PHOTO of the DAY...

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
15/10/24

For those of a certain age, or good memory, today's date marks the tragic accident at RAE Farnborough on 15 October, 1947. The second prototype Westland Wyvern powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine departed Farnborough for an air-to- air photo sortie with Flight magazine's John Yoxall. Sadly before the two aircraft could rendezvous the Wyvern's massive eight contra-rotating blade propeller stopped rotating due to a failed bearing. The resultant drag from eight stopped propeller blades demanded a steep dive to maintain flying speed, the drag was such that the pilot Squadron Leader Peter Garner was unable to recover from the dive and struck the ground, the aircraft broke-up with fatal consequences.




Continuing the photos received from Martin Bradley, herewith another aircraft from Blackbushe's Warbird collection, the Lysander.




Another head-on situation as G-MOSI takes on fuel at Blackbushe's fuel station. The aircraft was sold to the USA and another void was left in this country's flyable Mosquito collection. The fuel station was installed by Shell in the early sixties, and was a quantum leap forward in how we served fuel. The pride we had in the then new installation was immeasurable, a brand-new facility at what had once been London's second airport...




A home-based Mosquito. The photo says it all.. Three Counties Aero Club premises in the background.




Such perfect symmetry from the de Havilland drawing boards, she looked great and sounded, well - two Merlins in close formation provided the effect you might expect!!




Did I mention symmetry? Another prime example of British design superiority, the Spitfire, and another one restored to magnificence thanks to the skills of Blackbushe's Warbirds of Great Britain.


PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
16/10/24

It's amazing isn't it? You wait 80,000 years for a comet to pass by and you miss it because of a shroud of cloud that refuses to budge...well, it does if you're looking from my bit of Hampshire..Just have to wait for Tsuchinshan-Atlas, Comet C/2023 A3 to come round again, or maybe the clouds will be kind before it's much too late?

80,000 years, hopefully Blackbushe will be able to build some hangars by then? On the other hand the slightly nearer future might produce decisions favourable to Blackbushe progressing a little sooner.. While the Planning Inspectorate deliberate over the Blackbushe question our new Government claim the advent of sweeping changes. Sir Keir Starmer has claimed this week that he will do "everything in his power" to "galvanise growth" and "curb red tape". Regulations that are holding back development will be "ripped up" and the bureaucracy that blocks investment will be ripped up too!! "Where it comes to stopping us building - we will rip it up".... Curiously this Government are stacking up bureaucracy by implementing significant reform to workers' rights, but while their grand gestures gush forth dare we hope that such positive thinking could be the stepping stone that will see Blackbushe's future safely delivered? If they mean it, let's see it..




Talking of building, here are some of Doug Arnold's new Blackbushe hangars, fully legally built and soon to be home to a variety of aviation pursuits. Sadly enough, they are now pivotal in BCA's used car business.. kept by BCA while they sold off the rest of the airfield.




Hangars must have their security!! Doug Arnold's lovely doggie 'Jumble' patrolled his hangars with enthusiasm - I found out!



Jumble and I would play quite happily outside the hangar. BUT, venture inside 'his' hangar alone and beware the fangs. One lunchtime I popped into the Airport and drove down to the hangars as I did so regularly back then. Walked into the hangar as I also did very frequently and Jumble was 'on duty'. In mere seconds my friend sank his teeth into my thigh, luckily David Arnold was close by and instructed the dog to put me down. Happily he did or it may have been more than my thigh that was at stake?? Frimley Park Hospital to the rescue once again where the wound was cleaned up and necessary injections inserted. Luckily it was winter and a thick overcoat was over my suit, the clothes showed no damage - just me! Lovely bruises followed.




Another fine beast that lived in the hangars, the Arnold Mustang. Warbirds were truly part of the everyday scene and we almost took it for granted to be driving/walking around Ju-52s, Dakotas, assorted fighters, and the delivery of new relics arriving in assorted conditions. Spitfires from India caked in red clay, for example.




Talking of construction, herewith a 'new' Spitfire standing before more new hangars and the frame of what was intended to be the new Blackbushe Control Tower. The Spitfire took to the skies, but the Tower was grounded by 'planning' constraints... In place it would have given a commanding view of the Airport and beyond the trees and forests that form the Blackbushe skyline. The completed Tower would have risen high enough to grant safe vision of all the circuit activity located away from the Airport's Terminal area. A new Tower was eventually built by BCA during their tenancy.




It's an airport!! ...and it felt like it!




