I have a feeling she might still be airworthy too. I'm fairly certain I've seen her fly at one of the Avalon airshows in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

 

I was at Lutterworth last week and visited two of the Frank Whittle memorials. For world leaders the Brits let that one slip away a bit but cash is king and all that. It is amazing that a couple of operational Meteors still test fire the Martin Baker ejector seats which have saved so many lives. Any F35 pilots who have ejected owe Frank and these old birds (plus of course Martin Baker) a nod.
The main photo is by Darren Harbar. I have met him a few times / very knowledgeable and skilled aviation photographer.
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At a roundabout (traffic circle) near Lutterworth is/was a replica Whittle-Gloster E28-39 on a pole. It had been erected about a week before I was surprised to see it there around 2003/4.

One of them appears in an episode of The Prisoner where Number Six is ejected from it back into the Portmerion "prison".

 

Discretion is the better part of valour and it was too far to walk back / no parking so I did not get that photo - but stolen from the interweb below. Did not know the meteor was in the prisoner, a sixties classic with some interesting wrist watches (some central to the plot).

 

Me neither... 14CFR 91.211

 

Last time I watched the series all the way through I took no notice of watches (that was before joining OF) but there was an episode involving a clock-maker and his daughter? Those 1960s beehive hairdos..... Next time I have a DVD player hooked up to the laptop I might do some searching.

 

I've been above that in a glider with no oxygen. The wave lift was so strong over Cairn Gorm we had a very hard time getting it to head back to legal levels. Eventually we had to spin it down. I thought it was fun, but the Chief Flying Instructor at my club later said I must be mad to enjoy spinning.

 

Spinning is not something I'd willingly do either, especially since the Piper Cherokee I used to fly was not approved for it!

 

We were in a PZL Puchacz which was designed for aerobatic training as well as ab-initio glider flying. I had by then spun so many cars that I was completely used to it although I don't know of one that is approved for it It must be acknowledged that recovery technique is somewhat different, but cars are rarely pointing down at ~70 degrees so it's easy to tell just what controls to apply.

More seriously, there is a debate about whether spin training saves more lives than it costs. Learning about incipient spins for GA pilots is a good idea, but learning to deal with one could be good too IMO. Pilots of B737s or A320s are not encouraged to try practicing it.

 

A lot of private light aircraft pilots are still being lost to stall spins. There has been a push in the states to focus on stall avoidance, awareness of the angle of attack and minimum airspeed. At low level if they try an impossible turn or nose up on an engine failure etc there is no recovery time. Smaller aircraft look at stall recovery training but the airlines focus on stall avoidance at all cost. Unless you are getting thorough training avoidance looks the best way for everyone, especially at low level (landing / takeoff) . There are still a fair few fatal accidents which are usually put down to pilot error sadly, just drop out of the sky.

 

90 years ago... 1st flight over Mt Everest / Chomolungma
Westland PV-3 G-ACAZ: Pilot Lord Clydesdale, Observer/cameraman Stewart Blacker
Westland PV-6 “Houston-Wallace” G-ACBR: Pilot David McIntyre, Observer/cameraman Sidney Bonnett
On April 3, 1933 both biplanes flew over Mount Everest reaching 34000 Feet but had to make a second flight over Everest on April 19 as during the first flight they couldn’t obtain clear photographs because of dust. On the pilots' wrists, Rolex Oyster watches!
Maps and mosaic photographs of the Everest flight expedition were made public in 1951... an exciting read!
(Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
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I remember one flying lesson where my instructor took us up in a Cessna 150 to demonstrate how to spin the aircraft and more importantly, how to recover from a spin. I found that I didn't like the sensation of spinning very much, so that was the only time I ever did it. However, I feel that it's an essential skill for all pilots to be able to recognise when an aircraft is about to enter a spin or is in a spin and how to recover.

 

I guess it makes sense. If you don't stall the aircraft, you don't spin. Simple.

 

Yes and in some circumstances, and when too low someone might not have the time or be in the right emotional state to make the right moves for a recovery.
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Having said up-thread that I was used to the sensation of spinning from experience in car racing I wondered how the rotation rates compared. Some internet references suggest 2-3 sec for one complete rotation in light aircraft, so then I dug out a video of me spinning a Lola T212 Group Five sports car and counted frames. 2.8 sec for a 360. Hmmm, so very similar. Perhaps would-be pilots should have some skid-pan sessions in their cars before aircraft spin training?

 

We all know about gliders being cable-towed by another aircraft or being winched via a truck, the latter being 50% cheaper than an aircraft tow
But what about a Balloon launch for a glider
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Sir Frank is my personal hero and the reason I specialise in Jet engines today. John Golley wrote a book on his life and struggles trying to get the British government to accept his invention, its a great read but if you want a real page turner you should read Stanley Hookers "Not much of an engineer" without him helping Frank the Germans would have been years ahead and Rolls Royce would not be the Aero engine super power they are today.

 

Any watch sleuths willing to take a crack at Sir Frank's timepiece(s)?

 

The winch launch is from a static truck stationed at the far end of the runway and you normally reach 1000-1200 ft but on a good day with a headwind maybe 1400-1500ft. It's quite a ride



But there is yet another method -- being towed behind a car. Needs to be a pretty powerful car and even then the height gained is 600 ft or less. Connel airfield used an elderly V12 Jaguar which I was supposed to get qualified on, but the weather was so foul while I was there that I never did. A launch to 600 ft means a very scrappy first few minutes desperately searching for some low-level lift however weak. Or, too frequently, a quick return to the ground.

 

Although the US Navy Blue Angels started in 1946, the USAF cancelled their " AcroJets " in 1950 because of the war effort in Korea...
The USAF Thunderbirds were created 70 years ago in May 1953... flying the F-84 Thunderjet.
During those 70 years, the Thunderbirds flew six different types of jet aircraft.
Already in 1954, the Thunderbirds approached Rolex in order to get an official pilot watch for the aerobatic team...
Rolex suggested their revolutionary designed 36 mm stainless steel Turn-O’Graph 6609 with rotational bezel.
Moreover, after a long duty tour with the demo team, many pilots were issued a Gold Datejust version.
Rolex aligned themselves with the Thunderbirds in their promotional materials, and nicknamed their Datejust Turn-O-Graph the ‘Thunderbird’, placing the team’s emblem directly on the dial at six o’clock position.
Between 1955-1957 NASA astronaut William Pogue was Thunderbirds team member and wore his Gold Datejust during NASA training for Apollo & Skylab programs.
. 70 years USAF Thunderbirds