Farnborough 1964

[ronturner]

S.B.A.C. FARNBOROUGH, SEPTEMBER 1964 - IN COLOUR

At one time an annual pilgrimage, when we all went to see the latest offering from the British Aircraft Industry and perhaps with some foreign participation too. If by chance, travel was not possible, we could always relax and watch Raymond Baxter on the BBC to keep us informed.
Here I am offering something a bit unusual.

Quite how I managed to get so close up for these shots, I have no idea. Possibly my friend John Oakes doing his distraction routine, while I got on with the business. That's usually how it worked.



LS 326 Swordfish Shuttleworth collection Fraborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



K 2227, Bristol Bulldog, Shuttleworth collection Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

I love this machine... another one.


K 2227 Bristol Bulldog farmborough sept a964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


Here, note the aerobatic teams in the background.

J9941 Hawker Hart Shuttleworth Collection Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


... and on this one see the three successors to the Spitfire in the background. Worthy successors in my opinion.


AB910 Spitfire V Farnborough 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


Here we have the BAC221, derived from the Fairey Delta 2 to explore the performance of slender wings at various angles of attack. Work which contributed to Concorde design. Originally as the FD2, designed to explore supersonic speed and I think I am correct in writing, it was at one time max speed holder. Two FD2 were built. I was fortunate to see the other one at Waddington later in the same month. Sorry I cannot phot shop out what might just be Phil Butler getting in the way.



WG774 BAC221 Farnborough 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



WG777 Fairy Delta 2 Waddington Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[gerrymanning]

Hi Ron, the reason you were able to get so close to the historic aircraft at Farnborough was that they were parked quite close to the fence line. Was not 1964 the year the Bulldog crashed on the Sunday? By the way small point but the Swordfish was operated by the Royal Navy not Shuttleworth's. Nice pictures, loved the background with Red Pelican Jet Provosts, Yellowjack Gnats and Lightnings. Best wishes and keep posting the old pictures. Gerry

[ronturner]

Thanks for the notes and corrections Gerry. I will amend soonest.

I had forgotten about the Buldog accident, so I did a bit of research. Here is the story and the eventual result:- sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15204.0


My shot of it flying on the Saturday might well have been its last successful outing.

[planemike]

Thank you for the wonderful evocative Farnborough '64 photographs.

Yes, you are indeed correct re: Fairey Delta 2 WG774. It was the first aircraft to exceed 1000 mph in level flight and raised the world air speed record to 1132 mph on 10 March 1956 (last British a/c to hold the record). It was rebuilt as the BAC 221. It is preserved at Yeovilton together with Concorde 002 G-BSST.

The Bristol Bulldog G-ABBB made a static appearance at a PFA rally at Cranfield, most likely 1999. Now in RAFM Hendon.

Please do keep the photos flowing...!! There are a few of us ""of a certain age"" who will be enjoying them !!

[ronturner]

Continuing and ending my Farnborough 1964 pictures. I have never been much good at capturing aircraft in flight. I leave that to the experts. You have only to look at the daily movements thread to see what can be achieved. Mine are rubbish compared with the static ones I have put up here. I include a few in the quieter corner of Farnborough, accessible by the determined.


XL233 Victor B2 Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


G-ASVO Herald, Handley Page, Farnborough Sept 64 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


G-AREA DH Dove 8. Hawker Siddeley Company. Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


603 Jet Provost T52 Iraqi Air Force Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


XS743 Beagle 206 RAF Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


I have never liked helicopters very much. Never flown in one, never had the urge, and very much put off by an American Army mech. at the Kemble MU who declared that it took about 15 hours of maintenance for every hour flown. Even so I quite liked the Scout. Not sure why, but there it is.

XP907 Scout Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



Lightning F2 of 92 Squadron (amended). Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr


XN857 Argosy Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



XR802 Viscount ETPS by Ron Turner, on Flickr


WH715 Canberra B2 ETPS 27 Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

How nice is this ?


WG557 Shackleton MR2 Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



VP980 Devon C1 ETPS Farnborough Sept 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[viscount]

S.B.A.C. FARNBOROUGH 1964

What fantastic set of early '60s colour images of Farnborough. Excellent work Ron, they are gorgeous images. An alternative view in black & white from Don Stephens, which with Ron's permission I'm adding to his thread. Same day, Saturday 12th September 1964. Don and others flew down Liverpool to Heathrow by British Eagle Viscount, then hired a car to get them to Farnborough. Some similar shots here, some of quite different aircraft 'around the back'. Why did Don take more shots than Ron? In the early 60s using colour film, especially transparencies, was considered daring and experimental - it was also way more costly to process! It is likely too, that way back in autumn 1964 Ron threw out a fair number of his 'failures' keeping just the best, while 'iffy' b&w negatives could sometimes be worth 'massaging' back to life while being processed into prints in the dark-room.

My own first SBAC Farnborough was not until 1968 on an MSAE coach trip and well remember the most interesting aircraft were not the shiny new ones, but the decaying aircraft in the woodland.

As I have good reason to believe that these are all Don Stephen's own photos, the images are credited to him, not the 'Don Stephens Collection' as I usually do.

