Trail 44 – Kent (Part 3) – Sir Barnes Wallis – His Later Years.

August 27, 2017July 27, 2019 / Aviationtrails / 14 Comments

We continue, in Trail 44, looking at the life of Sir Barnes Wallis, a man known for his expertise in engineering and design. Following on from his early works in airship design, we now turn to his Second World War and post war work.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, new designs of aircraft and weapons were much-needed. Wallis’s geodesic design, as used in the R100, had been noticed by another Vickers designer Rex Pierson, who arranged for Wallis to transfer to Weybridge, where they formed a new team – Pierson working on the general design of the aircraft with Wallis designing the internal structures. This was a team that produced a number of notable designs including both the Wellesley and the Wellington; both of which utilised Wallis’s geodetic design in both the fuselage and wing construction.

What made Wallis’s idea so revolutionary was that the design made the air frame both light-weight and strong, and by having the bearers as part of the skin, it left more room inside the structure thus allowing for more fuel or ‘cargo’. An idea that helped provide greater gas storage for the R100.

Whilst both the Wellesley and the Wellington went on to be successful in the early stages of the war (11,400 Wellingtons saw service), they were both withdrawn from front line service by the mid war years, being replaced by more modern and advanced aircraft that could fly further and carry much larger payloads.

Saddened by the rising death toll, Wallis put many of his efforts into shortening the war. His idea was that if you attack and destroy the heart of production, then your enemy would have nothing to fight with; in this case, its power supply. To this end he started investigating the idea of breaching the dams of the Ruhr.

Wallis’s idea was to place an explosive device against the wall of the dam, thus utilising the water’s own pressure to fracture and break open the dam. Conventional bombing was not suitable as it was too difficult to place a large bomb accurately and sufficiently close enough to the dam to cause any significant damage. His idea, he said, was “childishly simple”.

Using the idea that spherical objects bounce across water, like stones thrown from a beach, he determined that a bomb could be skimmed across the reservoir over torpedo nets and strike the dam. A backward spin, induced by a motor in the aircraft’s fuselage, would force the bomb to keep to the dam wall where a detonator would explode the bomb at a predetermined depth, similar in fashion to a naval depth charge. The idea was simple in practical terms, ‘skip shot’ being used with great success by sailors in Nelson’s navy; but it was going to be a long haul, to not only build such a weapon, the aircraft to drop it, nor train the expert crews to fly the aircraft; but to simply convince the Ministry of Aircraft Production that it was in fact feasible.

Wallis began performing a number of tests, first at his home using marbles and baths, then at Chesil Beach in Dorset. Both the Navy and the Ministry were interested when shown a film of the bomb in action, each wanting it for their own specific target; the Navy for the Tirpitz, and the Ministry for the dams. Wallis still determined to use it on the dams, carried out two projects side-by-side, “Upkeep” for the dams, and “Highball” for the Navy*³.

“Upkeep” was initially spherical, and the first drop from a modified Lancaster took place in April 1943 at Reculver near to Herne Bay, where this statue is located. He persevered with aircraft heights, speeds and bomb design modifications, carefully honing them until on April 29th 1943, only three weeks before the actual attack, the bomb finally worked for the first time.

Wallis’s plan could now be put into action, and with a new squadron of the RAF’s elite bomber crews put in place, the stage was set and the dams of Ruhr Valley would be the target.

The attack on the dams have become legendary, and of the 19 aircraft of 617 Squadron that took off that May evening in 1943, only 11 returned, some after sustaining considerable damage. Operation Chastise saw two of the three dams, the Mohne and Eder, successfully breached and the third, the Sorpe, severely damaged forcing the Germans to partially drain it for safety.

The names of the crews of 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton. Those with poppies next to them, did not return.

Following the success of Operation Chastise, Wallis went on to develop other bombs capable of devastating results. His initial plan, a Ten ton (22,000lb) bomb, had to be scaled back to 12,000lb as there was no aircraft capable of dropping it at that time. Codenamed ‘Tallboy’, it would be a deep penetration bomb 21 feet in length with a hardened steel case and 4 inches of steel in the nose. The bomb contained 5200lbs of high explosive Torpex (similar to that used in the Kennedy Aphrodite mission) and would have a terminal velocity of around 750 miles per hour.

