John R

I was in the 6th or 7th row back, very close to the 'road' down the middle zone - just about my favourite spot. There are bad spots. For the first airshow I was close to the back of Zone A and very close to the trees so it was not possible to a/c approaching from the right. I was not happy. John

Where were standing? some of your pictures look awfully like mine John

There was a very interesting line-up with a few a/c I had not seen, or heard of, before. A variable day weatherwise. It started sunny then became overcast then cleared, a pattern that was repeated all afternoon. It ended up being sufficiently calm to fly 3 of the Edwardians, alas not the Deperdussin or the Bleriot. Unfortunately there was no evening sunshine to show them at their best. The Spitfire and Hurricane started being overcast for the flyby as a pair but cleared just in time for the individual displays. I decided to start with these so you will not have to scroll down through the mundane stuff to get to them. The show started with the Catalina The Comet/Mew Gull display suffered from the poor light and the Comet's individual display, disappointingly, had no topsides An a/c that I never new existed - the Civilian Coupe ( Civilian was the name of the company) The Fauvel AV36 was followed around the sky by its towing a/c. Surreal sight The Lunak glider was flown its usual verve. Sorry about the pixellation - it was up high and the small image lost something when hosted Desoutter and Moth together There was rather drab looking Gemini Hawk Speed Six The Sopwith Triplane managed to find a patch of bright sunshine The Edwardians - Avro Triplane and Bristol Boxkite Blackburn Monoplane

I cannot see your pictures. Where are they hosted? Someone has suggested that it might be because they are on Facebook. John

As the one who started it with the best interests of BM at heart and who said many posts ago, after Mikes comprehensive answer, "From all I have learned from Mike & Co it seems that it is the numbers of users that drives the server requirement and not the amount of content so this thread can probably be closed" . It is time to reiterate that. John

I suppose I could look it up but others might be curious - When did it first appear and what is the scale, please? Really nice work there John

Apparently the DH 108 was pleasant to so long as you stayed away from the extremes of its flight envelope. At the high speed end the X-4 apparently exhibited similar characteristics but as it flew much later than the 108 the pilots would have been aware of what to expect. I don't know if it ever went into the high mach/ high ias region that did for Geoffrey De Havilland but it was sensitive in pitch at high mach numbers. John

I just tried to view this thread and there are several pictures that just appear as flickering grey rectangles one line deep. Other people seem to be able to see them, why not me? I have tried on a couple of occasions at different times of the day. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079248-172-mach-2-so-9050-trident-ii/ John

BM has a 'donate' button in the top right corner. That's something I would love to know. Mike would probably say that it is not in the public interest but isn't it funny that phrase is always used to describe something in which the public is very interested. We can only hope that our donations are not going to fund that super PC that Mike described earlier John

I think that you are mistaken. The plane in question was the Supermarine 535 'Prometheus' of which there is no kit available, alas. John

I was just concerned for the future of BM. It's a great site and I wouldn't want anything to happen to it. There have been requests for donations in the past and I wondered if there were ways of reducing costs. The site continues to grow and I thought that it might be possible to contain it by removing obsolete posts but according to Mike that's not a problem. John

I think that thread creep has started. Perhaps we can get back to discussing the original idea. From all I have learned from Mike & Co it seems that it is the numbers of users that drives the server requirement and not the amount of content so this thread can probably be closed. Cynic that I am I shall watch and wait for the next update. Going back to my original post here is an example that I came across last night. I am starting a Pro-Resin Avro 707A and remembered that there was a post from long ago about building one. I found it was full of blank Photobucket pictures and the reference to the WIP doe not work https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/70273-avro-707a-wd280-early/ The WIP at :http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64440&hl=rpaddy+707 John

Thank you for the reply but what is SSD storage, please?

Some pictures added to the main thread showing comparsions with the DH 110 and the Northrop X-4

Any idea why? I believe that there was a planning application for a service area opposite the end of the runway. Did this have anything to do with it? John

Thank you for the warning about the u/c legs. I have the Maintrack vacform 707b & 707C kits and their u/c legs look much better. I am tempted to use those legs from instead. John

Thank you for the compliments but it's not a stinker by any stretch of the imagination. It went together fairly easily in a short time with a few hassles, not unexpected in a short run kit, and a few bits that you feel could have sorted out with more care at the design stage. John

Very good and very interesting. I thinking of starting the same model but with the straight wing LE. I was thinking of doing mine in its original pink scheme but it looks so awful I may go for the red. Is there anything else I should look out for? After seeing this post I had to look up your Vulcan and Comet prototypes - great work on both. John

