Air Pictorial 1956-12
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C.Cain - Farnborough Graveyard
Skeletons in the cup­board include (left to right):
Westland W.34 Wyvern TF. Mk. 1 (VR133), one of the ten production models of the piston-engined Wyvern. The eight-blade Rotol contraprop was driven by a 2,690-h.p. Rolls-Royce Eagle, with twenty-four cylinders arranged in H-fashion. (Silver overall.) Blackburn B.54 (YA-5), the first prototype (WB781) of this two-seater, powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine driving contra-rotating propellers, flew for the first time on 20th September 1949. The second prototype (WB788), also carrying the type number B.54, was a three-seater and was designated YA-7. It was an interim test vehicle de­signed to the Fairey Gannet Naval Specification GR.17/45. Experience was gained with this machine, powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon, and paved the way to the turboprop-powered (2,950-e.h.p. Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba A.S. MD.l) three-seater YB-1 (WB797) which flew for the first time on 19th July 1950. Type number was B.88. (Dark sea-grey top, duck-egg blue undersides.)
Fieseler Fi 156K Storch (VX154), foreground. Tattered fuselage only. Mainplanes on the grass. (Time-ravaged brown and green camouflage.)
De Havilland D.H.112 Sea Venom F(AW) Mk. 20 (WK379). Tail boom of the second prototype showing the revised fin and rudder shape. Port wing panel on the grass. (Dark sea-grey top, duck-egg blue undersides.)
Avro Type 689 Lincoln (Reheat) Derwent FTB (SX971). Slung from the bomb bay is a Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet behind which is a long jet pipe terminating in a special afterburning rig. The succeeding Lincoln (SX972) was used as a Bristol Proteus FTB (one in each outer nacelle). (Silver overall.) Just behind the starboard fin/rudder is the port wing of an engineless Lancaster (NX679).
Avro Type 694 Lincoln (Radar) FTB (RF533). Like the pannier-Hastings this radar-nose Lincoln is unique. The normal 78 ft. 3 1/2 in. length was increased by some 5 ft. in 1954. Under a contract issued by R.A.E. and, according to official sources, a special radome was fitted for experimental purposes. Previous conjecture was that the Lincoln was used to study the effects of rain erosion on Meteor NF.14 or Javelin radomes. In place of the former Boulton Paul Type F (two .5-in. Brownings) nose turret is a step-down observer's canopy. The precise tests conducted with this "airborne laboratory" cannot be divulged at this time. Note the aerial towing bar behind the tailwheel. (Grey top, black undersides.)
Handley Page H.P.67 Hastings C. Mk. 2 (WD480). In Air Pictorial (June 1954) there appeared an air photo of this unique, panniered Hastings - which according to a news item appearing in Air Pictorial (December 1954) was originally "modified for special bomb tests. A long, capacious bomb bay has been fitted under the fuselage with two sets (tandem) of bomb doors." The only external difference of the past two and a half years appears to be the scrapping of the familiar streamlined outline of the dorsal D/F loop for the now standardised and shallower fitting. (Silver overall, blue cheat line.)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.55 Apollo (VX224). A resident of R.A.E. for the past two years and used by the E.P.T.S. (Empire Test Pilots' School), the second prototype Apollo was originally G-AMCH - flying for the first time on 12th December 1952. The first prototype of this 26/31-seater (G-AIYN, later VX220) flew for the first time on 10th April 1949. The Apollo, designed to Civil Specification 16/46 and embracing the Brabazon Committee's IIB specification requirements was not further developed, being somewhat overshadowed by the success of the Viscount. (White top, rest silver.)