly has his work cut out with a crumbling wall,electrics to fix and many other large jobs,it made me realise that it would have been too large a task for myself and I am pleased that a perfect person has been found in order to preserve the history of the building,he showed me around inside,the first time that I had been inside for many years,a most unusual layout and he showed me how a new portion had been built on in the nineteen thirties,the shackles where the horses were tethered,and also pointed out that the front of the building would have once been open,he has already made the place secure with a new door and plans to build a module inside one half to house his draughting equipment and office,this is ideal as he is not allowed to alter the original fabric of the building.

Although he is in employment as a nurse he does the welding already in another place in Coventry behind the Rose and Crown pub,however environmental problems can be an issue and here he can bang and thump to his hearts content as the building is quite remote.

When I asked him how he came to know about the place,he said that he literally stumbled across it by accident,whilst exploring by bike to find somewhere suiotable.

I think that a perfect match in heaven has been made here,a skilled craftsman and mated with an old historic property with great social history,I wish him well in his ventures and will record any progress here in the future.

The cutting above is from my collection of anything that is of interest to me.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The Miles Aircraft company.

Miles Aircraft Ltd.



The products of the Miles aircraft company.



Miles M.2 Hawk G-ACHK written off 20-07-38.



The sad remains of G-AFRZ Miles M.17 Monarch currently stored at R.A.F Cosford in a damp leaky hangar,this is the former G-AIDE restored on 23-08-46 and used by air racing pilot W.P.Bowles,before this the machine served in the R.A.F as W6463.

Pictureave Peace.



The rare Miles Gillette Falcon L9705 shown here at Woodley.

Photograph donated.



The final days of G-AMGW Marathon 1 which was withdrawnfrom use and scrapped at Derby,Burnaston in 1961,this aircraft was formerly VR-NAN.

Thanks to Dave Peace for this picture from his personal collection.



Miles Messenger cockpit.



Miles Aerovam 4 G-AILM seen here at Chivenor,Wrafton Gate when with Devonair Ltd,she was sold in Greece as SX-DBA 05-1955



G-AIZK Miles Hawk Trainer 3 ex P2506 scrapped 1963 at Little Snoring,ex Mc Aully Flying group.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The products of the Comper Aircraft company.

Comper Aircraft Company.

Nick Comper was a genius of light aircraft design,he left a legacy of original thinking in his products which despite being built in very small numbers,has left them firmly embedded into the aviation history books,and much talked about even 70 years after they first apperared,even today they offer the chance to build them as a replica such as the delightful little Comper Swift aircraft which has its following worldwide,in fact there is just not enough Swifts left to go around,and many change hands from enthusiast to enthusiast over the years.

The Pobjoy radial will always be connected with this aircraft,another masterpiece of aeronautical engineering,anyone who has heard the po-popping of these little engines will know what I mean ? they are poetry in motion.

Here we have but a small selection of Compers designs from the days of flying when spruce,fabric,dope and varnish were the basis for most aircraft.





G-ABWE Comper Swift at the Kings Cup air races,Hatfield July 1938,in the background is G-ADVV B.A.Double Eagle ( to R.A.F as ES949 July 1941) G-AEGI Parall Hendy Heck IIC ( Damaged beyond repair 17-06-50) G-ABWE was sold abroad in February 1940.



Comper Mouse.



Comper Fly (scaled down Scamp) serial number T1788.



Lovely in flight shot of the Comper Swift G-ABWE (colours white & red)



Photographed at Old Warden on 10-08-2004 by Dave Peace is the famous 'Scarlet Angel' formerly VT-ADO which was flown to India and back by its owners in the thirties.



G-ACTF Bare bones whilst getting an airing at Orion Airways,Baginton 1958.



G-ABUS Comper Swift at Baginton 04-10-64,whilst in the ownership of the late John Edwards.

She still retains the name 'Black Magic' and her well known race number '41'

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Emirates holds firm desoite delays on the A.380

Emirates stands by Airbus despite delays

Emirates is confident about its A380 order, despite the latest delays announced by aircraft manufacturer Airbus which will mean enormous extra costs to the company.

