Blackbushe interesting visitors 1947-60- the bombers

[rj]

As with the fighters some WW2 era bombers graced the hallowed turf of Blackbushe. For completeness I have included their civil conversions in this section excluding the based aircraft.

The Lancaster remained in RAF service until 1956 when five aircraft from St Mawgan visited, only to be scrapped months later. Of course the famous NX739 will be delt with under residents. It is very likely that further foriegn Lanc's were delivered through Blackbushe?

00/08/1951 1804 Avro Lancaster B1 1513 Egyptian Air Force delivery

00/12/1951 B-040 Avro Lancaster B1 1459 Argentine Air Force delivery

00/12/1951 B-042 Avro Lancaster B1 1461 Argentine Air Force delivery

00/09/1951 ME540 Avro Lancaster BIII RAF

17/12/1950 NX636 Avro Lancaster B.VIII RAE Farnborough

00/02/1956 NX676 Avro Lancaster B.VIII RAF

19/04/1948 PB284 Avro Lancaster mk X RAE Farnborough

10/09/1955 RE115 Avro Lancaster AS3 RAF coded H-P School of Marratime Reconnisiance

13/09/1951 RE131 Avro Lancaster BIII RAE Farnborough

00/09/1953 RE165 Avro Lancaster GR3 RAF

00/09/1953 RE181 Avro Lancaster BIII RAF coded SH

00/09/1955 RE182 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF

10/09/1955 RE186 Avro Lancaster GR5 RAF coded H-C School of Marratime Reconnisiance

00/09/1953 RE222 Avro Lancaster BIII RAF

00/09/1953 RF265 Avro Lancaster BIII RAF

00/09/1953 RF289 Avro Lancaster BIII RAF coded G-H

10/09/1955 RF311 Avro Lancaster GR5 RAF coded H-M School of Marratime Reconnisiance

10/09/1955 RF313 Avro Lancaster GR5 RAF coded H-N School of Marratime Reconnisiance

07/09/1953 RF318 Avro Lancaster B.III RAF

08/09/1956 SW283 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF school of maratime reconissance coded HQ

05/09/1955 SW293 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF school of maratime reconissance

07/09/1953 SW327 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF school of maratime reconissance

04/06/1956 SW366 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF school of maratime reconissance

08/09/1956 SW367 Avro Lancaster ASR3 RAF school of maratime reconissance coded HX

04/09/1951 TW669 Avro Lancaster PR1 RAF Photo shoot with Westland Wyvern

06/09/1949 TW923 Avro lancaster B1 RAE bombing tests






The historic 5 Lancaster line up


The Avro Lincoln was the RAF's last propellor driven bomber. Introduced in late 1945 the aircraft weer quickly outclassed by the emerging jet fighters, although there was a large export order to Argentina.

02/01/1948 B-009 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
02/01/1948 B-010 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
02/01/1948 B-011 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
02/01/1948 B-012 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
01/02/1948 B-004 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
26/02/1948 B-002 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
18/03/1948 B-005 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
18/03/1948 B-007 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
18/03/1948 B-008 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
20/03/1948 B-006 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
06/01/1949 B-016 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
10/01/1949 B-017 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
10/01/1949 B-018 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
10/01/1949 B-019 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
21/01/1949 B-015 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
25/01/1949 B-022 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
25/01/1949 B-023 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
29/01/1949 B-021 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
10/02/1949 B-013 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
10/02/1949 B-014 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
17/02/1949 B-026 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
27/02/1949 B-025 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
02/03/1949 B-020 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
06/03/1949 B-027 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
15/03/1949 B-028 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
15/03/1949 B-029 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
15/03/1949 B-030 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
30/04/1949 SX974 Avro Lincoln B2 RAE Farnborough
07/08/1949 B-024 Avro Lincoln B2 Argentine Air Force delivery
25/03/1951 SS716 Avro Lincoln B2 RAE Farnborough return from tropical trials Kharthoum
24/05/1951 WD129 Avro Lincoln B2 RAE Farnborough
07/09/1953 RF414 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
07/09/1953 RF445 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
25/08/1955 WD125 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
06/09/1955 RF350 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
06/09/1955 RF356 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
06/09/1955 RF411 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF coded K Costal Command Gunnery School
06/09/1955 SX975 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
07/09/1955 SX925 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
07/09/1955 WD126 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
08/09/1955 RA670 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF coded A
12/09/1955 RF533 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
03/09/1956 WD132 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF coded D
31/07/1959 RF395 Avro Lincoln B2 by road
06/11/1959 RF570 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF from Lindholm
00/01/1954 SX949 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
00/05/1954 RF456 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
00/08/1954 WD125 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF
00/09/1951 RF536 Avro Lincoln B2 RAF


It may seem amazing but there were sill B-17's around in the 50's. US Navy examples were known to visit Northolt but no records of them at Blackbushe. The RAE kept an example until 1952 when it was returned to the USAF and scraped.

