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Bruntingthorpe: Warming up the Cold War

Ralf Roggeveen

Ralf Roggeveen

Charter Member
Bruntingthorpe is a well-kept secret, just south of Leicester in the very centre of England. It is the home of the Cold War Jets Collection, including the Lightning Preservation Group. Many of their aircraft are kept in full working order - except that they don't have (expensive-to-get) Certificates of Airworthiness, so not allowed to take off :frown:. But they do occasionally take them out for little runs, and you can go along and watch.

I went there last Sunday, August 26th 2012 and took a few shots which you may like to see.

First thing I saw on arrival:

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Ex Boscombe Down Comet Mk 4.

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Weather wasn't brilliant, but it didn't rain on us and got a bit nicer later in the afternoon. Interesting that this was called Canopus, a name going right back to Imperial Airways days.

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There was an Aussie guy also admiring this who told me he'd flown in one with the RAAF, so it was very nostalgic for him. He asked me to take a picture with his camera of him in front of it. We thought about sneaking in there, but it was probably wiser not to get chucked out of the show five minutes after arriving.

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As for my own cameras, I was thinking 'Save the film, Ralf! Save the film!'

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You will see most pictures of my favourites, but I got at least one of everything there.

Fighter coming up... Please don't hesitate to post comments and corrections!
 
Jet Provost time:

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In the blue & red experimental/testing livery...

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...and in the primary trainer 'raspberry ripple' colours. This reminds me of my cadet days in the late '70s at bases like Abingdon and Little Rissington (saw a lot, though I never got further than the simulator).

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Then there was this combat grey one.

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A couple of them did a run; here's the nose open to prepare for that:

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Interior of one of them:

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Around 1977 you would go from the Chipmunk to the Bristol Bulldog, then start on jets with the JP. Sitting next to the instructor, rather than staring at the back of his head, was definitely a step up.
 
They are, of course, very proud of their Warsaw Pact trainers at Bruntingthorpe.

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The PZL TS-11 Iskra in Polish livery/Polish design. Here it is on the runway:

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Then they have this Rumanian colours/Czech-designed Aero L-29 Delfin:

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I believe this is the only one in the West. Out on the runway:

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Sorry I failed to film those (! Why?), but something much bigger coming later...

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They don't have the Soviet Yak primary trainer (was it the Yak 47?), so we'll have to make do with this nice old Yak 11 (which I've seen at other airshows in Britain).
 
Excellent Ralph, especially the Comic. There's one here at Norwich (Nimrod). I've been inside it and sat in the co-pilot's seat. Brilliant. My father worked for DeHavs from 1936-1972 so I'm biased!

Also went in their Vulcan and sat in the co-pilot's seat. My friend was with me and he's a big geezer...so I got the co-pilot's seat twice....

Apparently the Vulcan was originally designed to have only one up front and if you ever get into the cockpit of one you can see why. You would not want your 'other half' to have enjoyed a hot curry or a large tin of beans the night before!

Graham.
 
Thanks, friends - so there is someone out there, I was getting a bit worried! More of that Nimrod to come, Graham.

Having reached the old Yak I'll post a few veterans' portraits in this section.

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These two were lurking near a blue hangar on the far side of the airfield and of course I was strangely attracted...

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This is in the prewar USAAF livery.

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And another Beech 18 wearing US Navy colours.

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One of them is there for a repaint, though both look pretty fine to me - wait until you see some of the stuff fading away there...

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And you may have noticed this in the background:

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I believe that is Portuguese Air Force (Navy?) livery.

We care for the dignified piston-engined ones, but most people were there for JETS last Sunday...
 
One of the highlights was the Canberra:

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It's a pity this is in the ugly-nosed late test version, the original being such a thing of beauty.

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However, it works! Here they are at the end of the runway just after firing one of the startup cartridges.

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Got some quite good stills of it, but unfortunately no film. Going by:

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The Leica was on maximum zoom, obviously they had to keep us at a reasonably safe distance. The old Samsung digital can still manage rather grainy film (and remarkably good sound), but its zoom is kaput. Both cameras would have been happier with better natural light.