The idea of Tallboy, was to create a deep underground crater into which structures would either fall or be rendered irreparable. With a time fuse that could be set to sixty minutes after release, it was used on strategic targets such as the Samur Railway Tunnel in France, rendering the tunnel useless as it had to be closed for a considerable amount of time.

The crater made by Barnes Wallis’s Tallboy bomb above the Samur Railway Tunnel, 9th June 1944. *4

Soon after this, Wallis began developing his Ten Ton bomb, the “Grand Slam”, a mighty 26ft in length, it weighed 22,000lb, and would impact the ground at near supersonic speeds. Wallis’s design was such that the bomb could penetrate through 20 feet of solid concrete or 130 feet of earth, where it would explode creating a mini earthquake. It was this earthquake that would rock the foundations of buildings and structures, or simply suck them into a crater of massive proportions*⁵.

Production of the Grand Slam was slow though. It took two days for the casting to cool and then after machining, it took a further month for the molten Torpex to set and cool. The first use of the Grand Slam occurred on 14th March 1945 against the Bielefeld Viaduct in Germany, on which one Grand Slam and 27 Tallboys were dropped. Unsurprisingly, the viaduct collapsed and the railway was put out of action.

Wallis had created more exceptionally devastating weapons, they were so successful that 854 Tallboys and 41 Grand Slams were dropped by the war’s end.

The Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs, designed by Barnes Wallis.

Post war, Wallis carried on with his design and investigations into aerodynamics and flight. He was convinced that achieving supersonic flight with the greatest economy was the way forward, and in particular variable geometry wings. The government was keen to catch up with the U.S., awarding Vickers £500,000 to carry out research into supersonic flight. Wallis’s project received some of this money, and he researched unmanned supersonic flight in the form of surface-to-air missiles. Codenamed ‘Wild Goose‘ (later ‘Green Lizard’) the project ran to 1954 when it was terminated.

Wallis continued with his research into swing wing designs, his first being the JC9, a single seat aircraft 46 feet in length. It was produced but never completed and was scrapped before it ever got off the ground. Wallis wasn’t put off though, and he continued on developing the ‘Swallow’, a swing wing aircraft that could reach speeds of Mach 2.5 in model wind tunnel investigations.

In its bomber form it would have been equivalent in size to the American B-1, with a crew of 4 or 5, and a cruising speed of Mach 2. It would have a range of 5,000 miles whilst carrying a single Red Beard nuclear bomb.

Whilst not selected to meet the R.A.F.’s OR.330 (Operational Requirement 330), which was eventually awarded to TSR.2, they were interested enough for him to proceed until the 1957 Defence White Paper put an end to the project, and it was cancelled.

Looking for funding Wallis turned to the U.S. hoping they would grant him sufficient funds to continue his work. After many meetings between Wallis and the U.S American Mutual Weapons Development Program at NASA’s Langley research facility, he came away disappointed and saddened that the Americans used his ideas without granting him any funding.

American research continued, eventually developing into the successful General Dynamics F-111 ‘Aardvark’, the world’s first production swing-wing combat aircraft.

Wallis continued with other supersonic and hypersonic investigations; designs were drawn up for an aircraft capable of Mach 4-5, using a series of variable winglets to link subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flights, many however, never went beyond the drawing board.

Wallis didn’t stop there, he continued with many great inspirational projects: the Stratosphere Chamber, a test chamber where by simulated impacts on aircraft travelling at 70,000 feet could be safely tested and analysed; the Parkes Telescope, a radio telescope in New South Wales; the Momentum Bomb, a nuclear bomb designed to be released at low-level and high-speed, enabling the release aircraft to escape the blast safely, and in the 1960s, a High Pressure Submarine designed to dive deeply beyond the range of current detection.