The airline, which has ordered 45 of the superjumbos in a deal worth US$13 billion,was expecting its first delivery by August 2008.

However, despite a potential delay of approximately two years,Emirates has decided not to cancel its order.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), the parent company of Airbus, said in a statement last month that it expected the A380 programme to cut expected cash flow by $8 billion from the previously estimated figure for the period 2006-2010. Part of this was an increase of $1.9 billion in the working capital needed to run the business.

However, due to industrial problems, the aircraft is facing a further two-year delay. Emirates is sending a team of technicians from its engineering department to the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, to assess whether the revised timings the manufacturer had given for the delayed delivery of its A380s are achievable.

Habib Fekih, Airbus Middle East president, told Scale-Models that the delays and problems associated with the 550-seater airplane had "brought bad news for Airbus".

Airbus and EADS looked at the financial and management crisis facing the aircraft builder and launched a solution, Power Eight, as an mbitious cost cutting exercise. Additionally, it appointed Louis Gallois as the third chief executive for Airbus since July 2005.

However, Fekih said that the problems to do with the A380 were not political or technical, but lay with the industrial process to put the wiring in the aircraft for each individual customer,nobody has ever put this amount of wiring into a machine this big before .

The Power Eight programme is an ambitious global restructure to cut costs and streamline the business. The exercise will affect engineering, industrial and communications departments between the different sites scattered all over Europe.

The purpose, assures Fekih, is for Airbus to become more competitive. We're here to stay and we need to do whatever it takes to be leader in the field and we will achieve it. We are streamlining to be competitive and that's why I'm not pessimistic.

Tim Clark, Emirates president, said the airline would look into plugging the two-year gap by leasing five to seven Boeing 777-300ERs (extended range), although the actual type of aircraft has not yet been decided.

We believe the Airbus A380-800 is a great product, as evidenced by our order for 45 aircraft. Airbus has informed us that they will deliver our first aircraft in August 2008, he said and we are very keen to get her into service.

Singapore-based Richard Pinkham, an analyst at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a specialist aviation consultancy, said the current problem that Airbus is going through would certainly have put a "crimp" in Emirates' growth plans but loyalty to Airbus is evident.

This will have industry-wide ramifications. When Emirates has 45 A380s zipping around, it's going to have an effect on everyone's pricing. The airline was hoping to have 18 in revenue service by August 2008, but now they're not and that's going to have a short-term impact on their forward-looking growth, he said.

As an added headache,Emirates has installed a lot of infrastructure - both human and physical - to accommodate the aircraft that they're getting much later than they had wanted,everyone is watching Emirates and know they are the real airline leaders with this aircraft in service..

Pinkham also suggested that Airbus's troubles would not affect the sales of further A380 or even the redesigned A350 XWB. The A380 probably wasn't going to have too many sales before service entry anyway, with Airbus already having reached 150 orders. Airbus wasn't going to offer bargain pricing, so airlines would probably have waited to see how the aircraft performed before hopping aboard, he said,but hop they will.

Fekih also scotched rumours that the A350XWB would be ditched, saying: To be honest, announcing the A350 in the midst of the delay of the A380 doesn't make sense and it will have no impact.

[Guest]

I wonder if the customer had been an American based airline whether they would have taken the same attitude or whether they would be more interested in suing Airbus to the point of destroying the company.

I think it is interesting that the success of this whole project is dependant on the decsions of an Arabian company that we wouldn't have even considered a few years ago as being a significant player in the aircraft industry. Now the future of the worlds aircraft industry is dependant on them.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Hurlburt Field receives its first CV-22 Osprey

Hurlburt Field, Fla A transformation in special operations air power will begin when the first operational CV-22 Osprey is delivered here next month,everyone is looking forward to this exciting phase in the development and service entry of the unique Osprey twin rotor variable wing helicopter.

Gen. Doug Brown, United States Special Operations Command commander,will pilot the first Osprey to an arrival ceremony scheduled for Nov. 16.

This is the first of 50 Ospreys scheduled for delivery to AFSOC by fiscal year 2017.

Media representatives attending the arrival ceremony will have the opportunity to interview Osprey pilots, observe the CV-22 simulator in action, get up close and personal with a CV-22 static display, and talk

with AFSOC and Air Force leadership.

