Duxford 18.7.25

I was heading to an annual camping weekend on Friday and made sure I had enough time to call in to Duxford to check out the latest episode of musical chairs in the Super Hangar since I was there in May and anything else of interest. Most of the aircraft in the super hangar were in different positions but I don't know if further changes are afoot. However, as the rumoured theme of the hangar is to be Cold War I am assuming the the Swordfish and two WWI biplanes will be moved. Elsewhere the Canberra sits out on the jet pan with a move to RAFM awaited. The Comet and Dove are now with the other airliners and the Lysander recently acquired bt TFC from Belgium with a rumoured restoration to airworthy status could be found with the resident flying aircraft collection, at least the fuselage and one wing was anyway. No visible progress on the Beau or CR42 as to be expected but the accident damaged Wildcat was the the Aerial Collective hangar looking in pretty good nick so hopefully it will be in the air again soon.

Merlin Heritage

A trip to a nearby Diy store ended up with this when the wingman asked if I had seen the aero engine across the road outside Hornby Hobbies. I had managed to miss it but parked up and went for a look. This late merlin would have come from an Avro Lincoln and is un full working order and a demo run was only 20 minutes away so we hung around.

Cheviot hills Memorial

There were a number of aircraft crashes in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland, during WWII often with multiple fatalities. Some years ago a memorial was erected relating to 19 such crashes, including a couple of Luftwaffe aircraft and it has been renovated in more recent times. The memorial is within the Northumberland National Park meaning taht you require a permit to visit in a car and we went to pay our respects a few days ago.

Armstrong Aviation Museum

Bamburgh castle in Northumberland is owned by the Armstrong family, the family with the engineering background that included Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Due to this a small area of the castle has been turned over to an aviation museum that includes a number of relics, some being A-W related such as Warwick fuselage wreckage and an Albemarle throttle quadrant but others such as a Spitfire section and Me110 tyres have been recovered from the local area. There are some pictures relating to the rest of the castle here.