In recognition of his work, Wallis was knighted in 1968, and he was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Wallis, after working beyond his forced retirement, died at the age of 83, on 30th October 1979, in Effingham, Surrey. He is buried in the local church, St Lawrence’s Church, in Effingham, a village he contributed greatly to. He was the church secretary for eight years, and an Effingham Parish Councillor, serving as Chairman for 10 years. He was also the Chairman of the Local Housing Association, which helped the poor and elderly of the village to find or build homes; and as a fanatical cricketer, he was Chairman of the KGV Management Committee who negotiated the landscaping of the “bowl” cricket ground, so good was the surface, it was used as a substitute for the Oval in London.

There are numerous memorials and dedications around the country to Wallis, and there is no doubt that he was both an incredible engineer and inventor who made a major contribution to not only the war, but British and world aviation in general.

His statue at Herne Bay overlooks Reculver where the first “Upkeep” bomb was dropped by a Lancaster bomber during the Second World War, and it is a fine tribute to this remarkable man on this trail.

Sir Barnes Neville Wallis.

From here, we continue to travel east, toward the coastal town of Margate. A few miles away is the now closed Manston airport, formerly RAF Manston, an airfield that is rich in History, and one that closed causing such ill feeling amongst many.

Sources and further reading

*³ The Mail online published a report on the discovery of a Highball bomb found in Loch Striven, Scotland in July 2017.

*⁴ Photo © IWM (CL 4322)

*⁵ The Independent news website– “Secrets of the devastation caused by Grand Slam, the largest WWII bomb ever tested in the UK.” Published 22/1/14

The Barnes Wallis Foundation website has a great deal of information, pictures and clips of Barnes Wallis.

A list of memorials, current examples of both Upkeep and Highball bombs, and displays of material linked to Barnes Wallis, is available through the Sir Barnes Wallis (unofficial) website.

Trail 44 – Kent (Part 3) – Sir Barnes Wallis – His Early Years

August 20, 2017August 15, 2017 / Aviationtrails / 4 Comments

After visiting the many museums and former airfields in the southern and central parts of Kent (Trail 4 and Trail 18) we now turn north and head to the northern coastline. Here we overlook the entrance to the Thames estuary, the Maunsell Forts – designed to protect the approaches to London and the east coast – and then take a short trip along the coastline of northern Kent. Our first stop is not an airfield nor a museum, it is a statue of the designer of one of the world’s most incredible weapons – the bouncing bomb. Our first short stop is at Herne Bay, and the statue of Sir Barnes Wallis.

Sir Barnes Wallis – Herne Bay

The Barnes Wallis statue located at the eastern end of the town overlooking the sea at Reculver.

There cannot be a person alive who has not seen, or know about, the famous Dambusters raid made by 617 Sqn. It is a story deeply embedded in history, one of the most daring raids ever made using incredible ideas, skill and tenacity. There is so much written about both it, and the man behind the idea – Sir Barnes Neville Wallis CBE FRS RDI FRAeS – a man famous for his engineering prowess and in particular the famous ‘Bouncing Bomb’ that was used by Guy Gibson’s 617 Squadron in that daring raid of 16th May 1943. But there is so much more to Barnes Wallis than the Bouncing bombs; he made a huge contribution to British Aviation, weaponry of the Second World War, and later on in his life, supersonic and hypersonic air travel.

He is certainly one the Britain’s more notable designers, and has memorials, statues and plaques spread across the length and breadth of the country in his honour. But he was not just a designer of the Bouncing bomb, his talent for engineering and design led him through a series of moves that enabled him to excel and become a major part of British history.

Born on 26th September 1887 in Ripley, Derbyshire, he was educated at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, he went on to study engineering in London, and shortly afterwards moving to the Isle of Wight. With the First World War looming, he was offered a chance to work on airship designs – an innovative design that would become widely used by the Naval forces of both the U.K. and Germany.

Wallis cut his teeth in marine engines as an engineer and draughtsman. He began his career in the London’s shipyards, moving to the Isle of Wight after which he broke into airship design. He followed a colleague he had met whilst working as a draughtsman with John Samuel White’s shipyard, together they would design His Majesty’s Airship No.9 (HMA 9).

The design process of HMA 9 was dynamic to say the least. Early non-rigid airships were proving to be very successful, and the new rigids that were coming in – whilst larger and more capable of travelling longer distances with greater payloads – were becoming the target for successive quarrels between the government and the Admiralty. World unrest and political turmoil was delaying their development even though plans for HMA 9 had already been drawn up.

