Simon and I went to Duxford today it's a bit expensive but it's marvellous, I have a bit of a thing for aircraft and machinery so I was in my element.
They have the restoration hangers open to the public, even on a Sunday there were engineers working on restoring the old aircraft. The smell of engine grease, oil and ball bearings takes me back to when I was a small girl when my friends and I would go to the local mechanics go get ball bearings that we could use as steelers in marbles,
The American Hanger is stunning but too crowded with aircraft I couldn't get a clear sense of their shapes, I think they have two hangers worth of material in one space which is a pity. They had Soviet SAMs hard under the wings of an American bomber, on the other side there was a small section of the "supergun" that Saddam Hussein was trying to have constructed.
Adults who wear military fatigues and DPMs when a) they are not in the military or a re-enactment society or b) are off duty worry me, and there were quite a few adults decked out in all manner of pseudo military outfits today with their little kiddies dressed up like miniature action men too. Weirdos.
i love that second photo! (even though i've no idea what it is, ooh unless its a bit of Saddam's supergun?)
ReplyDeleteawesome photos. My husband has been and says it is great.
ReplyDeleteYep Freiya, it is a bit of the supergun that Jane mentioned. Basically a huge lump of impressively machined metal. They didn't tell the engineers what they wanted it for, makes you wonder what possible other uses there could have been for it.
ReplyDeleteOoo, name dropping time.
ReplyDeleteAs a wee young apprentice the little land warfare building at Duxford was one of my first design projects.
Yet ive never seen the rest of the place.
Stick some pics in the Duxford flickr pool!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/groups/21753381@N00/
We all had a great day there. We got in for free. I don't remember how, but I do recall thinking it was a bit steep for us all to go.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/straytoaster/sets/72057594109621283/
I love being under the flight path. It rocks. Sit in the back garden, sipping gin, and watch the Hurricanes and Spruce Gooses (erm, geeses, erm..) et al practice. And if you time your Sunday trip to the skip right, you get them screaming over your head to land.
...a bit steep for us all to go...if we had to pay for it
ReplyDelete*sigh* That last comment was so full of mistakes. Been a long um, start to the week.
Tracy and I keep meaning to get to Duxford. I havenn't been there since I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteIs the first picture the wing of the gorgeous Concorde?
Em - Thanks and I love your new avatar!
ReplyDeleteSim - Wow my name drop is that my Grandad worked on (as in designed) Concorde's lighting systems
ST - thanks for the heads up on that group I have duely joined and contributed
Connie - well worth doing take sunblock and wear shoes for walking in. Yup that is the wing of Concorde!