Originally designed as a half scale model of a planned jet airliner it became apparent during the design phase that the layout was unsuitable and but it continued as research a/c for investigating the characteristics of swept wings. Three were built. The first used a Vampire front fuselage and was used for low speed research. It crashed after spinning at low altitude. The second was used for high speed work but crashed whist practising for an attempt on the world speed record. The third, modelled here, had a modified fuselage having a more pointed nose and a lowered, more streamlined, canopy. It first flew in July 1947 and in September 1948 became the first British a/c to exceed the speed of sound, although completely out of control at the time! It was passed to the RAE in November 1949 for further research but crashed in September 1950 for reasons unknown but believed to be pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen. I once heard Eric Brown describe it as the most dangerous aircraft that he had flown. This resin kit was produced by Planet models and went together fairly easily. There are three basic components, the upper and lower halves of the wing/fuselage and the rudder, all nicely moulded and free from pinholes. The most notable problem being the fit of the upper front fuselage – it doesn’t and requires filler to correct a large gap between the front portions ahead of the canopy. I realised later that I should have spent some time thinning the rear sections of the wing to produce a sharper trailing edge. The kit is supplied with two vacform canopies. Unfortunately there is a flaw in that the frame which runs down the centre of the forward section is not quite in the centre. I had to trim the top of the pilot's seat to stop it fouling the canopy.. Not a big deal as it is hardly visible. One final problem appeared whilst fitting the u/c. The a/c sits slightly nose up and the model does not. It is partly due to the mainwheels being oversize, compared to Barrie Hygates drawing, and something else which I could not work out. I ended up shortening the legs to get it to look right. In fact the original legs looked far too long to retract into the wells whereas the shorter legs look to be about the right length. The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black enamel followed by a light coat of Alclad Aluminium to reduce the shine. John Whilst putting it in the display cabinet I was reminded that I had seen that wing planform before... I had always thought of the 108 as being small but, as a half-scale model of the proposed DH 106 it had a span of 39ft (about 12m) Compare it with its American equivalent the Northrop X-4

Thank you. It looks revolting. I wonder what made them choose it? No wonder it was changed. John

I didn't think it would be easy or quick - just that it might be necessary John

Britmodeller keeps getting bigger and more expensive to run resulting in migrations to new servers and requests for donations. Short of a Covid induced meltdown of the world’s economy this is not going to stop so perhaps it is time to consider doing something about it. Is time to think about some pruning? I realise that this might cause howls of dismay as the site is regarded as source of invaluable references but there must be a lot stuff which is no longer relevant. I am referring to posts which have been rendered useless by the Photobucket fiasco and the vast number of posts containing comments of the ‘lovely’or ‘well done’ variety. Perhaps posts which have not been read for a certain number of years could be safely deleted? This might be inconvenient for the odd modeller in the years to come but would stop BM becoming too bloated to survive. The above might be considered heresy, selling off the family heirlooms or just the ravings of someone who has spent too much time on his own recently but… John

The first Avro 707A first appeared painted 'pink' before being re-painted red. Does anybody know what colour 'pink' was? I have seen it decribed as 'Salmon pink'. John

Not the most colourful or exciting a/c but nevertheless interesting because it was the first Russian a/c to have swept wings. It first flew in 1947 powered by an RD-10F, a copy of the German Jumo 004 fitted with a Lavochkin developed afterburner. It was able to reach a speed of Mach 0.92 but was lost when due to structural failure of the wing (it sounded like flutter) when attempting to reach higher speeds. It was designed to have two cannons mounted above the intake but these were not fitted for the early flights. It went together quite easily like all Prop & Jet kits. The only problems were self-inflicted. I had great trouble getting the anhedral correct and the same on both wings. Normal procedure is to to lay the fuselage halves flat on the bench and slot the wings into them. The wings can then be adjusted to the correct angle and supported before glueing - something that I find vital when using CA. I also line up the fuselages longitudinally so I can check that the anhedral is the same for both wings. This time I was so concerned about getting the right amount of ballast in the nose that I joined up the fuselage halves first. I should also have thinned the fin and rear fuselage so that it matched the rudder before glueing the fuselage halves together. Finish is Vallejo Sky Grey

No. I've known a lot worse. It's fairly typical Modelsvit. Very good in parts and so-so in others and one gets the impression that they have been designed and produced with no attempt to assess and eliminate flaws. There are 'interesting' quirks like the the top fuselage halves have different depth panel lines. The scissors on the front u/c leg have to be assembled from a couple of tiny parts whereas those on the main u/c legs are very nicely moulded as part of the leg. Having said that it is a lot better than the MiG 150 series. You also have to take into account that I am nearly 80, the fingers are a lot less nimble than they used to be and patience is in short supply these days. John