Forgotten glory

[Canon Bob]

Speed was everything in 1953 and the world speed record was broken by five different aircraft in a sixteen week spell. The 25th September saw the prototype Supermarine Swift F4 (serial WK198) at the hands of Mike Lithgow wrestle the record from Neville Duke's Hawker Hunter. Born only a few months earlier, WK198 carried Mike Lithgow across the Libyan dessert at 737mph and earned it's place in the Aviation Hall of Fame.

By the end of the decade our national hero had been transferred to the RAF School of Technical Training at Kirkham in Lancashire and was the plaything of airframe fitters and riggers. The advancement of aircraft technology soon made WK198 surplus to their requirements as it was no longer seen as representative of current inservice aircraft.

So, where next for a prize winning example of our National Heritage?

I caught up with WK198 in Unimetal's scrapyard near Failsworth in Greater Manchester where it was to languish for the next 15 to 20 years. Its grafitti adorned fuselage and wings somehow managed to survive the inclement northern weather and it was eventually rescued by some enthusiastic members of the nascent UK aircraft preservation movement.

After the custodianship of several well intentioned preservation societies, our hero is now at Weybridge being restored to its former glory by the craftsmen of the Brooklands Museum

Here's my mid-70's shot (a scanned Ektachrome) from one of my several clandestine visits to the yard

 

[DinkyDarwin]

This country really doesn't look after its National Heritage as well as it could. Just look at Brooklands Museum where this plane is being restored. The oldest race track in the world and it was cut up and built on.
Some countries would have never let that happen but now most is gone and there's even a Tesco built on it.

 

[Canon Bob]

I used to visit BAC Weybridge in the early 80's and have a lunchtime stroll on the old banked circuit. It was weed infested even in those days and the BAC plant was demolished to make way for the Tesco store that you refer to.

 

[Asha]

Speed was everything in 1953 and the world speed record was broken by five different aircraft in a sixteen week spell. The 25th September saw the prototype Supermarine Swift F4 (serial WK198) at the hands of Mike Lithgow wrestle the record from Neville Duke's Hawker Hunter. Born only a few months earlier, WK198 carried Mike Lithgow across the Libyan dessert at 737mph and earned it's place in the Aviation Hall of Fame.

By the end of the decade our national hero had been transferred to the RAF School of Technical Training at Kirkham in Lancashire and was the plaything of airframe fitters and riggers. The advancement of aircraft technology soon made WK198 surplus to their requirements as it was no longer seen as representative of current inservice aircraft.

So, where next for a prize winning example of our National Heritage?

I caught up with WK198 in Unimetals scrapyard near Failsworth in Greater Manchester where it was to languish for the next 15 to 20 years. Its grafitti adorned fuselage and wings somehow managed to survive the inclement northern weather and it was eventually rescued by some enthusiastic members of the nacent UK aircraft preservation movement.

After the custodianship of several well intentioned preservation societies, our hero is now at Weybridge being restored to its former glory by the craftsmen of the Brooklands Museum

Here's my mid-70's shot (a scanned Ektachrome) from one of my several clandestine visits to the yard

I like that as a fil shot result.

Could do to be in the "Show us yer film shots" thread in F&C Bob

 

[Canon Bob]

I like that as a film shot result.

Could do to be in the "Show us yer film shots" thread in F&C Bob

Cheers Asha. I'll process a few more old slides from my days sleuthing around scrapyards outwitting guard dogs and adorn the thread with them.

 

[huffy]

A interesting image, it reminds me of a scrap yard by the A1. As I recall there used to be a English Electric Lighting in it, I wonder if it was saved.

 

[Canon Bob]

A interesting image, it reminds me of a scrap yard by the A1. As I recall there used to be a English Electric Lighting in it, I wonder if it was saved.

The cockpit section is undergoing restoration. XN728 Click on the orange link to see its current status.

 

[Bristolian]

Another great visual record of our aviation history

 

[lindsay]

A friend and I created the Witshire Historic Aviation Group which morphed into the group that is now the aircraft museum at Old Sarum, which has a Swift cockpit section belonging to said friend, who has restored that and about half a dozen other cockpit sections in his time

 

[Canon Bob]

A friend and I created the Witshire Historic Aviation Group which morphed into the group that is now the aircraft museum at Old Sarum, which has a Swift cockpit section belonging to said friend, who has restored that and about half a dozen other cockpit sections in his time

I don't have anything from the Swift, Lindsay, but here's a late 70's shot of your Canberra before its 'nosectomy'
Scanned from an Ektachrome

 

[lindsay]

That's nice.

 

[Bristolian]

We did make some brilliant aircraft back in the Cold War days

 

[Canon Bob]

We did make some brilliant aircraft back in the Cold War days

We did indeed, Steve. The saddest bit is the brilliant aircraft that we didn't make. Short sighted politicians and their unadventurous scientific advisors, along with the board of BOAC, wounded the industry and it's taken 50 years to recover.