Brooklands yesterday

[Lotiman]

First off, my apologies for this not being an especially car related topic although, in my defence, it is about Brooklands, the oldest motor racing circuit in the world. For extra relevance (maybe a tad spurious, I will admit) it is right next door to the renowned MB World.

Anyhow, I'm sure some of you folk will be interested to see these pics I took yesterday (I'm a volunteer steward there) of Brooklands Museum's Vickers Wellington bomber. It was raised from the bottom of Loch Ness in 1985, (see link here if you have some time to kill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jR_eXWjv6c) and yesterday moved from it's home of the last 30 years to a temporary hangar next to Concorde, during extensive museum restorations. It normally has it's wings in place, but these have been removed to make moving it round easier for now.

The brief history of Vickers Wellington 'R' for Robert is that it was on a training mission in Scotland in 1940, with full complement of crew and armament when the intake of both engines iced up, causing them to lose power and cut out. The pilot told everybody to bale out and he managed to ditch the plane in Loch Ness, before climbing out and making it to shore. Sadly, the rear gunners parachute failed to open and he died.

The surviving structure of the plane was discovered on the Loch's floor during a survey for 'Nessie' in 1977 and finally raised in 1985, before being taken back to Brooklands, where it had started life all those years ago, to be partially reassembled and put on display.

I've included a couple of pics of the Vickers Vimy replica that flew on a world tour before retiring to Brooklands in 2009. That too, is being moved to a temporary home on the site during restoration work.


http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10209-img-1177.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10210-img-1178.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10211-img-1179.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10212-img-1183.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10213-img-1185.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10214-img-1186.html
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members/lotiman-albums-brooklands-picture10215-img-1190.html

It was quite emotional yesterday, watching these iconic aircraft being moved around the site, especially in such close proximity to the supersonic icon of the skies, whose shape we all know and love, in Concorde.

Anyhow, apologies again for no car content, but hope these pics are of interest to some of you folk out there in MB land.

 

[Lotiman]

Oh dear, I really seem to struggle with posting pics on this forum and had hoped the thread would appear with the pics on show, instead of just links to them. Maybe a kindly forum mod could sort it out for me please (he asks hopefully) I don't even understand quite how I managed to get the one thumbnail pic on the bottom.

Hey ho, 'tis all part of life's rich pageant I guess.

 

[BTB 500]

Wow the Wellington is coming on well. I saw it when it had just arrived at Brooklands (a club I'm in had a private tour) ... last went there about 10 years ago.

That Vimy replica has fared better than the last one, which I remember caught fire!

 

[bob6600]

Here you go

 

[Lotiman]

:bannana: Why thank you. Very much appreciated.