Another iconic war bird was the Bristol Blenheim which at the start of WW2 was one of the fastest bombers.
A good friend who was in the upper turret in the last UK Blenheim which crashed at an airshow many years ago which nearly cost him his life, hand built this one shown at Duxford on the video.
In building it from scratch, he managed to salvage the front MK1 cockpit from a man who had converted it into a car............incredible story, and what a lovely aircraft.
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'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
Heres the converted car built by a former Bristol employee Ralph Nelson, that Smudger Smith (shown) used and built the cockpit on the finished aircraft shown on the video, amazing feat of engineering.
Luckily, Ralph had left the controls in place when he built his car, otherwise it would all have been guess work as no plans survived the war
Last edited by Gil Boyd; 02-28-2019 at 07:46 AM.
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
Yes the later fighter variant was more ergonimically aeronautical with that large indentation by the pilot.
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
GeeRam,
Absolutely correct about the photo. John and I go back years as we were both Principal Technical Officers in the Police.
I marvel at his expertise. He has just finished building a Lysander which they recovered from a Canadian Prairie.
I only wish he would write what he does down somewhere, so future generations can marvel at his brilliance. Great bloke, great memories together in the Police!
I often think as a lad growing up playing on old WW2 aircraft piled up ready for scrapping on various RAF stations around the world, and why such things are so hard to find now. Beverly's/Ansons/Varsitys/ etc
Last edited by Gil Boyd; 03-02-2019 at 08:20 AM.
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
GeeRam,
I only wish he would write what he does down somewhere, so future generations can marvel at his brilliance.
Its being passed on at ARCo. John Romain learnt as an apprentice at deHaviland, and has made a point of creating apprentice positions at ARCo so that his and Smudge's skill sets are passed onto a younger generation.
Great indepth interview article about John and ARCo here: