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Post by PB on Jun 20, 2023 9:38:22 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 20/06/23Schedule gone somewhat astray this morning, but I suppose better late than never? Something referred to as 'precipitation' gave the grass a bit of a drink earlier today!! BVOL, ready to fly...Paul van den Berg's photo of our Dakota G-BVOL taking off from Duxford during Flying Legends Air Show back in 1995. We took-off to do our party piece before linking with the BBMF for a joint fly-past. BVOL was the Army operated Dakota presented to the UK by the South African government. I was asked via a phone-call one evening if I'd be interested in taking on the air show season and putting this immaculate aeroplane into the air and hopefully make some money toward her upkeep. How could you refuse? A crew was gathered and we took her to shows including Middle Wallop, RAF Benson, White Waltham, Dunsfold, Duxford, and Newtonards amid a summer of weekends away and lots of Dakota flying. Based at Farnborough initially was not an ideal arrangement, but Blackbushe agreed to give us free landings and parking so we nipped her over to Blackbushe without hesitation. Sadly, CAA required mods were beyond the scope of our budgets and this marvellous aeroplane had no option other than to be sold elsewhere. Said "Goodbye" to her one Sunday afternoon at Coventry and sadly returned home via the railway network. Bits of her remain flying while the fuselage is in a Netherlands museum wearing the colours appropriate to the DC-3s operated by KLM.Blackbushe days, we parked on the grass most of the time, made it easy to keep her bits clean from the birds whose ammunition showed well against our olive drab colours, also made it easy to spend time keeping the landing gear clean from the endless flow of gravity assisted oil that was typical of the type. You worried when the oil leaks stopped...I notice in the Duxford photo tell-tale deposits on the rudder that I must have missed, those Blackbushe birds!!!That's all for today.. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 21, 2023 7:39:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 21/06/23Blackbushe has throughout her life seen ex military aeroplanes arrive and depart, some still dressed in war colours others donning the plain look of civilian life...A recent example, genuine and very rare ex Russian Air Force MkIX Spitfire kindly brought in by Peter Teichman for this year's Blackbushe Air Day.During Doug Arnold's ownership of Blackbushe his Warbirds of Great Britain operation witnessed a great number of warbirds either transit here for a while or be restored to the most exacting standards. Mosquito, Spitfires, Lancaster, Liberator, Me109, Lysander, Sea Furies, Spanish built Ju52s and He111s, Avenger, etc all appeared here ins some shape or form when Doug was in charge..Below are a couple from the many photos received from the late Gordon Wilmer's collection from days gone by..Sea Otter XY-ABT photographed on 1st May, 1949, ex Britavia G-AJFV. The Catalina/Kanso caught in December, 1949, while on delivery to GARUDA.Destined for a new life, a couple of the many Tempests that left Blackbushe for India and their new military masters in May, 1948, and a couple of Devons including HW524 also bound for life with the Indian Air Force on 16 February, 1949. Gordon's notes suggest Pakistan, but all the records indicate India was the final stop.In the beginning. The warbirds of Blackbushe had no history, they were about to make it..... Bombers, fighters, transports Blackbushe, RAF Hartford Bridge, had them all.
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 22, 2023 6:59:16 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 22/06/2322nd June, notice how the nights are drawing in?
Anyway, right now clear skies and sunshine ahead, probably won't buy the Christmas cards for another week or two... The light mornings are still drawing in the mobile rookerie, 05.00 almost to the dot the racket starts right outside the window, one or two young rooks creating merry hell demanding Mummy Rook sticks something down their voluminous throats. There are times when nature loses its magic...they've left the circuit now but no doubt tomorrow will see their early morning return!