Three Counties days, and my much loved MG Midget... I spent more time taxiing aeroplanes up and down the airfield than driving in those days. The 'lock-up' hangars that I helped to build with AVM Bennett and the team had only temporary planning permission. But, they provided much needed refuge for some of Blackbushe's residents during their life, a life that extended past their approved lifetime..



For some of us Blackbushe truly is a field of dreams, we can but hope the ultimate dream can find resolve guided by the Prime Minister's recent bold claims??

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
17/10/24

On this dark October morning, a few moments perhaps to let our thoughts soar to some other place, a place that is always there above our heads - but how you get there makes all the difference!

Back to Blackbushe, where else, and a Spitfire's progress through restoration under the skilled hands of Doug Arnold's warbird team whose endeavours brought new life to aeroplanes who assumed their flying days were done...




Almost ready...




..never fly on an empty stomach.




...chocks away, won't be long, it's time to fly.




"Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds". The immortal words of John Gillespie Magee Jr and how his poignant words capture the unequalled joy of soaring through God's country. There can be no better way than on the laughter-silvered wings of a Spitfire?



You too can experience the ultimate thrill of flying in a Spitfire, the Spitfire flying days will return to Blackbushe next year!

Meanwhile tonight at Blackbushe's Pathfinder Cafe your chance to attend another of the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's 'winter talks', starting at 7pm TONIGHT! Squadron Leader Rick Lipscomb of the Royal Air Forces Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Squadron (JARTS) talks about the work of his team in ensuring the preservation of the RAF’s history and, akin to the Blackbushe Heritage Trust their ambition is to maintain some of our nation's priceless aviation heritage. Tickets on arrival are £10 and all proceeds go directly to the ongoing Viking restoration.


PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
18/10/24


Very brief "POTD" this morning, speed is of the essence.

Talking of speed, have you heard of a 'rocket drone'?

Well, in New Zealand a company, Dawn Aerospace, launched such a vehicle recently giving hope of very economical access to space!

The story was covered by AvWeb recently...

A New Zealand company flew back-to-back flights in a rocket-powered drone it hopes will be the vanguard of routine access to space. Dawn Aerospace's Mk-II Aurora flew two sorties to 63,000 feet and Mach .95 on Sept. 27 to demonstrate the quick turnaround of the aircraft. “Rapid reusability has been termed the ‘holy grail’ for rocket-powered systems,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. “This milestone shows that our fundamental concept will unlock never-before-seen performance and hypersonic flight in a platform suitable for everyday operations, not just one-off research and development.”

The two flights, the airframe's seventh and eighth, were a dress rehearsal for an operational life of taking off from a runway and climbing to the edge of space at about 60 miles (100 km) in altitude twice a day. New Zealand has certified the Aurora as an airplane rather than as a rocket, and that means it doesn't require airspace closures to operate. The flight tests are being done at Glentanner Aerodrome on the South Island. “Our licence permits us to fly as often as the vehicle allows. At present, we can fly every four hours with scope to reduce turnaround time further,” said Powell. Dawn has already lined up customers to take payloads to the edge of space.



YouTube coverage...




Imagine, Blackbushe's fabulous runway becoming a gateway to space!! It'll NEVER happen......




Blackbushe does, of course, offer more comfortable ways of reaching the upper atmosphere in craft that have a certain 'space-age' look about them....


PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
19/10/24


As we look forward with positive hopes for the future of Blackbushe and visualise how she will look and perform under the wings of positive planning departments there are those of us whose memory bank stretches way back to the early sixties when the airfield was pretty much desolate and victim of wholesale destruction by the government and localised council considerations...

Those treasured years of the early sixties were a unique window in the passage of Blackbushe time, and I was utterly thrilled to be a player amid a fabulous cast who all shared that same appreciation of an airport written-off but perhaps on the cusp of a very new theatre of General Aviation action. When you were fifteen you looked up with admiration to the more senior players who shared a stage offering very few aircraft, but colossal hope under the command of AVM "Pathfinder" Bennett. Over six decades later and with the experience of that many years on life's varies stages the cast has become massively larger, the airfield is vastly more busy with its home based fleet and increasing international business operations, but admiration for the team who hold today's hopes for Blackbushe in their hands is no less small than it was back in those far-off days...which ever way you look at it!




Departing on 08 aboard EKCO's Anson..




1962, final for runway 08, today's 07. Blackbushe 'south' still showing her bones.. Piper Colt.




..and 08 on the nose, 1960s style...




Much more recent view from the other direction, final for 25, 26 back in the sixties.. Cessna 150




Arriving on 01, the unmistakable slab wing of a PA-28..




The "Berlin Wall" of Blackbushe takes effect as east and west are split by an ancient pathway...