A media advisory will be sent out to all media representatives the week of the event.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Early aeroplanes and their unique characteristics.

One of the main reasons why it is difficult to make replicas of pre-1914 aircraft fly properly is the characteristics of to-day's power plants. Though they may develop the same nominal horsepower, modern engines are much smaller, and develop their power at high rotational speeds, using small props. Early engines turned at little more than 1000 rpm, and drove props of 9 or 10 feet in diameter. Because engine torque is directly proportional to cubic capacity, modern engines develop far less torque than ancient ones. Moreover, a 9 foot prop produces far more windage over the control surfaces than a modern five-footer, making the aircraft easier to control - very important, considering how little was known about aerodynamics then. Shuttleworth have a replica of a Bristol boxkite that was built for 'Those magnificent Men'. It has a 100 hp Continental, and is generally considered a pig to fly, whereas the Boxkite with a Gnome rotary was a standard trainer in the early years, as it was felt to be very easy to fly.

So there is the reason why modern powerplants never really look or sound right in replica machines of early vintage.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The return of the Airship.

Those of you in London today will have probably seen the latest airship performing a media test flight over the city,she was operating from Fairoaks airfield having come from her restoration base at Cardington the day before.

The Airship is the Skyship 600 N605SK which was in fact despite what the press says built in 1984 as G-SKSJ,the 600 series were the HL series,this stood for Heavy Lift airship which the original Airship Industries pioneered and the U.S.Navy were going to purchase a few until Airship Industries went down under.

The reason for the re-incarnation of this particular one is that the Palm Holiday resort in Dubai have leased her for aerial advertising in the next few months,she will fly to Dubai on a record flight within the next few weeks but before will make a few appearances in this country,this includes Birmingham on this Sunday and Monday where Emirates Airways fly to and from Dubai with Boeing 777 aircraft,the route from Fairoaks will fly right over this area so I am looking forward to seeing her and track the airship on my new radar system from my home.

The pilot Peter Buckley says that airships present quite a challenge when taking off and in particular the landing,as they are lighter than air the slightest bit of weight difference can be critical,once the engines are opened up they can climb quite steeply,for landing the guy ropes are caught by the ground crew to hold her down and then to moor the large airship.

Some years ago I had the great pleasure of flying in the Fuji airship when it did a tour of the UK,my first impression was that of flying under a big whale ! as a camera platform they excel being able to literally just hang there in flight.

So keep your eyes peeled,she just might be coming your way before she sets course for the long trip to Dubai.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-From small beginnings a new concept was born-Airfix.

There has been a lot written and told about the Airfix company and how it started,it is hard to believe that over 50 years ago, I was witnessing events that were to change the whole concept of scale modelling forever,so how exactly did Airfix get on the route to success offering small scale model kits to the mass modelling market,or better still the small boy in the street ? well here is a little more to how it evolved and something that has not to my knowledge been written about before.

F.W.Woolworth's back in 1946 were a far cry from the same establishment we all know of today,many will remember the rows of counters each selling different wares and staffed by perhaps one young girl,to obtain your purchase you literally picked up the goods in your hands from the small counter trays and waved them frantically in the air if not to get noticed ! they had a section for just about everything,neatly laid out in wood and glass trays,as can be expected as a youngster my favourite counter was the one selling cheap toys,some of those toys are now worth a lot of money,basic shapes depicting ships,aeroplanes,tractors,cars all moulded in a very brittle cheap plastic,a lot different from the material we all know of today called styrene.

Woolworth's ran along the lines of affordable but attractive cheap lines,looking at the boring departments in todays modern shops full of video and CD's it is hard to believe how far removed these places were from then,one has to remember that people had just endured a world war and wanted housing and cheap goods to kit them out,amongst these departments were the plastic buckets,mops and other sundries associated with the domestic scene,and Woolworth's had a supplier for these items,a company called Airfix ! based in a sprawling factory complex at Haldane Place,London and equipped with then state of the art equipment capable of churning out a million buckets a week for Woolworth's,it is true to say that the directors of Airfix were on the cutting edge of moulding technology and knew their stuff,but why the transition from buckets to models ? well at that time a small affordable grey tractor was being sold to farmers all over the globe by a company called Massey Harris Ferguson,the company chairman sought new ways to publicise his products from driving a tractor up the steps at Earls Court to giving away small model tractors,and those small models were designed and produced by that same Airfix company that designed and made the buckets.