Made my first visit to Blackbushe yesterday since the Air Day having been hospitalised, fed more pills, and very sore in a couple of places! Very good to breath Blackbushe air, see aviation in progress, and enjoy various social encounters as I wandered across the car park to check on the Viking. "Check on the Viking", who'd have thought such words would ever be said at Blackbushe again?? The T7 reg Piaggio and a German Citation Mustang on the apron confirmed that business flights continue to become the norm at EGLK... There she is, still a bit to be done, be wonderful when she's on her wheels again and takes up the famous nose-up recall of Blackbushe's many Vikings...Meanwhile, technology marches towards tomorrow and what will power the business and commuter aeroplanes of the future? This article appeared in the latest AVweb news flash pertaining to Rolls Royce and news of a small hybrid engine. With thanks to AVweb, here's the article..."Rolls-Royce Announces New-Tech Small Turbine Engine Program By Mark Phelps - Published: June 20, 2023
Rolls-Royce (R-R) announced yesterday, June 19, it is ready to begin testing on a small, as yet unnamed gas turbine engine designed specifically for hybrid-electric flight. The target market includes electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility, as well as regional “commuter aircraft” seating up to 19, according to R-R. The gas-turbine engine is said to be part of a developmental turbogenerator system.
“The turbogenerator system will complement the Rolls-Royce Electrical propulsion portfolio by delivering an on-board power source with scalable power offerings between 500kW and 1200kW [roughly equivalent to 670 to 1,600 shaft horsepower], enabling extended range on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and later, as it becomes available, through hydrogen combustion,” R-R said in an announcement released during this week’s Paris Air Show.
Rolls-Royce currently holds manufacturing rights for the M250, originally developed in the late 1950s as a helicopter (turboshaft) engine. The company said new technology applied to its latest project engine enables a “step change in efficiency” for small gas turbines. “The turbogenerator can be used in serial or parallel hybrid applications,” said R-R, adding, “It is well suited to recharge batteries as well as provide energy to electrical propulsion units directly and therefore enables aircraft to switch between power sources in flight.”
Trials will be conducted at Rolls-Royce’s test facility in Dahlewitz, Germany, near Berlin. Testing will also include running the engine on sustainable aviation fuel SAF “in the coming months.” The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is contributing to funding the research and development of the turbogenerator hybrid-electric technology involved in the Rolls-Royce project".One thing is certain, change will always be happening in the aviation business. In the air, and hopefully on the ground as Blackbushe moves toward the fruition of her plans..
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 23, 2023 11:12:49 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 23/06/23Better late than never I guess? Medical appointments today making life interesting... probably something that will be more frequent for a while.
Blackbushe continued her turbo-prop and jet visitors yesterday according to RJ's report, there's no doubt that an airfield that is so easy to use, and well located, has the basis of being a superb asset - especially when her infrastructure enhancements are at last in place.. The Airport is already a superb asset, just in the future she will become even more superb!Here's yer "Photo of the Day". A Britavia Hermes on Blackbushe 'south'.. Just slipping back to the fifties when Blackbushe at full size and the Airport's area south of the A30 sported large hangars, and plenty of aeroplanes. The days when driving down the A30 offered an aviation panorama on either side as you slid through the wonders of Blackbushe Airport.An RAF Canberra visitor to Blackbushe, the type made several visits in the fifties, the last being on 1st April, 1960, when two arrived...Talking of last visits, it was on this day in 2006 that the RAF retired their last Canberra after 55 years in service..
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 24, 2023 11:38:54 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 24/06/23Late again, life is slightly 'off-key' at the moment....
If we go back to 1960, on this day the delightful Avro 748 made its first flight. Affectionately known the 'budgie', some 360 748s were built. The type missed operations at Blackbushe during the Airport's life as a major London airport, but it did appear a couple of times during the years that have followed her untimely closure.The 748 comes to Blackbushe!!During those 'wilderness' years of the sixties, 1963, Smiths Aviation brought the 748 to Blackbushe for the first time. The vapours of kerosene entering our nostrils brought back the 'odour d'Viscount' from a very few years earlier, although by then it seemed an age since Blackbushe had hosted the shrill of turboprop engines.. The last visit. From Aberdeen, British Airways arrived for the Farnborough Air Show back in the seventies.. Parked on the cross runway 14/32 with other Farnborough traffic one was tempted to have visions of Blackbushe had she not been axed by the government...Better late than never, a timely memory from the pages of history where Blackbushe's unique past is stored... have a great weekend!!
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 25, 2023 7:13:41 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 25/06/23Looking like another day of June weather doing what June weather should do! Sunshine from blue skies...well it's like that at 06.30.
Good news from the world of the nation's only B-17 operator, Sally-B has been given a clean bill of health after the recent grounding of the type. Key Aero brought these welcome words a few days ago.."On the evening of 22 June, B-17 Preservation, the Duxford-based operator of Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress Sally B, announced that the aircraft will resume flight operations for the first time in 2023, after a five-week grounding for inspections to comply with an airworthiness directive.
All B-17 operators were required by the US Federal Aviation Administration to check the main spar fittings of their aircraft for cracks. This followed the discovery in the USA that the port wing of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s B-17G Aluminum Overcast had moved by 2in at one of its attachment points. IWM Duxford afforded Sally B hangar space in the AirSpace building, where the necessary non-destructive testing inspections were conducted. Once all was found to be in order, the aircraft was declared compliant with the FAA-mandated checks".Sally-B returns to Earth during the 1977 Blackbushe Air Festival. Her attendance took quite a chunk out of my display budget, but worth every penny!! The value of money has changed, her two days at Blackbushe back then would cost probably three times what I paid back in '77 for a similar event now.Time has a way of passing too fast..How 46 years have been eaten since the Air Festival I do not know, but they have and we have to make the best of it! The Blackbushe story goes from chapter to chapter, it's to be hoped that the book is nearing its last chapter so far as the endeavours to develop the airfield into one with facilities such as hangars are concerned. 46 years may have been chewed away since the Air Festival, 62 years have been digested since I first met AVM Bennett whilst I was thoughtfully riding my bike down the freshly disused main Blackbushe runway. A very friendly gentleman in a blue sports car pulled up along side me and having said '"Hello" advised me to keep an eye out for aeroplanes, he'd bought the airfield. Thus started my close relationship with 365 acres of Hartford Bridge Flats, and little did I know as a schoolboy how serious that relationship would be for the rest of my life!I say, "the rest of my life", it's not over yet but I don't see in the time left my turning my back on the aerodrome that for whatever reasons has run a seam through my life for so many years..
If this June Sunday was in say, 1963, I'd be up at the airfield with the usual legendary group in Three Counties Aero Club. Blackbushe would have its usual residents you could count on just over one hand, Jackaroo G-APAL, Airlines Flying Group with Auster G-APCY and Hornet Moth G-AEWY, Hornet Moth G-AMZO safely in a refurbished nissen hut - the only hangar on the Airport - Auster G-APKL and Taylorcraft G-AHUG. Blackbushe Aero Club flew their Linnet and Three Counties fleet of Auster 6, Tri-Pacer, Colts, and the fabulous Prentice, Chipmunk, and Rapide.. Cars, horses, motor bikes, people, all would would wander onto the runway during those early days. Zooming out to ask them to please keep clear of the runway in the politest way possible many still claimed not to know it was an airfield as aircraft were parked on the grass and even using that runway. Most encounters were friendly enough, some were not... They were legendary days, days when a lot of flying was done in various types, friends were diamonds in my life, a life where weekends were longed for and shared with a group of people whose friendship was beyond value. Very sadly, those passing years have taken almost all from my life, every time I drop into Blackbushe I 'see them'..we all shared an extraordinary time as AVM Bennett fought tooth and nail to keep the airfield open and developed.
In 2023 health problems are trying to keep me quiet, but hopefully if the NHS doctors don't strike too often things will get sorted, and hopefully I'll be around when that glorious day awaited since 1961 sees daylight and hangars and new facilities at last grow from the Blackbushe turf..An enduring memory of one's show in 1977, IAS sent over a DC-8, others such as a 747, CL-44, and a Carvair helped make the efforts feel worthwhile..Dear old "KC", one of the Three Counties Aero Club's Auster 6 aircraft. Tough, chunky, noisy, I loved them!The much missed Reg Venning's Taylorcraft +D. Reg and HUG were so much a part of the Blackbushe 'thing'.Farnborough vet and leading light in the new 1961 Blackbushe Aero Club, "Holly" Birkett in his distinctive yellow and dark red Auster PKL. Holly and his wife were lost in an accident near Le Touquet when commencing a holiday in France. A dreadful shock to the system, I'd helped them load the aeroplane before leaving Blackbushe, and distinctly remember watching until the aircraft became a distant dot as it crossed the Farnborough region and distance shrank it from sight.You don't know what you've got - until it's gone! The vastness of Blackbushe before the council owned east end was broken up and allowed to become overgrown. US Navy hangar dominated the Blackbushe scene, visitors like the Tiger Club were VERY welcome!!Blackbushe 'south' snapped on one of my very early flights. The south had already been dug up, but retained the 'open space' feel for some years before the inevitable scrub and birch trees took over.The apron as it looked for some years....we could only dream of the changes that have happened since then! We still dream of future changes...Later days, seventies, Farnborough Week and the Doug Arnold era..Blackbushe is without doubt a 'field of dreams', dream of the past and dreams of the future..and so life goes on!
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 26, 2023 8:37:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 26/06/23On this Monday morning I note that "POTD" is enjoying increased numbers of daily visits, this happening at a time where our early morning reliability continues to slip due to issues relating to 'editorial health'. Today is another example of running behind schedule, must try harder but of late such an ambition has been slightly out of reach. Hopefully we'll be back on the rails soon....much hanging on the NHS as two pressing conditions await their intervention.
At least we're here, and POTD retains its description as a daily occasion!Here's today's photo.One of those 1970s/80s Farnborough Week moments when shuttles landed, and for a few days Blackbushe felt like a busy airport. The following week the airfield returned to her rather quiet side once more. Not sure how tomorrow will pan out, eye surgery in the morning!! PB
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Post by PB on Jun 27, 2023 6:51:36 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 27/06/23A rare moment yesterday as my feet actually touched the ground at Blackbushe attending a meeting of Blackbushe Heritage Trust Trustees.. Good to see a couple of bizz jets on the apron, before going into our latest conference..
A newsletter will soon be winging its way from the BHT to all who have linked/volunteered via the BHT website. A project restoring an veteran aeroplane the size of our Viking requires much ground work and preparation of men, materials, and methods. It might seem quiet from the outside, but a huge amount of progress is being made toward reaching our goal of a very presentable Vickers Viking able to tell the story of the Viking's journey in British aviation and its close association with Blackbushe. If you wish to receive updates, donate towards G-AGRW's restoration, or just be kept in the picture please visit the BHT website. www.blackbusheheritagetrust.com/The Viking as she looks today, changes are coming!!Back to the past, once more.. The 1960s era when Blackbushe had overcome the initial hurdles toward her re-establishment as an airfield, and more aeroplanes and activity could be found. Weekends were a wonderful blend of aeroplanes, and the growing social scene as the new Blackbushe people came together - plus quite a few for whom Blackbushe had been their lives up to May 1960. Neville Browning boards Zlin G-ASIM on a sunny Blackbushe late afternoon. A Rapide is down wind, a visiting Bolkow 207 has its nose in the picture. You'll notice how the view of Blackbushe 'south' has changed as Mother Nature has filled the site with trees and her scrub, the car park from those days is characteristically fairly empty.. The AVM's civil aviation ensign flies from above the 'temporary' tower, Reg is probably up there overseeing all, and from my point of view those days were quite unforgettable.Well, I've got an appointment this morning that I best not miss, so will bid you good-day, and hopefully see you tomorrow...
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 28, 2023 9:06:45 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 28/06/23Quiet day at the ranch today compared with yesterday's exciting appointment with a piece of high-tech laser equipment aimed to rectify a vision situation... science fiction becoming science fact!
For expedience this morning POTD repeats some of Paul Phillip's great photos of some of this week's Blackbushe traffic....Some of Monday's movements..2-GAYE by wokinghampaul, on Flickr G-LENI by wokinghampaul, on Flickr ZM514 by wokinghampaul, on Flickr and this one on Tuesday..2-MINI by wokinghampaul, on Flickr Grateful thanks to Paul as always!!
PB
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Post by PB on Jun 29, 2023 7:36:55 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 29/06/23A change in the weather, Mother Nature having sprinkled the land with some welcome moisture, I'm sure the grass will appreciate something to help regain its colour..
Change, be it the weather or whatever, is a feature of life we have to address be it welcome, or otherwise. Aviation is an area where 'change' has been a permanent feature, look how its changed since Wilbur and Orville left the ground 120 years ago... Look at Blackbushe, now there's an example of 'change', and an example of where change may be expected to be applied - just keep your eyes focused over the next 12 months, or so..
If you look at aircraft design changes in the six decades since Blackbushe was closed and the re-opened there have been many changes especially in materials and avionics where light aircraft today carry arrays of electronic brains that would have been viewed with disbelief back in the sixties when lots of light aeroplanes were 'non-radio'. Now there's change!
My eye on the future at Blackbushe, and other GA airfields sees a period of seismic change where 'flying' evolves into something of a new realm.
An eye on tomorrow..going by taxi?
Today we see crowded skies as our major airports return to pre-covid levels, Gatwick expanding and, as yet, no third runway at Heathrow. The benefits of business aeroplanes and General Aviation airfields suitable for business operations will perhaps become ever more viable as aviation 'evolves' in the next few years bringing changes as sweeping as any we have seen in GA's past?
The roads will become ever more congested by vehicles that burn fossil fuels while joined by the new era of vehicles that look to the National Grid for their 'fuel'. Regardless of what your fuel source may be, the roads will continue to play host to your vehicle and the thousands of others sharing that same tarmac, the same congestion - and the pot holes - with you.
Airports such as Blackbushe, Biggin Hill, Farnborough, and Oxford will continue to provide facitities suitable for business aircraft where runways are seen as an advantage. Blackbushe, you will note, I have listed amid the big players...
The convenience and flexibility of business/corporate aeroplanes meets a strangle hold on their proven 'free of airline schedules' convenience once they've put their feet on the ground - unless enjoying the benefits of on-airport conference facilities. Being stuck in traffic after a speedy business flight is not the best way of spending corporate time!
'Advanced aerial mobility' is the new name for a market that, after a wavering beginning, has found new impetus, that market being the eVTOL aerial taxi! Investment has tripled, Morgan Stanley are predicting the air taxi market to be worth £2.7tr by 2050... Various companies around the world are working on eVTOL craft, machines that have the potential of bringing sweeping changes in getting to /from cities, especially speeding passengers from convenient smaller airports such as Blackbushe to city centre air-taxi ports..
Big names are behind this new aspect of aviation, changes that reflect the evolution and value of 'air transport'. Airbus, Boeing, Hyundai are three of the new big players in aviation's contribution to a new clean green climate friendly way of flying. Joby have acquired Uber Elevate, Britain's challenge comes from a company named 'Vertical' who have secured substantial conditional pre-orders from Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines for their VA-X4 eVTOL.
Quiet, safe, environmentally superior, these craft will no doubt represent the spearhead of research into lightweight materials and batteries, the evolution of aviation..
A significant infrastructure provision will be needed. Licensing, safety and certification, air traffic control, integration with established air traffic, recharging, and city landing sites. We built railways for the steam train, roads for cars and commercial vehicles, hopefully city landing pads will be looked upon as very much beneficial for cities with the necessary foresight and an eye on the future?
Some food for thought from Airbus....
transportup.com/airbus-cityairbus/
Or this from Britain's Vertical Aerospace .....
The shape of tomorrow? Without a vision man would never have flown, perhaps this is the vision that will take us into "tomorrow"?Quieter, cleaner, more sustainable ways of travelling are the way the future is pointing, these revolutionary craft take us in that direction, the technology will have much to thank research into land based electrically powered vehicles for. eVTOLs will have scope far beyond that of being a flying taxi, an airfield where Blackbushe is might just play a pivotal role in this new era of aviation? eVTOLs are no longer a question of "If" but "When?".
What do you think?
PB
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