The jet

[Guest]

[NannyFerret]

What an angle, brilliant!

[FUJI]

Methinks that is a model suspended on fishing line.....or.....a pic of a model (Meteor) superimposed on the sky in Photoshop.....Yes?

 

Not a very accurate model of a meteor either :-)

 

FUJI

[fuzzyedges]

Looks just like a model but I see Fuji has beaten me

[Denis]

The type E28-39 or known as the 'Whittle' Britains first Jet powered aircraft.

The Gloustershire aircraft Co were based in Gloucester but used the short name Gloster, later part of the Hawker aircraft group.I suspect this is one of the models mounted on roundabouts in the UK, one I know for sure is near Lutterworth?

[FUJI]

The very first jet Planes in the UK were the Gloucester Meteor and the Vampire ( a twin boom jobbie) both toes used to thrill us to bits as kids, when they carried out test flights from Baginton Aerodrome which later became Coventry Airport.

I remember all too clearly the fight to break the Sound Barrier and the tragic accident at the 1952 Farnborough Air show, the sister of one of my school pals was killed that day......A recent TV series brought it all back to me.....we were kids who saw the development of the ...Jet Age...from its earliest beginnings. A late much older pal of mine was at LEAMINGTON College at the same time ad frank Whittle the inventor of the Jet Engine.

FUJI

[Guest]

....I suspect this is one of the models mounted on roundabouts in the UK, one I know for sure is near Lutterworth?

I wondered if someone would know this, Lutterworth it is.

[Jon]

I thought it was the whittle from the roundabout - I believe there's one in Lutterworth (possibly on Sir Frank Whittle Way, deffo the Whittle Roundabout)

 

Guess who lived in Leicester for 18 years :-)

 

edit

Ha, beat me

[Denis]

The very first jet Planes in the UK were the Gloucester Meteor and the Vampire 

FUJI

 

 Quite right, ...the first  operational  jets were the Meteor and the Vampires, but the Whittle depicted in the image first flew on 15 may 1941, the Germans first jet flew in 1939.

[NannyFerret]

I remember all too clearly the fight to break the Sound Barrier and the tragic accident at the 1952 Farnborough Air show, the sister of one of my school pals was killed that day......A recent TV series brought it all back to me.....we were kids who saw the development of the ...Jet Age...from its earliest beginnings. A late much older pal of mine was at LEAMINGTON College at the same time ad frank Whittle the inventor of the Jet Engine.

FUJI

I remember that disaster too. A family friend at the time lost his daughter-in=law (one of the stewardess's) and other members of his family. If I remember rightly, the daughter-in-law was in the plane and the engine unluckily fell on some other members of his family, amongst other people.

It was very sad.

The name was Staples if you remember, Fuji.

Seeing something like this triggers those memories off, doesn't it?

[FUJI]

Ah! Nanny, I'm sure that you are thinking of a completely different air crash, the plane I posted about was one if the very early experimental fighter jets with just two crew flying at the Farnborough Air Show.

Watch this for details..

I remember all of this very clearly, I was 14 at the time, and mad on planes, because so many were made and tested in the immediate area......I was a regular attender at the......Bagington Airshow for years, post war.

Perhaps you are thinking of the more recent crash of an animal transport plane that missed the runway at Coventry Airport, it came down in woods close by?

Any sight if a vintage Jet plane still excites me, just to think I had witnessed the very start of the.....Jet Age....after a war of propeller driven kites.......to see a plane flying minus props was incredible, and just to hear that loud whistling roaring noise was amazing.

The safety rules at the pre Crash air shows were very lax, those 700 mph plus early jets flew almost at head height above the crowds all very exciting until something went very wrong.

See what memories you have stirred Bill?.......Thanks!

FUJI

[NannyFerret]

No, It was definitely the Farnborough air crash, Fuji, I was only young at the time. (Possibly my early teens)
I remember Mr Staples sitting in my mums front room a few weeks after and knowing how upset the family was.
I  think there must have been two crashes at Farnborough. The one I remember was in the Telegraph, so possibly more information could be got from the papers archives, 

 

The animal transporter plane came down in Willenhall woods on the other side of coventry and narrowly missed my daughter friends house. 
We used to live not far from the woods when the kids were young.

[NannyFerret]

It was the same crash, Fuji. I've just found some info on it from the Telegraph. I can't see anywhere where it says about the stewardess, so maybe she was one of the people on the ground.

I am pretty sure that she was killed though.

That will give me something to look into later.

Here's the link to the article of the 60th anniversary  of the crash.

Oh the wonders of modern technology!

 

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/sixtieth-anniversary-farnborough-air-disaster-3019176