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Here he is coming back.

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Good shot of flaps down. And parked up again:

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You will see - and hear - a good run by a big aeroplane in due course.
 
A sad fat fish and some pointy jets

Now for some of the weird & shabby stuff in the middle of the field.

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Whoever sold this to them presumably couldn't believe their luck!

Overheard a small, intellegent boy observe that 'it looks like a piggy'.

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God knows what will become of it. You could pay £1 to go in and take a look at the cavernous, dark interior.

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(I saved my £). A very old lady had been abandoned in that wheelchair; she seemed to be empathising with the aeroplane.

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What's over here then?

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Quite nice condition Harrier...

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...Just needs an engine.

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German Starfighter like the one doing circuits at EHAM in Cal Classic World! (Admit it, you have spent hours there).

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What the..?!?
 
Ralf,
I believe Canopus was used for most of the RAE/RAF aircraft that had experimental navigation aids fitted & that therefore carried out lots of long distance flying. I also seem to remember that the Imperial Airways Canopus was a Short C class flying boat.
Smashing pictures - I didn't know that there were so many aircraft there!
Keith
 
Glad to share with you good friends, the best is yet to come.

But before that, having got to ground vehicles, here are a few more that were parked around Bruntingthorpe:

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WW2 RAF tractor in tip-top condition. (This came with the Airfix Strirling back in the day. I made a little diorama which I was very proud of and left on a flat radiator in my childhood bedroom, since you could use those big heaters as tables during the summer. One of the cats, playing the role of the Luftwaffe, jumped up there are destroyed the lot. 40 years later my sister still finds this recollection extremely funny for some reason.)

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2 classic Landrovers and an interesting bike. An old teacher at my school, Mr Pether, said he was lucky enough to get to ride one of these during WW2. Unfortunately they had taken down all the roadsigns to confuse German paratroopers, so he just got hopelessly lost. And he taught geography.

I was a bit worried about the 'rover called Toxic Ted as it might well have been dangerously radioactive, bearing in mind some of the nuclear bits & bobs lying around here...

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Quality Willys.

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Nice Kubelwagen, though unfortunately its sister Kettenkrad had not made it.

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I've seen a few of these and even a working Schwimmwagen (at a big VW meet), but never any genuine WW2 KdF/Beetle in military markings.

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Interior will be familiar to plastic modellers. Non-standard teddy bear on the ignition key. One optional extra was that they sometimes had a special clip to hold your Schmeisser.

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And the air-cooled flat 4 engine, well-known to me (though I try to avoid having to look at the one in my own old VW...)

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Thought they were actually still using this Commer truck to charge up the Buccaneer, but it was just a display!
 
It set car alarms off, though didn't accidentally take off this year (can be found posted by someone on Youtube).

After that they very kindly parked it where everybody could go and take a proper look:

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You don't see so many Handley Pages these days.

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It is still in Gulf Warpaint.

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The British have never been as good at Nose Art as the Americans. They had the traditional sexy girl on one side...

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...and this Victor Meldrew (a popular bad-tempered old man on TV played by Richard Wilson) on the other! He is standing, moaning as usual, by an empty Gulf petrol pump - which sums up the reason we care about the Middle East quite nicely.

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Modellers will be interested in the strange pinkish sandy colour, developed as long ago as WW2 and used on such diverse hardware as SAS Landrovers, Recon Spitfires and even ships.

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Yes , it looks like something from a 50's scifi movie, except they actually built it!

​
 
A few more:

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The Nimrod with a queue nearly as long as the ones for burgers & ice creams.

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These Texans were both in the blue hangar:

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RCAF livery above.

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And some of the VC10:

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I went in one of these in 1968 (BEA not RAF).

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Quite good TV programme recently on in the UK pointed out that the main British airline of the '60s didn't like them.

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Someone said that they became known as BOAC: Boeing Only Aircraft Chosen!

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Spot the pitot tube. Of course the VC-10 can do a fantastically short takeoff, but is not terribly fuel efficient, nor does it carry enough passengers to be economical.
 
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