04/04/1950 HB778 Boeing B-17G 7588 RAE Farnborough

The Douglas A-26 remained in use until the Vietnam war, having just made it into WW2 service. There were also a number converted into civil transports but have seen no evidence of these at Blackbushe.

02/05/1956 908 Douglas A-26B 28037 French Air Force
04/12/1956 908 Douglas A-26B 28037 French Air Force F-ZJNB
19/04/1958 F-ZJNX Douglas A-26B 28042 French Air Force 44-34763
00/10/1954 89081 Douglas JD-1 US Navy, navy target tug version of the A-26

[rj]

The Halifax also visited Blackbushe in numbers, with several based civl examples. Known visitors were 


00/09/1948 RG789 HP Halifax French Air Force

13/09/1951 PP350 HP Halifax VII RAE Farnborough



The North American Savage was a attempt to produce a carrier based heavy, and nuclear,  bomber. The type was buily to carry a 10,000lb bomb load but the aircraft was cumbersome to operate from the deck and lacked reliability. Around 150 were built in AJ-1 and more powerful AJ-2 version, the AJ-2P was a reconnaissance aircraft. These aircraft visited Blackbushe mostly after carry out dummy runs on the electronic bombing range at West Drayton

00/09/1956 124168 NA AJ-1 Savage US Navy coded NB-2

08/01/1957 124175 NA AJ-1 Savage 160-19 US Navy coded NC-11 USS Randolph

06/08/1956 124855 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-6 US Navy V.A.H.-5

08/01/1957 124856 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-7 US Navy coded NC-8 USS Coral Sea

00/12/1957 124860 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-11 US Navy coded NC-8 USS Coral Sea

08/01/1957 124861 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-12 US Navy coded NC-9 USS Coral Sea

00/12/1957 124864 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-15 US Navy coded NB-7

07/08/1956 122597 NA AJ-2 Savage 156-387472 US Navy coded NB-6

00/01/1954 130406 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-2 US Navy

07/09/1955 134039 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-26 US Navy coded NH-9

13/05/1954 134043 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-30 US Navy coded TP-11 VAP-62

07/09/1955 134050 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-37 US Navy coded NH2 VAH-7

19/11/1954 134052 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-39 US Navy coded NB-2

06/09/1955 134055 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-42 US Navy coded NH-10 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134063 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-50 US Navy coded NH-8 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134064 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-51 US Navy coded NH-7 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134065 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-52 US Navy coded NH-12 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134066 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-53 US Navy coded NH-6 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134067 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-54 US Navy coded NB-7

06/09/1955 134069 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-56 US Navy coded NH-9 VAH-7

10/07/1957 128050 NA AJ-2P Savage 175-8 US Navy coded GB-1 VAP-62

15/05/1955 128051 NA AJ-2P Savage 175-9 US Navy VAP-62 coded TP-2

00/04/1956 130424 NA AJ-2P Savage 184-20 US Navy coded TP-3

15/04/1955 134074 NA AJ-2P Savage 183-6 US Navy coded TP-9 VAP-62





A couple of known Farnborough week 1948 visitors were a unknown North American B-25 and a Martin B-26 both from the French Air Force. A grainy photo appeared in the press at the time and the B-25 had a RAF serial so may have been one of those used here during WW2, who knows?

[petera]

I remember seeing this Lancaster travelling from Victoria Coach Station in London down to Cornwall...mid 1950's.

A rare colour slide on ebay last week.

A lot of work to clean it up.

PeterA

[rj]

Very nice shot, have never seen a color photo of the 'Eagle' Lanc. The Lanc is not mentioned above as it was a resident, I will deal with these separately. Would love to see more color photos from that era but they are very rare.
Rob

[flymember]

Petera thanks for the photo of Lancaster NX 739. My late father flew this aircraft with Harold Watkins ( Chief Pilot Eagle Airways) on the 8th November 1956 on a photographic mission.

Flymember

[PB]

Hello Flymember

Thank you so much for your contribution regarding Eagle's Lancaster.