From the germ of an idea created by a tractor company Airfix were given permission by Massey Harris to sell some of the kits on the counters at F.W.Woolworth's,these tiny grey models were snapped up avidly by youngsters and those not so young and so the very first Airfix kits were born.

But Airfix were not the first kits ever sold in Woolworth's,the first ever model to come on the market was for a Bell 47 helicopter made by a company called Kleeware,Kleeware made those cheap plastic toys for the store at their UK factory,in fact the crude Bell helicopter design had been around a few years before in America and the company had copied the moulds bringing out the UK edition which sold in a plain blue and white printed box,here is a rare model from my collection showing how basic this model was,only the side stretchers are missing having been played with on the carpet air lifting wounded soldiers to safety.

The Airfix products Spitfire was loosely designed around the Aurora American moulds albeit done in 1=48th scale,these models will be remembered for being moulded in pale blue plastic,the reason being that Airfix had purchased huge quantities of pale blue plastic stock that lasted for years ! when the stock was exhausted they went over to the silver plastic,something that was far more expensive to them,however by that time who cared anyway ? as anyone who had the foresight to invest in the company was now very wealthy.So from these humble beginnings a product known all over the world was known,many many more manufacturers quickly got on the bandwagon and the rest as they say is history.



This insignificent looking model of a Bell 47G helicopter holds more importance than it first appears,this kit made by Kleeware was the first injection moulded plastic model aircraft kit made in the UK even before Airfix kits became an household name,the kit was in fact made from moulds brought over from America.

So this extremely rare model which survives today is an important part of scale modelling history.



During the nineteen fifties a small factory based at Haldane Place,London called Airfix,was making plastic utensils and buckets for F.W.Woolworths,one day a company called Massey Ferguson contracted Airfix to make small scale models of their famous little grey tractors to give away as gifts for publicity purposes,Airfix responded with a super little kit which was to be their very first venture into kit production,shortly afterwards they made a 1=72nd scale kit of a Supermarine Spitfire moulded in pale blue plastic with abnormally thin wings and not representing any particular mark of the machine,this was quickly followed by a Gloster Gladiator,Supermarine S.6B,DH.88 Comet Racer,Sopwith Pup and a Westland Sikorsky S-55 helicopter then some galleon kits,the models were a knockout and sold in their millions at branches of F.W.Woolworths who had a special counter for this product,every weekend thousands of schoolboys would flock to Woolworths clutching 2/- two old shillings for the smaller kits,3/- for the twins,and later 7/6 seven shillings and sixpence for the Lancaster,it is said that if you had invested heavily in Airfix at that time then you would have probably been very wealthy later on,in fact the company went from strength to strength producing an amazing range of model kits which quickly became an household name lilke 'Kodak' and 'Meccano'

As we enter yet another era in the history of Airfix products with the Hornby takeover it is hard to believe what humble beginnings they first came from.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-They made history-Juan De La Cierva,inventor of the Autogyro.

In honour of Juan De La Cierva,the inventor of the Autogyro.



Cierva was interested in flight as a young lad and experimented with gliders with his friends. After receiving his engineering degree, in 1918 he built the first trimotor airplane. Its crash in 1919 after a stall convinced him that aviation safety called for stall-proof aircraft that could make steep takeoffs and landings at slow speeds. He decided that only the wing and not the fuselage should be used to maintain lift. He began experimenting with rotating-wing aircraft in 1920 and developed the autogiro as a more stable form of aircraft. His first attempts with rigid rotors were unsuccessful. He then applied the idea of mounting the blades to the hub of the rotor on hinges so they could flap. This would equalize lift on advancing and retreating sides of the rotor while in forward flight.

His first successful flight with the autogiro took place on January 9 1923. The craft was equipped with a conventional propeller for forward flight and an articulated, or hinged, air-powered rotor blade that could be adjusted to balance lift. This technical breakthrough was necessary for the successful development of the helicopter, which ironically, replaced the autogiro around the time of World War II.

