Hendon photos; Kittyhawk, Tiffie, Beau, Lanc

[Adrian Roberts]

I was at the RAF Museum (Hendon) for the Cross&Cockade AGM yesterday. Being a WW1 orientated-day, I mainly concentrated on the WW1 exhibits, but I photographed a few WW2 subjects as well.

Those of you in the UK have probably seen these, and its very difficult to get decent photos with an ordinary camera, given the low light levels and the difficulty of getting far enough away from the subjects to get them all in shot (at least WW1 a/c are mostly smaller).

But I thought I'd bang up a few here anyway:

The Kittyhawk was built from the remains of several wrecks in New Guinea, plus some new-build parts; it is painted as a 112 squadron example in North Africa.

The Beaufighter TF.X is RD253, built at the end of the war and used by the Portugese Navy for many years. I didn't realise just how big a Beau was; no wonder it was sometimes mistaken for a JU88.

The Typhoon MN235 is the only surviving example; it was sent to the US when new and we had to blag it off the Smithsonian Institute when we realised we had scrapped all the rest. Someone seems to have left a car in the way, though an Alfa Romeo Guiletta is quite nice as cars go.

The Lancaster is R5868, which completed 137 missions, when the average number a Lanc completed before being shot down was 21. The museum attendant in the red shirt is probably thinking "another idiot with a pocket camera expecting a photo of the Lanc to come out!"

[Nostalgair]

HI Adrian,

Thanks for sharing.

I found the lighting at Hendon proved a real challenge to photography, so your photos have done well.

Cheers,

Owen

[Antipodean Andy]

Well done, AR. I was there in 1989 with my little camera and, of the film that worked, I had a lot of dark photos! I seem to remember the Battle of Britain Hall was easier but only just.