I am currently working on next year's 75th Anniversary of Blackbushe, more news in the near future. I'm hopeful of gathering as many "Blackbushe of the fifties" people as I can, or their relatives to join us at the event. A lot of plans are evolving, the execution of these plans is where the challenge lies.. Please keep an eye on the forum for news as it evolves.

Best wishes
Peter

[longshot44]

FAO rj....That's an excellent list of the Savages at Blackbushe...Kenneth Wooster would have loved it for his AJ webpages which are still available from the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine...
web.archive.org/web/20161017014311/http://skaneateles.org/navy/allsavages.html

web.archive.org/web/20180616231323/http://skaneateles.org/navy/neptunes.html neptunes carrier launched

web.archive.org/web/20170428054006/http://skaneateles.org/navy/cp66.html (bombsight)

web.archive.org/web/20170428143723/http://skaneateles.org/navy/aj_accidents.html crashes

web.archive.org/web/20170428163821/http://skaneateles.org/navy/aj-numbers03.html crashes

web.archive.org/web/20180203143201/http://skaneateles.org/navy/AJ-data-Sid-Siko.html

web.archive.org/web/20170428143723/http://skaneateles.org/navy/aj_accidents.html crashes unidentified BuNos

web.archive.org/web/20170429010634/http://skaneateles.org/navy/grover_garreau.html

web.archive.org/web/20150126020000/http://skaneateles.org/navy/fitzpaddles.html USS Coral Sea 1956     
there are a few more. Wooster would typically fly up in a Savage from Port Lyautey in Morocco  refuel at Manston, "bomb" on the 3903 Radar Bomb Scoring range at Heston Airport then stop off at Blackbushe.
The Savage was a handful to operate and there were losses but I think it did (or could have done if necessary!!) what it said on the packet....i.e. nuclear attack so not a failure
...

Mar 27, 2016 18:31:41 GMT rj said:

The Halifax also visited Blackbushe in numbers, with several based civl examples. Known visitors were 


00/09/1948 RG789 HP Halifax French Air Force

13/09/1951 PP350 HP Halifax VII RAE Farnborough



The North American Savage was a attempt to produce a carrier based heavy, and nuclear,  bomber. The type was buily to carry a 10,000lb bomb load but the aircraft was cumbersome to operate from the deck and lacked reliability. Around 150 were built in AJ-1 and more powerful AJ-2 version, the AJ-2P was a reconnaissance aircraft. These aircraft visited Blackbushe mostly after carry out dummy runs on the electronic bombing range at West Drayton

00/09/1956 124168 NA AJ-1 Savage US Navy coded NB-2

08/01/1957 124175 NA AJ-1 Savage 160-19 US Navy coded NC-11 USS Randolph

06/08/1956 124855 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-6 US Navy V.A.H.-5

08/01/1957 124856 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-7 US Navy coded NC-8 USS Coral Sea

00/12/1957 124860 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-11 US Navy coded NC-8 USS Coral Sea

08/01/1957 124861 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-12 US Navy coded NC-9 USS Coral Sea

00/12/1957 124864 NA AJ-1 Savage 169-15 US Navy coded NB-7

07/08/1956 122597 NA AJ-2 Savage 156-387472 US Navy coded NB-6

00/01/1954 130406 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-2 US Navy

07/09/1955 134039 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-26 US Navy coded NH-9

13/05/1954 134043 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-30 US Navy coded TP-11 VAP-62

07/09/1955 134050 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-37 US Navy coded NH2 VAH-7

19/11/1954 134052 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-39 US Navy coded NB-2

06/09/1955 134055 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-42 US Navy coded NH-10 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134063 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-50 US Navy coded NH-8 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134064 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-51 US Navy coded NH-7 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134065 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-52 US Navy coded NH-12 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134066 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-53 US Navy coded NH-6 VAH-7

06/09/1955 134067 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-54 US Navy coded NB-7

06/09/1955 134069 NA AJ-2 Savage 184-56 US Navy coded NH-9 VAH-7

10/07/1957 128050 NA AJ-2P Savage 175-8 US Navy coded GB-1 VAP-62

15/05/1955 128051 NA AJ-2P Savage 175-9 US Navy VAP-62 coded TP-2

00/04/1956 130424 NA AJ-2P Savage 184-20 US Navy coded TP-3

15/04/1955 134074 NA AJ-2P Savage 183-6 US Navy coded TP-9 VAP-62





A couple of known Farnborough week 1948 visitors were a unknown North American B-25 and a Martin B-26 both from the French Air Force. A grainy photo appeared in the press at the time and the B-25 had a RAF serial so may have been one of those used here during WW2, who knows?