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Tizer
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21/12/2007
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11:56
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I have uploaded my first picture to the Barlick site I hope to be able to add it in this thread if/when it gets approval from Doc. It is a postcard from the 1940s entitled Winged Heroes and showing Hawker Hurricanes. (The picture is in the next post if you are on page 1 of the thread; if you are on another page you need to go back tp page 1 to see it.)
Please feel free to add your own stories, pictures or comments regarding everything to do with aeroplanes and their pilots, both past and present.
Edited by - Tizer on 11/11/2010 15:11:42
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softsuvner
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Posted - 07/01/2008 : 18:28
RR
The Hopkins, "The World's Fastest Indian" film got excellent reviews over here, and I bought the DVD as soon as it came out (no cinema in my town now). That got me to buy the book (which my Dad seems to have acquired on loan!) which fills in a lot of the detail. What imediately chimed with me was Bert Munro's habit of turning off the car radio when he got into someone else's car. Tim Hanna was presenting this as an amiable eccentricity. It is just what I do when I share one of the firm's vehicles! I felt like I wanted to write to Hanna and say: " if you ever start to lose your hearing in one ear, you will understand why Bert used to do this!"
Anybody who hasn't seen the film, do try it. Minimal sex, no aliens, serial killers or CGI special effects, you don't even have to know about bikes - a real feel-good film in the best possible way.
Malcolm
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softsuvner
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Posted - 07/01/2008 : 18:30
By The Way
Coolest thing in the film is Bert's T-Shirt which says "Even Dirty Old Men need Love!".
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Ribble Rouser
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Posted - 07/01/2008 : 18:43
Waddaya mean, minimal sex? I thought some of the highlights of the film were the scenes of old Bert and his girlfriends. He had a way with engines and he had a way with the ladies. Firstly, I thought it was brave of the film makers to portray this aspect of Bert...oldies having sex on screen seems to be taboo, for some reason. Lifestyle Nazis. Secondly, yours truly now lives in hope. Yes, I agree about the scene when Burt tuned off the radio. I thought the director missed the point entirely. I thought Bert wanted to listen to the engine.
it's bums that count 'ere; not 'ats |
softsuvner
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Posted - 07/01/2008 : 22:06
Minimal by modern standards. Yes, you are right, old age nookie is a bit of a taboo these days. This film struck just the right balance. Mind you, as the book makes clear, Bert was a womaniser all his adult life and it didn't help his marriage.
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Ribble Rouser
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 04:26
Yes, quite tastefully done. Just stirring the pot. What a case he was. Got a lot of time for the naughty boy and the naughty girl...so long as nobody gets really hurt...
it's bums that count 'ere; not 'ats |
jmross1
New Member
25 Posts
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 06:16
Hi there,
I just stepped into this 'boys own zone'. I know nothing about planes of any description, but I travel a lot for work and just wanted to put in my 2 bobs worth and say how proud I always was as a kid that Barlick's own Rolls Royce factory, made the engines of the fighter planes for ww2 (at least that's what I was told!).
I do travel many Kilometers for work all around Australia and I still feel that same sense of pride all over again when I look out the window and see that comforting RR moniker at the end of the wing on the Qantas jet, I never feel quite as safe when it says GE instead (not a fan of Jack Welch)!
My only foray into anything military was to downsize the RNZAF 2 days before 9/11. Not pretty! Some hilarious stories however.
I'll just tiptoe back out of here now!!!!
Cheers,
Jill
Edited by - jmross1 on 08/01/2008 06:19:14 AM
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Ribble Rouser
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 06:49
Hey Jill...surely not an exclusive 'boys own' zone...I hope I am not writing out of turn if I observe that your contribution is most welcome. I think the pride and interest at the connection between Rolls Royce and Barlick is a common thread amongst us. It has certainly helped shape my life. You might like to know that the RR turbofan engines on the flying kangaroos, that give you a sense of security, are likely to have a model number prefixed RB _ _ _ _ _ _, which stands for Rolls Barnoldswick…cementing the connection between manufacturer and place.
As for those hilarious stories about downsizing RNZAF???
Edited by - Ribble Rouser on 08/01/2008 06:50:55
it's bums that count 'ere; not 'ats |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 08:39
You've tweaked him Jill...... Do tell!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 10:38
"My only foray into anything military was to downsize the RNZAF 2 days before 9/11"- Jill, I assume you are not suggesting a cause and effect relationship here.
(And as for boys' own zone, you've brought the thread back on course - thanks! )
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softsuvner
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 19:15
Jill
Don't worry about boy's own zone, and nobody here really worries about on topic or off...........If you have some good stories to tell, we are all ears!
