Recording the History - Recalling the Memories.
Interesting Related Artifacts, Stories and Trivia.
More Trivia. (Click image to enlarge)
I recently came across this insurance document for my first car, a 1938, 23 year old Standard 10 Saloon with a leaky sun roof. It cost me £20 in 1961.
I was still in training at RAF Locking at the time, and just 19 years old,
I thought £9.7.0 shillings was a bit steep for insurance even then.
(More than a weeks wages if I recall)
Were we really more sensible than a 19 year old boy driver today who could be paying well over a grand to insure his first car?
Probably. Cos’ as RAF Apprentices, we had to dress smartly in a Suit or Blazer, and drive with “due consideration for others”, and not bring the RAF into disrepute.
On this page are images of Interesting Artifacts or articles or stories, about Missiles, Rockets or Aircraft etc etc.
In fact about anything that fly’s or has a connection with Aberporth, BAC, (Now BAE), Ferranti etc etc.
Input or Images are welcome from you our visitors with an interesting story to tell.
Please Click the “Contact Mike” page for details.
I acquired this Tankard that came to light at an Antiques Fair in Kent.
It is inscribed with a sport and the name of the 3rd RAF Aberporth Station Commander, Sqn/Ldr K O Sayers who took over the Station in April 1943, over 70 years ago.
Sqn/Ldr Sayers formed, and was the CO of, 595 Sqdn until he was posted away in August 1945.
Even in the midst of war, time was found for sport.
His name can be seen on the list of Station Commanders by Clicking “A History of RAF Aberporth”. Mike
To read the full inscription, Click the image above.
Everyone knows the official RAF tie (far left). However, in 1969 Flt Lt Jim Muir oversaw the design of the Bloodhound Firing Unit Tie.
Above (2nd left) is the design on paper, and then as was actually produced. The design has the lengthened Mk2 mainbody section embroidered.
In 1965, we had the go ahead from BAC to wear the “official” Filton” designed tie with yellow missiles covering the whole tie.
Both ties still cause curious enquiry if worn by myself just to be different for the odd occasion nowadays.
It would be a BIG coincidence to come across someone else wearing one.
This is the story of the “Filton Clock”, made from the
Wing Root Hub of a Bloodhound Missile in 1975.
It is billed in the Bristol Aero Collection as the "Ultimate foreigner".
(Which is factory parlance for an unnofficial item made on the factory premises for home consumption.)
The clock is Based on the Wing Root Hub of a Bloodhound Missile Wing, and was made by a member of the Woomera test firing team.
(The wing itself was recovered from a firing.)
The story is etched around the clock face. Features are difficult to make out in the photograph’s shown without much increasing the image file size.
At 12 oclock. Tempus Fugit.
At 2 oclock. A Bloodhound Mk2 on the Launcher.
At 3 oclock, The Missile in flight.
At 4 oclock, The Missile Wing.
At 5 oclock, A view of the very Wing Root Hub
At 6oclock, His name and the date it was made.
At 7 oclock, The church in Gloucestershire where he was a bell ringer.
(The wood for the case came from the bell frame during restoration of the church.)
At 8 oclock Parts of the Fusee Clock Mechanism were recovered from an old time “Clocking In” Machine.
At 9 oclock Carsons Chocolate factory in Bristol. where the Clocking In Machine came from.
Now comes the best bit. In the BAC factory at Filton, he raised a spurious Job Number on works drawing sheets, and then had various clock parts made in the machine shop, listed as “Guided Weapons Parts” and then sent on to his office, where he then constructed the “Clock”, which is now part of the Bristol Aero Collection.
It’s funny how life turns out.
One of the RAF Locking Apprentice members caught on my Kodak camera in this 1960 photograph, back row, eventually became a GP, and another, on the front row, became an Air Commodore.
I, your host, standing far left aged 18, left the RAF as a Chief Technician in 1975 and over the years, ended up a “small businessman” and an employer of six people.
Still am to this day. Mike
The following items of trivia are just helping fill out the page until something more interesting turns up..
Above are three slightly different images of a Bloodhound Missile Wind Tunnel Test model acquired from BAC in 1977 and mounted as a display piece.
Courtesy of Tom Hobbs.
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