Joining with his colleague, H.B. Pratt in April 1913, at the engineering company Vickers, the two designers began drawing up plans for a new rigid based along the lines of the German Zeppelin. HMA 9 would be a step forward from the ill-fated HMA No. 1 “Mayfly”, and would take several years to complete. Further ‘interference’ from the Admiralty (One Winston Churchill) led to the order being cancelled but then reinstated during 1915. The final construction of the 526 ft. long airship was on 28th June 1916, but its first flight didn’t take place until the following November, when it became the first British rigid airship to take to the Skies.

HMA 9 (author unknown*¹)

With this Wallis had made his mark, and whilst HMA 9 remained classed as an ‘experimental’ airship with only 198 hours and 16 minutes of air time, she was a major step forward in British airship design and technology.

The Pratt and Wallis partnership were to go on and create another design, improving on the rigids that have previously been based on Zeppelin designs, in the form of the R80. Created through the pressure of war, the R80 would have to be designed and built inside readily available sheds as both steel and labour were in very short supply. Even before design or construction could begin there were barriers facing the duo.

Construction started in 1917, but with the end of the war in 1918, there was little future as a military airship for R80. Dithering by the Air Ministry led to the initial cancellation of the project, forcing the work to carry on along a commercial basis until the project was reinstated once more. With this reinstatement, military modifications, such as gun positions, were added to the airship once again. With construction completed in 1920, she made her first flight that summer. However, after sustaining structural damage she was returned to the sheds where repair work was carried out, and a year later R80 took to the air once again. After a brief spell of use by the U.S. Navy for training purposes, R80 was taken to Pulham airship base in Norfolk and eventually scrapped. Wallis’s design had lasted for four years and had only flown for 73 hours.

However, undaunted by these setbacks, the Vickers partnership of Pratt and Wallis went on to develop further designs. In the 1920s, a project known as the 1924 Imperial Airship Scheme, was set up where by a Government sponsored developer would compete against a commercial developer, and the ‘best of both’ would be used to create a new innovative design of airship that would traverse the globe. This new design, would offer both passenger and mail deliveries faster than any current methods at that time.

The Government backed design (built at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington) would compete against Vickers with Wallis as the now Chief Designer.

The brief was for a craft that could transport 100 passengers at a speed of 70 knots over a range of 3,000 miles. Whilst both designs were similar in size and overall shape, they could not have been more different. Wallis, designing the R.100, used a mathematical geodetic wire mesh which gave a greater gas volume than the Government’s R101, which was primarily of stainless steel and a more classic design. This geodesic design was revolutionary, strong and lightweight, it would prove a great success and emerge again in Wallis’s future.

Built at the Howden site a few miles west of Hull, the R100 was designed with as few parts as possible to cut down on both costs and weight; indeed R100 had only 13 longitudinal girders half that of previous designs. Wallis’s design was so far-reaching it only used around 50 different main parts.

The design plan of Wallis’ R-100 airship (author unknown*²

The 1920s in Britain were very difficult years, with the economy facing depression and deflation, strikes were common place, and the R100 was not immune to them. Continued strikes by the workers at the site repeatedly held back construction, but eventually, on 16th December 1929, Wallis’s R100 made its maiden flight. After further trials and slight modifications to its tail, the R100 was ready. Then came a test of endurance for the airship, a flight to Canada, a flight that saw the R100 cover a journey of 3,364 miles in just under 79 hours. Welcomed as heroes, the return journey would be even quicker. Boosted by the prevailing Gulf Stream, R100 made a crossing of 2,995 miles in four minutes under 58 hours. The gauntlet had been thrown, and Wallis’s airship would be hard to beat.

The R101 would face a similar flight of endurance, this time to India, and it would use many of the same crew such was the shortage of experienced men. On October 4th 1930, R101 left its mooring at Cardington for India. Whilst over France she encountered terrible weather, a violent storm caused her to crash, whereupon she burst into flames and was destroyed with all but six of the 54 passengers and crew being killed.