A basic 'check-list' for the week at Farnborough can be found on: www.scramble.nl/database/show-reports/united-kingdom/farnborough-1964

PUBLIC AREA STATIC DISPLAY







The static was clearly dominated by three large aircraft, the Vulcan B.2, Victor B.2 and Shackleton MR.3. The other large aircraft such as the VC-10, Trident, BAC-111, Belfast, HS.780 Andover C.1 were parked well over, across the airfield to participate in the afternoon's flying display.



Production of the original Jet Provost T.3/T.4 was winding down, the type being represented by an export example destined for Iraqi. However in the flying display was a test aircraft for the new Jet Provost T.5.







Westlands always had their latest offerings on display in the static and as part of the flying display. Here they are promoting the Scout, Wasp (with its ability to not slide off a moving deck demonstrated) and WS-55 Whirlwind HAR.10 - the final production development of the type.









In the early '60s British aircraft manufacturers were increasingly looking at the civilian market with the VC-10, Trident, BAC-111, HS.748 and HPR-7 Dart Herald. Beagle were the 'white knight' leading the light aircraft industry, although the Airedale and Beagle 206, along with the Pup never became the anticipated world beaters.



Parked outside the static display area, looking very futuristic, is the sleek BAC-221 test aircraft modified from an earlier Fairey Delta.

AROUND THE BACK, BUT NOT OUT OF SIGHT



Walking around you never quite knew where you would find an aircraft. This Saro Skeeter on a truck appears to be behind the Company Chalets.









The real interest was to be found around the water pressure test tanks built during the investigation into the structural failure of the early Comets. The Canberras WE121/19 and WH715/27 are part of a fleet of various types used by the Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS), along with Viscount and Devon in Ron's photos. The Shackleton WG557 is of particular interest as on the starboard side it declares it as a 'Royal Navy', rather than a R.A.F. Coastal Command aircraft. Behind the Canberras are fuselages used in the water tanks, the exact aircraft, indeed type always seemed to evade identification (Ashton, Apollo?). While the Comet, clearly formerly with B.O.A.C. was said to be G-ALYS, no one was ever certain which the ones in cocoon protection were.







The lines of Percival P.56 Provosts were denied their wings for investigation into wing spar failures. Some were still there 4 years later.



It is a wonder this non-aircraft Farnborough shot was ever kept. Now it is wistful expression of more relaxed times past.

[viscount]

FARNBOROUGH 1964, PART TWO:
THE AFTERNOON FLYING DISPLAY

By tradition the display always got underway with a steady flypast along the whole runway length by a helicopter flying flags underneath. It would appear that before the serious demonstration of British aircraft manufacturing, the Tiger Club flew a number of Druine Turbulent aircraft. The flying display would be a series of company and military demonstrations of their aircraft culminating in a demonstration of air power by the Fleet Air Arm which commenced with a formation flypast. Clearly Don was far more impressed by the military hardware, hardly ever pointing his camera at civilian types. First a number of the company and military demonstrations:













Military constructors and Royal Air Force contributions to the flying display included the Folland Gnat T.1 'Yellowjacks' team (with 5 aircraft), a 6 aircraft Jet Provost T.4 team, XR364 Short SC.5 Belfast and a Lightning F.2 of No.92 Squadron (corrected) one of a team of 6. Jet Provost T.4 XS230 was the next to last of the RAF order to be built and was retained by BAC to develop the new T.5 mark. The recently converted HS.780 prototype G-ARRV showed its potential for military operations.





Westlands always put up a formation of their designs and then demonstrated some of them. The types in the formation (from right to left) are the Belvedere, Whirlwind, 2 x Scouts (one with a non-standard ski undercarriage) and a Skeeter. The helicopter blowing smoke in a tight turn is a Scout.



This Royal Navy Buccaneer XN976 may have been a solo demonstration ahead of the Royal Navy 'projection of air power' demonstration



The arrival of the Royal Navy formations (8 x Sea Vixen, 8 x Scimitar and 12 x Wessex), nicely framed above the BAC-221.



The Royal Navy's mock airfield 'attack' was a great feature of many Farnborough Air Shows.

[gerrymanning]

Hi Brian, hate to rain on your parade but the Lightning is NOT an F.1 of 56 sqd. but an F.2 of 92 sqd. It was the rare variant as only two units had them, 19 & 92. They were later brought up the standard of the F.6 and were called F.2As. Ron has also has his shot wrong. He has it as an F.3, there was an F.3 there but not in squadron markings. The F.3, as you well know, had the clipped fin top. 92 had six aircraft at the show as they were the Fighter Command aerobatic display team for 1964. As a footnote 56 sqd. never had F.1s but were the second RAF unit to get Lightnings and the first to get the F.1A, that of course was the first with in-flight refuelling.
Best wishes,

Gerry

[viscount]

Guilty of assumptions. Text amended. Thanks.

[acklington]

Great thread, thank you.

I think that the "non-aircraft" photo may be a heavily wrapped Canberra fuselage?

[johnw]

re aircraft under wraps:- My log or the event has aircraft fuselages there unidentified. Bristol T188 being one. Compared to the larger one behind an Ashton? the size is about right.
Three T188 were built a static test one and two "flight capable" aircraft. (Wikipedia)