Fnurban #33 : A Fine Day at Duxford

Until last week, I had never been to IWM Duxford - I'm really not sure why, given that the childhood  me was pretty much obsessed with aeroplanes, having picked up Biggles in Borneo from the mobile library that visited our village school, aged about eight. That was the first of many such books that I positively devoured in the next two or three years.. 

Recently an old friend of mine suggested visiting Duxford, and I thought 'why not' - it's only about an hour's drive from home, so an easy journey.  Well, we got there about 10:30, and were still there pretty much when the place closed at 6pm - clearly there was plenty to see!  I'll include a selection of the (probably far too many) photos that I took during the day. 

The displays are divided between several different sheds and halls, plus a number of aircraft parked outside. We visited most, but not all, areas - first up was the 'Flying Aircraft' sheds. As the name makes obvious, these are the hangars for aircraft which are in flying condition. This was very interesting, as several of the aircraft were being worked on, with engine covers etc removed - best example of this was the Gloster Gladiator:

does this bloke have a dream job, or what?

 

As I've said in a previous post, I've long been fascinated with the defence of Malta 1940-1942, so it was great to see a Gladiator - and it's clearly able to fly, so might see that one day too! 

There were no less than three of the Curtiss Hawk family : a P-36, a Curtiss 75 in French markings, and a nice  P-40C 'Tomahawk' undergoing maintenance.

 Also a P-47 Thunderbolt - it's a big brute of a machine, I'd quite like to see that flying. 

One point that really struck me about the 'flying condition' section  was the sheer number of Spitfires!  When I was a child, I remember going to an air display at Rochester airport where the star attracton was a Spitfire Mk IX  (painted as 'Johnnie' Johnson's 'J-EJ', just like the Airfix kit!)  which was thrilling to see, and I'm pretty sure was billed as either the only flying Spitfire, or one of just  two or three in the world. . Fast forward several decades, and if you'll excuse the poor  picture composition,  on a random day at Duxford you can chance upon a hangar  like this: 

 

Ok, so that's a Mustang at the back, but I can count 4 'Spits' here, and we'd already seen several in previous rooms. I suspect Duxford could now muster a squadron of them! Interesting how the restoration of vintage ( and especially WW2 ) aircraft has become a small industry - and I am told that owning one will cost you a few million.  Perhaps there was always  a demand waiting to be met, once restorers worked out that the task was practicable?   

Of course there is a 'Battle of Britain' display - appropriate as Duxford was a Fighter Command sector station at the time ( home to Douglas Bader's wing ) and was also used for filming the 1969 movie. And of course, there is a Spitfire:

  

If I recall correctly, we were told that this particular Spitfire is a Mk.1 which actually flew from Duxford, force-landed near Dunkirk and was recovered from the sea decades later and restored.

Of course there must be a Hurricane, also: 

 

and from the other team, an Me 109E - which had force-landed in England during the battle, and been subsequently put on show around the country to raise funds for the war. 

.   The next building we visited was the American Hall, which displays a collection of US military aircraft from WW1 to the present day - and it's quite something! It's a very big space, but it is absolutely packed with aircraft:

As you can see they have a B-17 Flying Fortress in there, and a B-24 Liberator - I was interested to see those,as both types operated from the air station near my home ( RAF Sudbury as it was known ), the runways of which can still be seen today.  They were impressive, but I have to say they looked a bit small compared to some of the other exhibits! In the same hall there is a B-29 Superfortress - significantly bigger - but even that is dwarfed by the B-52 Stratofortress, which is simply huge, and I suspect the Hall may have been effectively built around it!  You can see the cockpit windshield, one wing and a couple of its eight engines in the first picture, but there was just no way to get a view of the whole aircraft, it's too big! .  I rather loved the juxtaposition of the SPAD from  1917 with the F-4 Phantom and the B-52 - the development of American air power in one picture.  All sorts of other aircraft were packed in there: P-47, P-51, B-25, C-47, F-111,  F-15, A-10, to name a few, and not forgetting the SR-71 Blackbird.  Quite something to see! 