The airship competition became a ‘one horse race’, but an inspection of the outer covering of Wallis’s R100 revealed excessive wear, only cured by replacing the skin, an expense the project could barely swallow. With plans already in place for the R102, the project was in jeopardy, and eventually, even after offers from the U.S. Government, it was deemed too expensive, and by 1932 R100, the worlds largest airship and most advanced of its time, had been scrapped and the parts sold off.

Wallis’s airship career had now come to an end, but his prowess and innovation as a designer had been proven, he had set the bench mark that others would find hard to follow.

In the next part, we look at the work carried out by Wallis both during the Second World War and in the later years of his life.

Sources and further reading

*¹ Photo from The Airship Heritage Trust website.

*² ibid

Scotland’s National Museum of Flight – East Fortune (Part 3).

August 13, 2017August 5, 2017 / Aviationtrails / 13 Comments

The final public hangar at East Fortune holds what is perhaps its pièce de résistance, an aircraft so ahead of its time that it has never been successfully matched. An aircraft that became simply too expensive to operate but was withdrawn under a cloak of darkness and sadness. In the third public hangar is the story of the Jet Age, a story that tells of the development of the modern jet air liner, from the post war development through to the classics of today. A story that is set around the beautiful aircraft that is of course the B.A.C. Concorde.

The Jet Age Hangar.

The Concorde at the National Museum of Flight (G-BOAA) was the first model Concorde to go into active service in 1976. After flying for a total of 22,768 hours and 56 minutes, in almost 25 years of service, she finally came to rest after what was possibly the most ambitious transportation project ever undertaken. In all her flying time she has visited cities right across the world including: New York, Paris, Bahrain, Miami, Calcutta, Auckland and Barbados. In her life time, G-BOAA has landed over 8,000 times and has flown through almost 7,000 supersonic cycles. She has become an icon, a reflection of what is achievable in civil aviation development.

Concorde was designed and built in agreement between the French Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and Britain’s British Aircraft Corporation (later B.A.E.). Each would make their own prototype, the French (001) flying first on 2nd March 1969, with the British model (002) flying from Fliton a month later on April 9th 1969. At the Paris airshow prospects looked good and over the next few years 65 initial orders were placed by 17 countries with options for many more. However, growing concerns over manufacturing costs, noise, environmental pollution and running costs eventually reduced the orders to just a handful from both British Airways and Air France.

With the price of a return ticket London to New York in excess of £6,500 in 2003, it certainly wasn’t cheap, nor affordable for the average man in the street (but where else can you watch the Mach Meter climb through Mach 2). It was however, a head turner. Wherever Concorde flew crowds gathered to watch in awe of her grace and technological advancement.

Concorde G-BOAA stands proudly as the centre piece of the Concorde Experience.

Sadly, on July 25th 2000, it all went terribly wrong when taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport, Concorde F-BTSC ran over a small piece of debris causing the tyre to burst sending shards of rubber at high-speed into the wing of the aircraft. An internal fuel tank ruptured and high-octane fuel poured from the wing igniting as it left. With too little runway to land and insufficient power to fly, it couldn’t fail to miss the Hôtelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel and crashed. A terrible tragedy that began the rapid rundown and retirement of the entire Concorde fleet.

Following a slump in air travel due to terrorist activities, rising costs of Concorde and the urgent need for upgrades, by 2003 all Concordes had ceased flying, and the disposal of the air-frames began.

G-BOAA was delivered to East Fortune following a major operation that involved taking it by road to the River Thames, along the Thames by specialist barge and out to sea, around the coast of England and Scotland, and then by road to East Fortune. Roads had to be purposely made cutting through a number of fields in order to get the aircraft to its new home. An operation that took over a week was supported by members of 39 Engineer Regiment’s 53 Field Squadron (Air Support) with a helicopter assistance.

Today Concorde G-BOAA stands as the centre piece of the Jet Age and Concorde Experience Hangar, a proud and open monument to the collaboration and development of the Supersonic passenger age.

But this hangar is not just about Concorde. A cockpit and front cabin portion from a Boeing 707-436 (G-APFJ), and Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C (G-ARPH) cockpit, gives the visitor another insight into life inside another 1960s long haul passenger jet. Outside another two classic passenger aircraft, de Havilland’s Comet 4C (G-BDIX) and the BAC 111-510ED (G-AVMO) further give the visitor an insight into these classic times. A range of jet engines allow you to compare sizes and features, and stories from those who were involved in flying these masters of the sky bring the ‘Golden age of air travel’ to life once more.

