Bedsheet Bomber

I visited Wings Museum in Sussex a little under two years ago and at the time I was fairly sure that I had spotted a B-25 Mitchell, or a good part of it, around the site. However, as it was not actually on display there was no information about it. 

Since then I have seen that the airframe is a B-25J built in early 1945. It did not see active service but was used for training and other roles before it was converted to a camera ship and came over to the UK for filming of The War Lover and then 633 Squadron.

Sadly after that the aircraft fell in to disrepair at Biggin Hill before going to a museum at Southend for a number of years. When the museum closed the aircraft went briefly to Duxford and then to North Weald where is was painted up as 'Bedsheet Bomber'. The aircraft did not fare particularly well at  North Weald and was then shipped out to North Coates followed by Wycombe Air Park for more proposed periods of display that actually ended up as further periods of neglect.

The aircraft has subsequently been acquired by Wings Museum for static restoration. When I saw it the aircraft was incomplete but the missing centre section and rear fuselage have now been acquired as well enabling a complete restoration to be carried out. There is even the possibility that it could be restored to ground running status but I imagine that is a way off.

Shuttleworth live

A little taste of the live action from last weekend.

Shuttleworth pt3

Not strictly part of the Fly Navy show are the aircraft in the hangars at Shuttleworth. The place is basically a living museum with most exhibits whether aircraft or vehicles being in working order. Some air shows some of these aircraft will be out on the flight line but for the Fly Navy show they were tucked away forming part of the general museum.

Shuttleworth Fly Navy pt2

Contributing to a great air show is of course some great flying so here are a few shots of the aerial action from Sunday.

Shuttleworth Fly Navy pt1

As mentioned in a couple of posts below, yesterday was the Shuttleworth Fly Navy show and was my first visit to Shuttleworth since 2017 and I was reminded what a great venue it is for an air show. There is a great museum on site full of airworthy aircraft, a restoration workshop where work in progress on aircraft that will return to the air can be checked out and a viewing area that is close enough to the grass run way not to need a mega zoom to catch the flying display.

The event management was seemingly caught out by too many people arriving 'early' although in this instance 'early' was well over an hour after gates opened but it did lead to some slow queues early on whilst they sorted themselves out. But we were in long before flying started giving plenty of time for a look around and the event was made better still as we shared a good part of the day with my man Gaz along with Mrs Gaz. A shower later on put a literal dampener on things for a while but it brightened up again and we enjoyed a post show drink in the sunshine.

As is often the way there were a couple of tech issues with the Bristol Fighter starting up but not flying due to a magneto problem, The Wildcat taking off to perform with the Corsair and Bearcat not to be seen again and the Gladiator staying on the ground, as did the Boxkite and the really old contingent but no surprises there as the weather really needs to be perfect for them to go aloft.

Anyway, here are some shots of static stuff to get started.

RAF Detling

The former airfield at Detling, near to Maidstone in Kent, dates back to 1916 when it was RNAS Detling. It was closed to military flying in 1919 but was used by Short Bros for test flying. However, come 1938 the airfield was reactivated as RAF Detling under Coastal Command control. It suffered several heavy bombing raids during the Battle of Britain although it served mainly as a stopping off point for fighters rather than as an operational base but did become a Fighter Command airfield ahead of D-Day.

However, being a grass runway its operational days were numbered and flying ceased by the end of 1944. There was some use by RAF and civilian gliding schools post war but the RAF disposed of the field and all flying ceased in 1959. There is now some light industry at one end of the old airfield but the site serves mainly as a show ground for agricultural fairs and the like.

An impressive memorial to the airfield was erected near the village some years ago.