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jmross1
New Member
25 Posts
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Posted - 08/01/2008 : 23:42
Actually I'm sorry guys! I went to recount a couple of stories and remembered the confidentiality agreement I'd signed!
I'll have to catch up with you in the Greyhound when I come back to Barlick in August and share my those of my experiences that I can there instead!
Didn't mean to be all PC about 'boyz own zone', it was just a light throw away line - you're actually all very inclusive on OG!
Cheers,
Jill
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Tizer
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Posted - 09/01/2008 : 19:59
This is a photo I took a couple of years ago of the cockpit of the aircraft identified as "Vickers-Supermarine Type 356 Spitfire F.Mk.24 serial no. PK683" and which is displayed at the Southampton Hall of Aviation, UK.
The Hall's web page says: "The Spitfire F.Mk.24 was the last version of this famous fighter, it was developed by the Supermarine design team at Hursley Park, near Winchester and appeared in 1946 as a long-range, fighter-bomber development of the Mark 22 from which it differed in having a 24 volt electrical system, rear fuselage fuel tanks, and provision for underwing rockets, some aircraft also had the short barrelled, electrically fired Hispano Mk.V* cannon, and all Mk.24s had the enlarged tail unit designed for the Spiteful. In common with all Mk.21 and later Spitfires it featured the new, blunt-tipped wing with long span ailerons and it was powered by a Rolls Royce Griffon 61 engine driving a five-bladed propeller."
The cockpit seemed to be left open for anyone to look inside (but not climb in!) and it brought back memories for my Dad who was an armourer in WWII. The museum has many exhibits packed into a small space and is very worthwhile visiting. Further details of this specific aeroplane are given on the web page:
http://www.spitfireonline.co.uk/popup/other3.html
Edited by - Tizer on 09/01/2008 20:04:46
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Tizer
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Posted - 09/01/2008 : 20:11
This photo is of an aeroplane engine which has been cut open to show the inside works. It is displayed at the Southampton Hall of Aviation, UK. I took the photo myself but regret that I did not note the engine type! I presume it is a radial engine and probable 1930s or earlier. A number of other engines are on show at the museum and there are photos of them on the web site but I could not see this one among them.
Further details of the museum are available at http://www.spitfireonline.co.uk
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Ribble Rouser
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Posted - 09/01/2008 : 22:28
Tizer. You don’t half like posting some brain teasers.
If you look carefully at the photograph titled 'Alvis Leonides Major' on the Solent Sky Museum website, I think you will find that it is the same engine you have photographed. The different angles and distances from subject are potentially confusing, as is the fact that they are displayed differently. But if you look carefully at details of: the propeller; propeller boss; (what I think is) the fuel supply line (the looped tube around the front of the cylinder bank); the hose clamps on the pushrod tubes; and the missing pushrod tubes, I think you will agree that you have photographed the same engine.
But the problem is, the engine photographed on the museum website seems to be incorrectly identified. The Alvis Leonides Major was a 14 cylinder two-row radial engine. In other words, it had two banks of 7 cylinders, one behind the other. The engine in the website photograph has, on my count, 9 cylinders, which also matches your photograph. I think it is an Alvis Leonides 9 cylinder single-row radial engine. This engine was developed from the late 1930s and went into production from the second half of the 1940s until the mid 1960s. It powered aircraft like the: Percival Prince, Pembroke and Provost; Scottish Aviation Pioneer and Twin Pioneer; Westland Dragonfly and Widgeon; and the Bristol Sycamore. The Leonades Major was more powerful, developed in the early 1950s and was mainly used in the Westland Whirlwind. Waddaya reckon?
And guess what? The only surviving Gloster Gauntlet of the Finnish Air Force Museum has been re-engined with an Alvis Leonides, replacing the original Bristol Mercury donk, which partly explains some of the surviving aircraft’s difference in appearance around the engine cowling.
Re the Gauntlet/South African link. I found this snippet on the web:
“The Gauntlet was also used by the 1 and 2 SAAF Squadrons against the Italians in East Africa in 1940-41. In the beginning of 1941, 2 SAAF Squadron still had three Gauntlets on strength, one of which was in such bad shape that it was cannibalised for spares. It is believed that these aircraft had previously served with 430 Flight, since the records of this latter unit ceased after the autumn of 1940.”
Another possibility for the photo you have of 111 Squadron RAF Gauntlets turning up in SA?
it's bums that count 'ere; not 'ats |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 10/01/2008 : 09:12
Loved the pic of the Spitfire cockpit because it looks as though I have a spare compass if they ever need it! I got this on a job lot of workshop bits and never really knew the origin apart from the Air Ministry markings. Apart from a bubble in the fluid it still works perfectly. If only it could talk........
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Winged Heroes
