AIRCRAFT BRITAIN SHOULD HAVE HAD

[chiglet]

I served in Borneo [1964-65] and was lucky[?] enough to fly in a variety of aeroplanes.
Valletta a military Viking developed from the Wellington. Safe, predictable and slow. Easy to airdrop from the side door
Hastings a sorta Halifax/Halton mod good load carrier. Again easy to airdrop with the advantage of a "Bomb aimer" position under the nose
Bristol Frightener Easy to load [opening nose doors] easy to airdrop. [We has one chap convinced that the nose doors opened in flight ]
Argosy With the "beaver tail" it was a superb air dropper
Single/twin Pioneers Super STOL aeroplanes
Scout helicopter fast [for the time] agile
Whirlwind. With the gnome, it worked well in "hot n high environs"
Beaver great aeroplane...but I think that the single pin was better
Belvedere.....Great concept but under developed
These are MY opinions based on what I did, flew in and hindsight

[McColm]

An-2 Colt, I know to some it may look like a relic from the past.
It has various uses, just like the Beaver.

[DarrenP]

I remember seeing and hearing the Beaver over northern ireland

[rickshaw]

The Bristol Freighter has always struck me as an obvious development of the Hamilcar X.  It's biggest problem is also it's advantage, it's big nose doors.  You can't airdrop big loads from a Freighter, you need to capture an airstrip before hand to allow it to land and open the nose doors and unload.  Like the Hamilcar, they weren't really expendable, either (considering the large economic and industrial effort that went into producing the Hamilcars, of which there never really were enough, big efforts went into recovering them from the LZs, post operations ).   Now, if they'd reversed the design and given it a high tail with a rear ramp, it would have been a real winner.  Perhaps instead of buying Freighters, the UK would have been better off negotiating a license to produce C-123s?  Put a pair of Centaurus radials or turboprops on them from the go?

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps instead of buying Freighters, the UK would have been better off negotiating a license to produce C-123s?  Put a pair of Centaurus radials or turboprops on them from the go?

Isn't that a Beverley, or half a Beverley at least? 

[rickshaw]

Perhaps instead of buying Freighters, the UK would have been better off negotiating a license to produce C-123s?  Put a pair of Centaurus radials or turboprops on them from the go?

Isn't that a Beverley, or half a Beverley at least? 

Not quite.  Beverley is more like a down market C-130.  You also have to leave half the aircraft off if you're air dropping any large load, Kit.  C-123s/C-130s/etc. with rear ramps just open them and tilt the aircraft up and it all just slides out the back... 

[NARSES2]

Perhaps instead of buying Freighters, the UK would have been better off negotiating a license to produce C-123s?  Put a pair of Centaurus radials or turboprops on them from the go?

Isn't that a Beverley, or half a Beverley at least? 

Billy Wright doesn't come into this, does he ? 

[PR19_Kit]

 You also have to leave half the aircraft off if you're air dropping any large load, Kit. C-123s/C-130s/etc. with rear ramps just open them and tilt the aircraft up and it all just slides out the back...   

Just the rear doors. They look as if they weigh a ton but they really don't.

And when the load slides out the back of a Bev it tilts up all by itself! Having stood in that massive hold a few times myself and watched Landies and guns and limbers slide past me at about a foot's range I know quite a bit about how much they tilted!

[Logan Hartke]

Perhaps instead of buying Freighters, the UK would have been better off negotiating a license to produce C-123s?  Put a pair of Centaurus radials or turboprops on them from the go?

Isn't that a Beverley, or half a Beverley at least? 

No, I think half a Beverley is more like a Valentia.





To be fair to the Valentia, though, the Beverly isn't twice as fast as the Valentia. 

Cheers,

Logan

[PR19_Kit]

To be fair to the Valentia, though, the Beverly isn't twice as fast as the Valentia. 

Cheers,

Logan

But it's got a LOT more oil leaks..... 

[Logan Hartke]

Heh, I don't think I'd want to be anywhere near either one if it caught fire!

Cheers,

Logan

[DarrenP]

was looking at the secret projects forum and they had a little bit on the Military Herald could have been an interesting project.

[rickshaw]

was looking at the secret projects forum and they had a little bit on the Military Herald could have been an interesting project.

You mean like this one?

[PR19_Kit]

was looking at the secret projects forum and they had a little bit on the Military Herald could have been an interesting project.

You mean like this one?

An excellent job there Brian. I'd forgotten that you'd done that, and it still looks great despite the vast amount of PSR you had to do on it. 

[DarrenP]

very nice would love the timeline for that. I know that it was contemporary to the Andover C1. Loved the UN white. I suspect it would look good in RAF Middle east colours or RNZAF Vietnam colours