Cierva moved to England in 1925. His aircraft were further developed by the Cierva Autogiro Company of Great Britain getting companies interested in converting standard aircraft into autogiros such as Comper and Avro, as well as by U.S. and various continental companies. They were used widely in France, Germany, Japan, and the United States until World War II, when the helicopter replaced them.

Cierva died in a Douglas DC-2 crash on December 19, 1936, at Croydon,England leaving behind a legacy of building the first successful autogyro aircraft.

Today the Gyroplane has taken the principles of the autogyro as Cierva invented it,enthusiasts have applied this knowledge into small machines powered with pusher engines,there are some quite sophisticated examples flying some as two seat trainers.



A replica Cerva C.30A Autogiro that was built in Argentina and registered as LV-FBL now lives at Cuetro Ventos where Argentinian aeronautical artifacts are kept.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Classic Aircraft to enjoy.



The tiny Tipsy B series I G-AISB photographed at Cranfield on the occasion of the PFA Rally in 1989 climbs away steadily,this aircraft was later sold to its land of birth in Belgium as OO-EOT which incidently stands for its designers name E.O.Tips,a really delightful vintage aircraft which epitomised economical pre war flying.



Another Tipsy is G-AISA based at a strip called Coleford Tump,it is a 'B' series 1



The same aeroplane at Badminton on 26.7.87 much cherished by its owner G.A.Cull who has built a replica of a Comper Swift,the owner used to build free flight scale models and had plans published in Aeromodeller magazine of interesting light aircraft.



Popular pre war training and touring aeroplane was the B.A Swallow 2 basically an anglicised German Klemm fitted with the popular and reliable Pobjoy Cataract 3 engine,this one was impressed wartime as BK897 and now flies occasionly from Shobdon airfield in Herefordshire.



This replica DH.5 A9507/E N950JS was caught at Rendcombe RFC on 15.9.91 to celebrate the opening of this unique ex World War one airfield in the Cotswolds,the aircraft was lovingly built from scratch by John Baptist Shively in Florida where it was returned shortly after this photograph was taken,it is certainly one of the finest replica aircraft that I have had the pleasure to see first hand.



The distinctive profile of the JAP 99 engine as fitted in the wonderful little Aeronca C.3,known with affection as the 'Airknocker' or 'Flying Bathtub' it was the epitomy of cheap pre war flying.



Another view of the same aeroplane G-AEVS which was rebuilt at Breighton and uses some parts from G-AEXD,this particular one is a Aeronca 100 pictured at the Popular Flying Association rally 1994.



G-AEFT Aeronca C.3 visiting Badminton here on 26.4.87 whilst on a cross country from Middle Wallop,the aircraft is now lovingly cared for by Nick Chittendon and flys from the airstrip at Combrook in Warwickshire

The late Ben Cooper rebuilt this lovely example at his Hungerford strip,this is also a C3 and was photographed at Badminton on 26.4.87

The distinctive nose profile of the classic Aeronca C3 are shown to good effect in this view of G-AEFT,the aircraft was the subject of a television film called 'Flying for Fun' set in the 1930's



Ryan PT-22 owned by Vic Norman seen here at R.A.F Halton.



G-BPUD Ryan PT-22 is now no more having crashed into a cornfield when the flaps were raised after an overshoot,the aircraft now acts as a spares ship for Old Warden based G-BTBH owned by Peter Holloway.



The PT Formation Vultee Valiant,Ryan PT-22 and Fairchild PT-19.



TBM Grumman Avenger and PBY Catalina G-BLSC.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Classic Aircraft to enjoy-Part 2

TBM Grumman Avenger and PBY Catalina G-BLSC.



The Avenger makes a low fly by.



Grumman Widgeon appeared at the Badminton airshow.



Blackburn Beverly once on display at the Museum of Army Transport Beverly.



Tail of the Beverly.



Lockheed T-33 Silver Star.

[Guest]

For some reason i am not able to see the pictures. All i see is a hosted by tripod message. Wos goin on?

[Guest]

Same here I'm afraid.