Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Answers later this evening to Posts by Mantis (excellent, only 50% right, but thank you), Sicilian, Flushy (a Post I just don't understand) & others.

But first, something completely different.

When I was working, (proper work), I made mental notes of all the things I wanted to do when I retired fom work, the list must be hundreds of items long. I've failed, almost totally, in nearly 5 years thus far, to address the list, so far, anyway, & if I die before I get through the list, I'm going to be seriously annoyed for weeks on end, if not longer.

One of those "wish list" things was to visit Duxford Air Musuem. I drove past it on the M11 hundreds of times, & always yearned to drop in & take a look.

Today, stlll in sort of shock from my bizarre donking off of so many chips last night - hey, I expect to make Day Two of these things, & can grind away with a short-stack for ever, but I got rid off a huge stack with Flushy-like speed  - I decided, on impulse, to go & visit Duxford.

My first shock was that it's not, technically, an Air Museum at all - it's "The Imperial War Museum". But it was mostly flying things, 'planes in the main, but Helicopters, missiles, all sorts.

A huge Car Park troubled me - this looked a bit "corporate" for my liking, but in fact the whole place was magnificent, beautifully laid out, excellent Exhibit Signage, you can get right up to, & touch even, the aeroplanes & stuff, there are plenty & varied cafeterias, semi-themed, & oodles & oodles of space, so although there were a lot of people there, it seemed almost empty.

I was a bit taken aback at first by the Entrance Fee (kids get in free), £16, but then I rationalised it - it probably costs twice that to watch a Premiership Football match, or even Spurs, so it's quite reasonable really.

There were hundreds & hundreds of Boy Scouts there, too, all splendidly uniformed & well-behaved, with their green shirts & yellow neckerchiefs, with leather toggles. It seemed odd - I don't quite know why - to see them wearing denim jeans, somehow incongrous.

Lots of ancient - 1930's - aeroplanes were taking off & landing, they have a grass runway, which the old 'planes used, &, I assume, a "proper" paved Landing-Strip. The engine noise of those old planes is superb.

An intended hour became 4 hours, & it was very memorable indeed. It's really "respect to our War Veterans", & for that, it is a wonderful place. It's sort of self-funded, whilst the Government blow hundreds of £millioins away on the ridiculous Millenium Dome.

Annoyingly (for me, luckily for you), my Camera ran out of battery, so not many pictures. I need to charge my camera battery about once a month, for an hour, & I cannot even organise that. Sheesh.

So, look away now, half-a-dozen pictures to follow.

[tikay]

I'm not sure what this is - a De Havilland perhaps - but it's very evocative.

British European Airways did what it said on the side, flew all over Europe. They later became known as BEA.

BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation became BOAC, & later, BEA & BOAC merged into "British Airways" (later, "BA"),  & were privatised in the early eighties I think - which is when I purchased my BA Shares. So I've had plenty of time to rue that Share purchase, & still have those Shares - about 2,000 I think.

BOAC had a terminal in Knightsbridge, of all places, (or was it Kensington?), & they ran a fleet of beautiful double-decker coaches from there to Heathrow. I must try & find a pic of one on google images.

[tikay]

Hard to find a decent pic of those old BOAC Coaches, but I will eventully, this one will have to do for now.

They were deemed very futuristic at the time, & have become collectors pieces now.

[tikay]

I can't remember what this was, either - perhaps a Shackelton Bomber? - but it was huge. (Look at the bloke stood to the side of it).

Imagine how brave you had to be to sit in that bomb turret (?) at the very front, armed with just those two machine-guns. Fun, yes, scary, very. I'd have fought in the war had I been there, but only because of fear of ridicule by others - I'd have been absolutely bricking it.

[tikay]

A very moody ( = bad) picture of Concorde, which is much bigger than you imagine, the scale of modern aeroplanes is deceptive, because we usually see them from afar.

You could go inside this one, or gaze at it from a first-floor viewig balcony, above, & the wingspan is massive.

By the way, there is a Concorde permanently parked in the BA Maintenance Compound at Heathrow, (right opposite Jury's Hotel) if you ever want to see one of these wonderful machines close up. I parked up one day to have a look, & two coppers moved me on, with a patronising "we don't want to get a parking ticket, do we Sir?", to which I wanted to answer "sod off you tossers" but actually said "no Officer, thank you, thank you" & tipped my cap in deference to their incredible mind-reading ability.

[tikay]

Here's one "leg" of a Concorde landing-gear, the tyres were as high as my waist.

[tikay]

And this is the underside of Concorde. I have watched Concorde fly thousands of times, but was shocked at it's "real-life" size. The engine pods, or nacelles, were about 4 metres long, & they have 4 of them!

[tikay]

This is a Wessex Helicopter, rotors safely "parked".

What a machine! Very nuts & boltsy, but these things have walked the walk, talked th talk, & flown tens of thousands of missions.

Incredibly ugly, yet beautiful too. I'd not go in one willingly, though. Again, much bigger than I'd ever imagined.

[tikay]

But this - in the the camaflouge paintwork - was the Star of the Show for me - an AVRO Vulcan. Been around donkeys years, & were virtully retired by the time of the Falklands war, but they flew those incredible air-to-air refuelling missions to service Victor Bombers en route to the Falklands, so excitingly described in the book Vulcan 607" (?).

Again, the size was a shock - those delta wings are so big you could play football on them.

No computerised flying gear on these brutes, they must have needed fettling, & real "feel" to fly. Magnificent things.

[tikay]

A Polaris Missile. These could be air, sea, or land-launched.

I wonder how the mind of those who design these things works?

"If I make it a bit bigger, I could kill another few hundred civilians".....

[pokerfan]

A Polaris Missile. These could be air, sea, or land-launched.

I wonder how the mind of those who design these things works?

"If I make it a bit bigger, I could kill another few hundred civilians".....

not sure the mind works in hundreds

[tikay]

The "Control Tower". There must have been hundreds of these at airfields across the UK during the war.

Functional, no frills, probably heated by a 2 bar electric fire. Did the job though, or, rather, the men & women inside it did.

[tikay]

Contrast that Control Tower, with this stunningly beautiful building, designed & paid for by the US Military I assume, (they can just print the money to build these things), it's the "Duxford American Museum".

It sort of "emerges" from the ground, & I thought it was quite splendid.

[maccol]

Did you go inside Concorde Tikay?
I thought it was surprisingly cramped for its "luxury" tag ,but what a beautiful piece of design and engineering

[tikay]

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