Northside in the seventies, Beech Baron..




West side story, very early sixties. Auster J1/N




Final approach, runway 14, 1960s, Piper Colt.




Sixty years later....still there, but a changed environment.





Runway 14/32 put to a new use, parking area for our Farnborough visitors 1970s..




Another great divide, the A30 captured during a Three Counties Aero Club formation practice...mid sixties.




Runways 01/19 and 14/32 captured in the sixties when all runways were operational. Great when the 'northerlies' blew. The north-east corner shows where the very busy United States Navy base was right up until May 1960 when the government's destruction squads moved in..




Late sixties, all runways operational, the bones of Blackbushe are clear to see...

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
20/10/24

Good morning Blackbushe people hopefully yesterday's "POTD" and its different approaches to the Blackbushe story was of interest?

A moment now to reflect on a couple of outstanding names from our British aviation heritage, no Blackbushe connections but so worthy of our respect.

Going back to 1934 the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Melbourne, Australia, was flown to celebrate the centenary of the state of Victoria. C W Scott and Tom Black won the £15,000 prize flying the fabulous DH Comet "Grosvenor House".

In the autumn of the same year, October 20th to November 3rd, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith make the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from Brisbane, Australia to San Francisco, California, in the "Lady Southern Cross". The Hawaii-to-San Francisco leg of his crossing on November 3 is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.

On this day in 1953 a TWA Constellation makes the first non-stop, scheduled passenger flight across the United States...

On this day in 1988 we lost the amazing Sheila Scott. Born in 1922 she broke no less than 100 aviation records due to long distance flying. These flights included a world and a half (54,000km) flight in 1971 during which she became the first person to fly over the North Pole in a light aircraft, she was also the first woman pilot to fly solo around the world back in 1966.





Some Blackbushe heroes now. This Viscount had a training mishap at Blackbushe, Airport fire service were very soon in attendance. Flight simulators today dramatically reduce the chance of training mishaps....



PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
21/10/24

"POTD" delayed this morning due to some kind of gremlins on the line between here and Proboards HQ. Seemingly resolved now, but at 07.00 or very soon thereafter the Blackbushe webcam provided a very pleasing image of the Airport's new runway lights beaming through the darkness while assorted flashing vehicle lights indicated another Blackbushe day had started. How different to those days in the sixties when we just had the AVM's aged Land Rover (no flashing beacons) and hundreds of acres of barren airport minus aeroplanes. Time has made a vast difference over sixty years, time will hopefully soon witness much faster changes, but for that we have to wait on the Planning Inspector's decisions over the coming weeks...For anyone with the slightest positive inclinations toward Blackbushe these are incredibly exciting times...



BEA, British European Airways at Blackbushe during a weather diversion November, 1959. Rich in memories...




BOAC, British Overseas Airways Corporation, on one of their many Blackbushe crew training sorties enjoying a superb runway and so relatively close to their HQ at London Airport - Heathrow.


So, why pictures of what once were our two state airlines? Today's date has a significant place in their combined histories. They had 'united' into one airline, Britain's state airline British Airways. 'BA' were formed on 1st April, 1974, and the initials BEA and BOAC were destined for oblivion. Both airlines had great loyalty amid their staff, flying under the BOAC flag it did feel a little strange to see our coveted BOAC logo and regal dark blue cheat lines and golden 'speedbirds' destined for removal. Time went on and by today's date, 21 October, in 1986 'British Airways' was offered for public sale by the British government.




..and finally, British Caledonian at Blackbushe. Slightly reduced passenger carrying config than the name "BCAL" might be remembered for, but great to see their logo operating from Blackbushe. As time bore witness to the dramatically changing scene amid Britain's airlines, the name BCal was to disappear when in 1988 they were merged with British Airways. Thanks to John Varndell for the action photo.



See you tomorrow,
PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
22/10/24

There is no doubt, a visit to Blackbushe is good for the heart! Attending a meeting at the Airport last night I, as was everyone else, was greeted by the sight of assorted jet and turbo prop business aircraft night stopping. Beyond in the gathering dusk lay a field of light aircraft, a field that has progressively grown over the years as flying school fleets and private owners enjoy the benefits of the airfield on the plateau... The gathering of business types surely an indication of the future air traffic in prospect as and when Blackbushe is able to provide the accommodation and services she has waited so long to lay before the operators of such aircraft... Perhaps, and we can only pray that it happens, but before the year's end Blackbushe may have the news she, and all who cherish her, have awaited since 1961.

