MOTE Men! Remember the hundreds of hours you spent setting these switches and twiddling these knobs? “Click” to enlarge.
What went on in Building 247 ?
If you trained on the Bloodhound Mk2 at RAF Newton, then spent part of your RAF career on the “MOTE” (Missile Overall Test Equipment), then the following three photographs of the MOTE will seem VERY familiar to you.
From the Swiss Bloodhound Museum & Karl Baer image collection.
Google “Karl Baer” for more .
It Snows a BIT in Switzerland!
Radar Type 87 at 112 Sqn RAF Episkopi with LCP |and Bloodhound Mk2 missile 1975
Mk2 waiting to go, on launchers at RAE Aberporth.
Circa Late 1960’s (Missiles still white in the 60’s.)
Great views of Cardigan Bay from here on the cliff tops.
The top Ramjet was painted with black squares so film and photo’s show which way up the missile is in flight.
Click Images below to enlarge.
This is the well known You Tube Swiss video of a Bloodhound Mk 2 Firing.
The T87 Radar and the launchers being loaded from a Side Loader were in Switzerland, but all the firings were carried out from the two RAF Aberporth MK2 Launchers mounted on the range head at The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Aberporth.
The white missiles were fired in the 1960’s, the green missiles in the 1970’s.
The concrete launcher foundations were so thick, they are still in place today.(Minus launchers.) There is no sound on this video.
To get back from Full Screen use Escape of course.
When the Bloodhound clip ends, you will be offered similar related clips to view.
At Menzingen in Switzerland there is a complete Bloodhound Mk2 Section on display in an open air museum. Click BMPG-Preservation Group for more.
BHFU - Building 247 in 1972
Aerial View of the range in 1972
Two Bloodhound Mk2 on Launchers
Radar Type 87 tucked away on cliff edge. 1972
Two images taken at Aberporth from 1980 onward. Courtesy of visitors to these pages. Do you have any?
Click for info.
It’s a sobering thought that your mobile phone has multi-millions of these components inside it.
Sad to report, I recently came across a tub of some those stripped out & scrapped parts. (Kept all these years by your host “for old times sake”.)
As if I ain’t got enough clutter in my home Electronics Workshop already!!! Mike
Bloodhound Mk2 Forebody “Mods”.
If you worked in the MOTE, chances are from time to time you had to carry out “Mods” to the Circuit Boards in the Missile Forebody.
(Remember those damned “Wire Wrap” joints, Wrapping Tools, and the “Windy Tools” you used to remove hundreds of screws before you could even start?)
Well at RAF Aberporth, a pre-requisite for any missile firing meant that EVERY missile HAD to be completely up-to-date with all the latest modifications. If YOU carried out Forebody Mods yourself, “click” the images to enlarge.
Even after maybe 40+ years, it will seem like only yesterday. You will STILL recognise these bits.
(They have even retained a hint of the smell of the military spec varnish they were coated in.)
To be continued……. More to come……one day!
#PhotoOfTheWeek: MOD Aberporth
“MOD Aberporth is a military testing range that was first established in Cardigan Bay during the Second World War. The Range is controlled from a site near Aberporth and is known as MOD Aberporth. “
MOD Aberporth Today- The Bloodhound launcher pads are still there. (Too thick and expensive to remove.) The FPS 16 Radars have been replaced with MOTR, and Building 247 where MSF was located, has been demolished and the foundation base is now used for external storage.
This Aerial Photo is from the MOD Aberporth page on Facebook.
