MILITARY GATE GUARDS

[Gil Boyd]

Beats this one from WW2 days at Duxford to try and fool the Germans, not sure what the silhoute looks like but it must have done the job, as they looked striaght down through a bomb sight from 14,000

[Brit plumber]

Oddly the gate guardians at Coningsby are a fair distance beyond the gate. They've got a Tonka and a Phantom and much further on site is an EE Lighting.

We have a Tornado F3 and a Phantom on the gate, a EE Lightning on XI Sqn (Not as good as it may look) and another EE Lightning on 29 Sqn. 41 have a Tornado Gr4 tail with art on it and also a Jag tail.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 PM ----------

I think that's a different Harrier to the one which James Dyson now owns because I believe his crashed in the Mediterranean while operating from HMS Invincible.

I'm pretty sure the Lowestoft Harrier would have been scrapped. When I saw it in the black top hangar at Wittering in 2005 it was dissolving from the salt corrosion and the cockpit had sheared off behind the EJ Seat. All the crash recovered Harriers were in that Hangar as the RAF didn't know how to dispose of them economically due to the large amount of Composites in the structure. Same as Typhoon, when DK crashed at China Lake, it was brought back to the UK in a C17 and its been sat around for the last 9 years with only about 23 flying hours consumed out of a life of 6000hrs. No one knows what to di with it.

[Flying10uk]

There was a Canberra and Lightening, as gate guards, outside the BAE Systems works on the A59 near Preston but the last time I went past only one of them was still in position. I forget which one was missing but perhaps it was being refurbished? Has anyone been past recently and seen both aircraft outside the site, once-more?

[Gil Boyd]

Do you mean what was called RAF Warton, the English Electric Lightening site?

[Flying10uk]

Yes I think so; I was told that it used to be the English Electric site. You can see the "Canberra" factory social club from the road.

[Gil Boyd]

We were in transit accomodation whilst my Dad was stationed there in 64-5. There was a Lightening on the gate I believe then, not sure whether its still there. That was the main aircraft being built there, but the TSR2 was undergoing trials at roughly the same time on the camp, especially noisy, which resinated through the nissen huts, something you don't forget easily as a youngster

[mrclark303]

We have a Tornado F3 and a Phantom on the gate, a EE Lightning on XI Sqn (Not as good as it may look) and another EE Lightning on 29 Sqn. 41 have a Tornado Gr4 tail with art on it and also a Jag tail.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 PM ----------



I'm pretty sure the Lowestoft Harrier would have been scrapped. When I saw it in the black top hangar at Wittering in 2005 it was dissolving from the salt corrosion and the cockpit had sheared off behind the EJ Seat. All the crash recovered Harriers were in that Hangar as the RAF didn't know how to dispose of them economically due to the large amount of Composites in the structure. Same as Typhoon, when DK crashed at China Lake, it was brought back to the UK in a C17 and its been sat around for the last 9 years with only about 23 flying hours consumed out of a life of 6000hrs. No one knows what to di with it.

I often wondered what happened to DK, it's a criminal waist of public money just leaving it damaged.. that said I bet that hanger queens been stripped of anything serviceable by now!

When you consider how long the Typhoons been in service, it's​ had an exceptional safety record with very few losses accross all users.

[Peter Laidler]

Believe me, when anything has been in the sea for more than a millisecond or so, it's FINISHED. You can hose it down, dunk it in the oil bath, bead blast it, pray over the volume of the sacred law............ It's finished. We have lost and recovered weapons from landing exercises, spent weeks in the mangrove swamps, lBedford 3 ton light recovery truck and land-rovers swamped while stuck, helicopter swamped after ditching in shallow sea, RAE D8 dozers drowned. They're finished and with a year, fit for scrap

[Flying10uk]

I remember years ago my father got talked into buying a Land Rover from a well known dealer, who will remain nameless, that had been used to launch lifeboats into the sea. There wasn't half panic in our household when it was discovered that the entire chassis had turned from steel into a crumbly biscuit type material. The shocking thing is that it had an MOT and it was a Land Rover dealer who sold it. Fortunately he did eventually get his money back but it wasn't an easy task.

[mrclark303]

Beats this one from WW2 days at Duxford to try and fool the Germans, not sure what the silhoute looks like but it must have done the job, as they looked striaght down through a bomb sight from 14,000

Probably did the job well with regard to Luftwaffe low level raiders too Gil, things look very different at low level and high speed, especially when an angry Bofors Gun is spitting angry hornets in your direction...