Last night's time at the Airport witnessed the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's Viking proudly awaiting her future moment when finally fully restored she is rolled out onto the Blackbushe apron where alone she will represent and speak for the unique history of Blackbushe created during her commercial years when Vikings were the 'Airbus' of the 1950s airways...She will have a formidable duty talking of the Airport's proud past when it indeed became London's second airport...

Adding to the pleasure of last evening's arrival was the Airport's new runway lighting system, arriving on the A30 from the west one was greeted by this long illuminated runway that immediately gave rise to memories of that same runway when lit by her 'commercial airport' lighting surrounded by the many lights of the Terminal area, hangars, and aircraft on the move. Such memories are getting old and maybe a little faded, but their impact is nonetheless as powerful as ever!! The new runway lighting a sign of extreme optimism for the future..

Finally, last evening bore witness to another outstanding feature of Blackbushe Airport. The sky. OK, we can all see the sky, but from Blackbushe looking west you are often treated to the most glorious sunsets and skyscapes. Another benefit of being situate on a plateau, last evening was no exception. What else does being on a plateau achieve if you should happen to be an airfield?

Last night demonstrated yet another feature. Leaving the Airport around 21.30 the visibility was crystal clear, but taking the roads south and west of Blackbushe one descends from the plateau, the descent confirmed last evening as the car entered ghostly clouds of awaiting fog at the lower levels and yet only two or three miles from the crystal clear Blackbushe..

Sadly I did not have the time to take photos last night, you'll just have to imagine the scene! I can say that the apron yesterday enjoyed the company of G-MDSZ, OO-PCA, and LX-FLG all PC-12s, PC-24 M-DIVE, and Cessna C525 M-MSVI.




A photo you've seen before thanks to 'Flo', as the Heritage Trust Viking enjoys witnessing Blackbushe sunsets once again...




One of yesterday's visitors with a great registration.. The fabulous PC-24, an aeroplane type designed for Blackbushe!!


As Blackbushe enjoys another crystal clear day, "POTD" takes it leave of you until the 'morrow....

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
23/10/24

Greetings once again, and thank you to the 500 folk who visited "POTD" yesterday, wouldn't be the same without you!!

Talking of yesterday I mentioned the varied scenes of Blackbushe Airport and how it was not possible to secure a photo of the previous evening's scene on the apron. As luck would have it the scene was very similar when arriving at the Airport yesterday afternoon for another gathering at the now famed Pathfinder. The apron had a liberal spread of business aircraft, passengers were walking the apron to their awaiting aircraft, the same apron walked by so many in the fifties as they went to board their Viking, or Hermes, York, Viscount, DC-6, Dakota, or any of the other classic shapes that blessed Blackbushe with their presence.

Time may have passed, but the scene impressed upon me that this airport has much yet to offer...by the end of this month the Planning Inspectorate will have made their visit and assessment of the Land Exchange, maybe by the end of the following month we will have their decision and report. And then.....!!!!!!!!




Blackbushe apron, 22nd October, 2024.




Same apron, just a few years earlier.... The three guys are obviously gazing at Blackbushe's east end and the fantastic views that were afforded before it fell into local authority control...




Blackbushe 'tomorrow'? The perfect partnership....



PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
24/10/24


She's had a long history with Blackbushe, the relationship continuing at this year's Blackbushe Air Day...




Wind and rain may have come from the sky to celebrate our Air Day, but the beautiful Albatross was undeterred and after weeks of research and requests this piece of history returned to Blackbushe..



It was on 24 October, in 1947 that the Grumman Albatross first took to the sky. With a distinguished service career when she was designed to a U.S. Navy specification, the type served with the USAF and U.S. Coastguard.. The unique Albatross shape was familiar to all who frequented Blackbushe in the fifties. The second prototype visited on 2 June, 1955, they arrived withe various attaches, the US Attache for Greece in 1955 and 1958, and the US Navy Attache for Norway occasionally and the US Navy attache for Oslo arrived aboard an Albatross on numerous occasions. USAF 67ARS Albatrosses arrived from Prestwick from time to time adding to the type's affiliation with Blackbushe.




Blackbushe's immaculate east-end in the fifties as a lone Albatross wanders across the then huge apron. The original Control Tower in pristine white with her new Visual Control Room glass upper offering incredible views of the Airport and surrounding geography. I've been there as a guest, views you cannot forget...



Time's a funny thing, that photo probably goes back the best part of seventy years, never dreamed as I sat - very young - with my trusty bike propped against the Airport car-park fence that decades into the future I'd be chasing a beautiful blue Albatross in hopes that she'd come back to the hallowed place where Albatross's were seen to roost while wearing their military colours.







PB