Some of the engines on view at East Fortune.

The remainder of the museum is displays and hands on activities. The history of East Fortune, is well portrayed as are the medals of Captain Eric Melrose “Winkle” Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN., and the flying jacket and personal artefacts of Rolf Niehoff, the navigator of the Humbie Heinkel.

Portrait and medals of Captain Eric Melrose “Winkle” Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN

As mentioned earlier, in Post 1 the parachute store has been fully refurbished and is displayed in the way it would have been used during the war years. A unique building, they are easily recognisable by their higher central roof section, or as in some models, offset sloping roofs. Designed to hang and dry parachutes, they are kept at a constant temperature, ideally between 55⁰F and 65⁰F. Wartime parachute stores were built with 4.5 inch thick walls, early designs having a symmetrical two-stage pitched roof as is here at East Fortune. The parachutes were hung from the highest point on a pulley system, so that the silk was kept away from the floor and allowed to dry evenly and cleanly. Once dry, they were lowered to a packing table, inspected, packed away and stored in the store on racks. Each pack was labelled with an inspection date and the person to whom it belonged – each crewman having earlier being measured for his own parachute.

This is possibly the only original parachute store remaining in this condition in the UK and shows the method of drying, packing and storing these vital pieces of equipment extremely well.

The inside of the parachute store clearly shows how they parachutes were dried, packed and stored.

Other exhibits include the RAF’s Matador lorry and a ‘Green Goddess’ fire engine. Made more famous perhaps by the firemen’s strikes of 2002, they were built in the 1950s, and were designed to be used in the event of a nuclear attack. Operated by civilian personnel of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) they would be rushed into cities to extinguish fires and repair water systems. Thankfully, they were never used in this particular role.

The RAF’s Matador truck.

The range of exhibits at East Fortune is fabulous. The history of aviation, both civil and military is shown through a range of rare examples, that are restored and maintained in original buildings, purposely restored in line with their original designs and construction. For anyone wanting to see original airfield buildings and beautifully restored aircraft, it is certainly worthy of a trip and is time very well spent.

Sources and Further Reading.

The National Museum of Flight Website has details of tickets, events and features on the various exhibits there.

A list of the aircraft locations at East Fortune.

Scotland’s National Museum of Flight – East Fortune (Part 2).

August 6, 2017August 5, 2017 / Aviationtrails / 10 Comments

In the second part of this visit we look into the current display of military aircraft at East Fortune. A collection that ranges from the Second World War through to the end of the Cold War, it is a glimpse into the history and development of fighter aircraft over the last half of the 1900s.

The Military Hangar.

Early examples include the Bristol Bolingbroke IV-T, the Canadian built Blenheim that was used to train air gunners, navigators and bomb aimers.

The Bristol Bolingbroke, an ex Strathallan collection model that served with the R.C.A.F.

The Bolingbroke had a crew of three, with a top speed of 266 mph. It was initially a Blenheim MKI (designated Bristol Type 142M) and was first flown at Filton on 24th September 1937.

Morphing into the Blenheim, the Bolingbroke soon passed into obscurity, however, it did catch the eye of the Canadian Government, who applied to build it under licence at the Fairchild Aircraft Company in Quebec.

The original prototype model was sent to Canada and used as a pattern for subsequent designs, the first model entering Royal Canadian Air Force (R.C.A.F.) service in November 1939. For the first few years, Bolingbrokes were used in the anti-submarine role, initially along the eastern coast of Canada and then later on, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, along the western coast .

The Canadians made a number of changes to the original design, installing U.S. dials and instruments in a modified cockpit for one, and also making room to store a dingy should the aircraft come down in the icy waters around Canada.

Then as part of the agreement made between the Canadians and British for Canada to supply trained crews as part of their support for the war effort, Bolingbrokes were used as training aircraft, and so were supplied to various Gunnery and Flying Training Schools across Canada.