Not to be outdone,  the history of  British aviation is of course represented, in the other big hall named 'Airspace'. We were running out of time by this point, but here's an idea if it: 

 Yes, that is a Concorde at the back - and the rear end of a Sunderland in the middle. Lots more to see here. Fro now, there's one more really 'big bird' to show - the Handley Page Victor 

 I gather this has been a major restoration project in recent years (though I suspect not to flying condition), and it is currrently parked in its own hall in the Airspace building - this is quite a surreal experience as one wanders into a truly huge 'room',  in which a pretty  huge aircraft only takes up a small proportion of the space. And because there's nothing else in the room,  there's nothing else to give you a sense of scale - it all feels a little unreal. Amazing to see it, though, and I wonder how it is going to be permanently displayed. 

Finally a few more gratuitous plane pics from the 'old and interesting' categories :  going back to Biggles, I was pleased to see several aircraft from 1914-1918.  A Bristol Fighter, for instance :

 ..and a Be2 : another example of decades of history in one  picture, with the Hawker Hunter and Tornado behind!

.   

And from memory, we also spotted an RE 8,  and a DH 9 - and there was a flying replica Fokker Triplane!  

Slightly more modern now : I had never seen one of these in person before.  MiG 21 'Fishbed', a surprisingly large 'plane. I think this was formerly with an Eastern European air force of the Warsaw Pact era.    

  

And not forgetting the goings-on outside the static exhibition halls - I thought the (almost constant) comings and goings of flying aircraft added an extra dimension (quite literally!) to the day. There were modern light aircraft visiting,  there were 'joy-rides' available ( I think ) from a Tiger Moth, a DH Dragon Rapide, and the two-seater Sptifire - I presume at a corresponding range of prices! Also  a varying selection of interesting aircraft tantalisingly lined-up on the grass, some of which obligingly took to the air - and it seemed to be obligatory for any vintage fighter plane to complete its flight by a low-level pass to 'beat-up' the airfield! In between halls, it was great to just stop a minute and see what was flying, and at all times the 'sound effects' were great!   Getting pictures of these - neccessarily distant and often fast-moving - proved not to be easy, but some of them stood still for the camera.

Given the local connection, it was great to see the B-17 'Memphis Belle' parked on the apron: 

 

And last but not least, with apologies for picture quality, here's a snapshot from the varying line-up of aircraft waiting their turn for a spin - nice juxtaposition of 'old enemies' now flying together :

 ( and yes, for the real nerds that is one of the ex-Spanish  Bf 109s with a Merlin engine..)

Well, now I think I may be said to have 'entertained us long enough', perhaps I'd better leave it there. As you can tell, that was a great day, and there's more to see - a whole hall of 'Land Warfare' which will no doubt be of interest(!), and all those British 'planes to have a proper look at, for example. Good job we took out annual membership... the plan is to go back fairly soon, while the weather is still good and the flying condtion aircraft are still active. So, watch this space.

In the meantime,  'in other news' so to speak, I was lucky to be invited to take part in another of Jon Freitag's remote games, this time the ECW battle of Cheriton, where I played to role of Sir Arthur Haselrige, no less. Jon will no doubt publish one of his excellent battle reports soon; in the meantime as a taster here is a picture he passed around after the game     

Cheriton 1644 : infantry contest the South Spur

 

The figures are ( I think )  30mm scale, and look lovely - and Jon was in constant danger of injuring his hand on the pikes!  I can't say Sir Arthur exaclty covered himslef in glory, but it was a great evening's gaming and sparked some good discussions. Many thanks again to Jon and the other players! 

Apart from the above I have been doing a bit of painting, slow but sure progress, and will show off the results soon.  Meanwhile, keep well everyone.