|
Lockheed P2V-7 Between February and May 1958 |
De Havilland Devon Between February and May 1958 |
Lockheed P2V-7 Between February and May 1958 |
I moved to Farnborough from London in September 1949 two years after my father began work at the
National Gas Turbine Establishment at Pyestock and I was very soon
taken to see the flying display. One of my earliest memories of
flying at Farnborough was of the Bristol Brabazon dropping rapidly as it flew in
a southerly direction over Cove Green, otherwise known as The Rec and scattered
me and my friends in all directions as it frightened the life out of us. We
definitely thought it was going to crash. I also remember the enormous Saunders
Roe Princess flying boat traversing the same route but looking rather more
secure. Memory says I saw both over The Rec the same year and Alan Lathan says
that if that is the case it could only have been 1952.
Grammar School boys were generally quite keen on cycling, well apart from homework
there wasn’t much else to do. Many would congregate on The Rec and from there
ride around aimlessly hoping that something interesting would happen. Unless we chose
to ride six-abreast around the Cove one-way system and were spotted by a copper,
nothing ever did. Maybe Michael Day shooting at the spokes of our wheels when we
passed his house in Minley Road should have been seen as excitement but he was a
menace. Just once I lost my temper with him and took part in my one and only F.G.S.
fight. I laid into him in a blind rage and against the odds got the better of him to
the amazement of the ring of onlookers who always surrounded such breaks in the
monotony of life. He never shot his air-gun at me again.
One reason to be cycling along Minley Road was that it led to one of the few
places providing free entertainment, the airport alongside the A30 road. Several ex-F.G.S. lads have
mentioned this mainstay in their lives and spoken fondly of their time spent at Blackbushe.
Alan Lathan says he often lurked in what passed for a Departure Lounge.
I remember it myself but he went one further than most, he saw Douglas Bader in there
and cadged free flights and looks around the control tower. Lucky beggar!
All I did along with David Brimelow, Alan Parkes and Lin
Pratt and others was point my camera at passing aircraft. We took a big telescope up there once,
a big brass thing we in ignorance thought had been nicked by someone’s uncle as
a memento from some warship or other. We mounted it on its stand and pointed it
at a plane the other side of the field. All we saw was black, the damn thing
didn’t appear to work. However we eventually discovered it was black because by
chance the telescope was pointed at the wall of one of the aircraft tyres. It
wasn’t a naval telescope, it was an astronomical one with some crazy degree of
magnification.
Alan Lathan is one of a small number who have asked to see my old Blackbushe
photos. Unfortunately they are rather rubbishy, including as they do the very
first film I ever took and processed in the half light of my parent’s dining
room in Cove using totally inadequate equipment. They are displayed below, warts
and all, for Alan’s amusement; he is still involved with aircraft. With him
looking over my shoulder I am not going to name the aircraft, even though in
most cases I think I could. I can put approximate dates on them because
each of my processed films was marked with the date of development and the
display below is in chronological order. To me it is interesting to see it
confirmed that I carried on cycling to Blackbushe after moving to Church Crookham
in November 1958. I remember that the hill on that route just before Blackbushe was
much steeper than the one in Minley Road.
Unlike the rest of this site, the structure of which was decided when
broadband connections were almost unknown, clicking on the image will reveal the larger
versions in blocks of 24 pictures. i.e. clicking on any of the first 24 images
will display all 24 in the larger format instead of just the one which was more
appropriate to the days of dial-up internet. As grammar school boys you don’t
need me to tell you what happens if you click on image 25. To return to this
page click on any of the larger pictures.
Alan Lathan has provided the main descriptions which appear under the larger images.
The dates on this page are as marked on the developed film which is generally
the month of development of that film and only loosely related to the date of the
photograph. Some photographs were not taken at Blackbushe and are marked
accordingly.
Malcolm Knight : February 2011
|
Lockheed P2V-7 Between February and May 1958 |
De Havilland Devon Between February and May 1958 |
Lockheed P2V-7 Between February and May 1958 |
|
Vickers Viking : Independent Air Transport Between February and May 1958 |
Handley Page Hermes : Airwork Between February and May 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways Between February and May 1958 |
|
Lin Pratt breaking the rules Between February and May 1958 |
DC-3 : Ariana May 1958 |
DC-3 : Ariana May 1958 |
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Vickers Viking : Hunting-Clan May 1958 |
Handley Page Hermes : Britavia May 1958 |
Avro York : Dan-Air May 1958 |
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Beech 51054 and FT109 R4D-8 August 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
|
Handley Page Hermes : Airwork August 1958 |
R5D-2 US Navy (Colombus) August 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
|
Vickers Varsity August 1958 |
Douglas DC-3 : Derby Airways August 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
|
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
Lord Hood, Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
Gloster Meteor August 1958 |
|
Vickers Viking : Independent Airways August 1958 |
Bristol Freighter : Dan Air August 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Airwork August 1958 |
|
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways August 1958 |
Handley Page Hermes : Airwork August 1958 |
Vickers Viscount : Airwork September 1958 |
|
Beech
SNB-5 US Navy September 1958 |
G-AODG (or H) Vickers Viscount 736 : Airwork September 1958 |
DC-6 : Eagle Airways November 1958 |
|
TV958 De Havilland Mosquito November 1958 |
Vickers Viking : Eagle Airways January 1959 |
Douglas R5D-2 US Navy January 1959 |
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Handley Page Hermes : Britavia January 1959 |
Percival Prince, Sperry Gyroscope January 1959 |
BEA Viscount 802 January 1959 |
|
Douglas DC-6 : Eagle Airways January 1959 |
Vickers Viscount : Hunting-Clan January 1959 |
Vickers Viscount : Hunting-Clan January 1959 |
|
Douglas DC-4 : Saudi Arabian Airways March or April 1959 |
Handley Page Hermes : Airwork March or April 1959 |
Argonaut : BOAC March or April 1959 |
|
Percival Proctor March or April 1959 |
Vickers Viscount : North East Airlines March or April 1959 |
Handley Page Hermes : Airwork March or April 1959 |
|
G-APKW de Havilland Heron March or April 1959 |
DC-6 : Eagle Airways March or April 1959 |
Vickers Viking - Pegasus March or April 1959 |
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Curtiss C-46 Commando March or April 1959 |
Curtiss C-46 Commando March or April 1959 |
Douglas R5D-3 US Navy March or April 1959 |
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Miles Gemini March or April 1959 |
Miles Gemini May 1959 |
English Electric Canberra August 1958 : Farnborough |
|
D H Rapide G-AHXW still flying. See
Youtube video. August 1958 : Probably Farnborough |
Avro Vulcan August 1958 : Farnborough |
Hawker Hunter August 1958 : Probably Farnborough |
|
General view including Viscount (left) June 1959 : Heathrow |
Douglas DC-7: Swissair June 1959 : Heathrow |
Douglas DC-4 : Air France June 1959 : Heathrow |