This particular example ‘9940’, is painted in a yellow colour scheme, it flew as part of this British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. It is an ex Strathallan collection aircraft previously used by the R.C.A.F. No. 5 Bomber and Gunnery School, Dafoe, Saskatchewan in Canada.

Another wartime example in the military hangar is the Supermarine Spitfire LF.XVIe. Built in July 1945, TE462 never saw active war service, instead flew with one of the five Flying Refresher Schools to retrain pilots after the Second World War. Post service, it was used as a gate guard at RAF Ouston, Northumberland, in a time when the R.A.F. flew D.H. Vampires from the airfield. In 1968 TE462 was removed from Oulton to be used in the highly acclaimed film the ‘Battle of Britain’. Being a much later model to those classic 1940 examples, extensive modifications would have been needed if it were to appear in any flying roles on camera.

In 1971, TE462 was donated by the Ministry of Defence to the now National Museum of Scotland, who were then, due to lack of space in Edinburgh, allowed to use one of the hangars at East Fortune for her storage. It was this move that helped generate the ideas and movements that created the museum as it is today. Spitfire ‘TE462’ stands proudly as the centre piece of the military exhibition.

Spitfire LF.XVIe ‘TE462’ now stands on a plinth as the centre piece of the East Fortune Military Hangar.

Another Second World War Example is the German Messerschmitt Komet Me 163B-1a. Another 1945 example, this model (s/n 191659) is unique in that it was flown by R.A.F. pilot Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown. The Komet, built by various manufactures using slave labour, was the only rocket-powered aircraft ever to enter combat. A very dangerous aircraft to fly because of its mixture of explosive fuels, Brown described its handling to 32,000 ft as “Fantastic!”.

The Messerschmitt Komet 163 flown by Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown

Post war and Cold War examples make up for most of the exhibits in this hangar at East Fortune. The nose section of Canberra B.8 reported to be VX185, is an ex Wroughton exhibit, the original of which flew a return flight to Canada in 10 hours 3 minutes and 29.28 seconds, setting a new transatlantic record at that time. The Canberra being a revolution in aircraft design in the early post war era, was used to fly long-range reconnaissance missions and proved its worth for many years to come.

WF259 Hawker Sea Hawk of the Royal Navy.

Two Royal Navy aircraft examples are found in this hangar, the Hawker Sea Hawk and the D.H. Sea Venom.

The Sea Hawk ‘WF259’ (171) is an F.2 model and a Lossiemouth veteran. Designed around a Rolls-Royce Nene 101 and latterly 103 engine, they were single seat fighters that first flew as a prototype on 2nd September 1947. Whilst not seen as a major step forward from the RAF’s Vampires and Meteors, it was successful with the Navy, proving its worth in the ground attack role. The Sea Hawk, a thoroughbred from the Sir Sydney Camm stables, formed the backbone of the Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s and was exported to various European countries and India, where many still survive as museum pieces today.

The D.H. Sea Venom, an FAW.22, WW145 ‘680’, is also an ex Lossiemouth veteran. Serving with both 891 and 750 Naval Air Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm. It was a naval development of the RAF’s 2-seater Venom NF3 Night Fighter, with numerous modifications to enable it to operate from carrier decks.

The D.H. Sea Venom operated with both 891 and 750 Naval Air Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm.

A Meteor NF.14 of The Ferranti Flying Unit based at Edinburgh’s Turnhouse Airport, is painted in white and red giving it a distinctive paint scheme. The unit was set up in 1949 to test distance measuring equipment for the Ferranti group whilst based at the airport. Between its inception and disbandment in 1973, it flew twenty-five different models of aircraft, the long-nosed NF.14 being just one of them.

Czechoslovakian marked Aero S-103. A Mig 15 built under licence.

International Cold War aircraft are represented with the Czechoslovakian marked Aero S-103. A Soviet MiG-15bis, it was built under licence by the Aero Vodochody aircraft company in 1956. The Mig proved itself as a very potent fighter during the Korean War, attacking U.S. bombers from beyond their defensive gun range. Whilst it did have its flying limitations, it was quickly realised as a close match for the American F-86 Sabres.

This particular model, ‘3677’ is an ex Caslav, Ostravian Air Regt. c/n 613677 of the Czechoslovakian Air Force, the badge just visible on the nose is that of the City of Ostrava.

Moving toward more modern eras, we see the E.E. Lightning, SEPECAT Jaguar, Hawker Siddeley Harrier, and the Panavia Tornado.

XN776 served with 92 Squadron.

The Lightning, F.2A ‘XN776’, built by English Electric (B.A.C./B.A.) served with 92 Squadron, and was the only Mach 2 all British aircraft to serve with the R.A.F. Lightning XN776 first flew (as an F.2) on 18th October 1962 subsequently being delivered to 19 Squadron. After seven years, she was returned to Warton for conversion work to upgrade her to an F.2A model, and then delivered to 19 squadron at Gutersloh a few months later. Her last operational flight was on 3rd March 1977, being flown to Leuchars on April 5th that year. She displays on her tail, the blue diamonds that represent the Blue Diamond Aerobatic team that previously used Hunters with 92 Squadron. With a maximum speed of 1,500 mph (Mach 2.3) and a service ceiling in excess of 60,000 ft, she was a potent and deadly weapon restricted only by her high usage of fuel.

The Harrier, a GR.1, is the reputed to be the oldest surviving Harrier example, a unique design it is famous for its Vertical or Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) capabilities, now taken on by the F.35 Lightning. This particular model (XV277) was only used for test purposes and never saw operational service. During its life it has taken on many changes and modifications, but it still remains the much-loved Harrier.

The oldest surviving Harrier GR.1

The remaining aircraft here, the Jaguar and Tornado, did however see operational service. The Jaguar ‘XZ119’ (with nose art Katrina Jane), flew 40 operational sorties during the first Gulf War in 1990 / 1991, her nose-art bomb-tally testament to her successes; whilst the Tornado ‘ZE934’ also flew during the first Gulf War, performing air defence patrols from Saudi Arabia. Other than this it operated primarily at RAF Leuchars in Fife with 111 squadron.

Jaguar GR.1A ‘XZ119’ carried out 40 successful bombing missions during the first Gulf War.

Outside the military hangar is Vulcan B.2 XM597, the mighty ‘V’ bomber designed as Britain’s nuclear deterrent until the role was taken on by the Royal Navy in 1969. XM597, an ex Waddington aircraft, entered service with 12 squadron on the 27th of August 1963, going on to serve with 35, 50, 9, and 101 squadrons. She also saw service in the Falklands in three of the Black Buck missions.

XM597 was different to other Vulcans in that she had wing pylons fitted. These carried up to four Shrike anti-radar missiles (previously for Skybolt) and were used during these missions.

XM597 next to a Blue Steel Stand off missile

Her first mission, Black Buck 4, was cancelled due to a faulty refuelling drogue on a Victor tanker. On the Black Buck 5 mission, on 31st May 1982, the Vulcan took off once again, over the target she fired two missiles causing some minor damage to an Argentinian Radar installation.

On mission six, XM597 returned to the Falklands again armed with more Shrike anti-radar missiles. Two missiles were launched and the enemy ground-based radar was destroyed. On the return leg of the mission though, a planned rendezvous with a Victor tanker went wrong when the refuelling probe on the Vulcan became damaged. With too little fuel to get home to Ascension Island, the Pilot, Squadron Leader Neil McDougall, diverted to the only airfield he could possibly reach before running out of fuel. Climbing high and jettisoning the remaining two weapons (one failed to release and remained on the pylon), he carefully nursed the Vulcan to Rio de Janeiro where he landed safely and where the aircraft, her crew, and the remaining missile were impounded for nine days before being released.

One of the conditions of the release however, was that XM597 took no further part in the conflict with Argentina and that the rogue missile stayed in Brazil. XM597 later retired to the East Fortune collection in 1984, with her two missile strikes painted on her nose*³.

The under wing pylons that carried the Shrike Anti Radar missiles.

The military collection at East Fortune is, like the civil collection, filled with unique and historically important aircraft. A range that stems from the Second World War through the Cold War and on to modern conflicts and models, it is a dynamic collection of aircraft that just cannot fail to impress.

Sources and Further Reading.

*³ Royal Air Force Website – Operation ‘Black Buck’.