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Welcome from a fellow Bedfordshirian

Amazing piece of history, it was good to see the trailer and fuselage at the weekend, one of the collection's volunteers was digging through the archive of Clayton and Shuttleworth drawings and has found some general arrangement and detail pictures for an aircraft recovery trailer. Sorry we hadn't found them earlier to assist you with the build of yours, but there are plans a foot to fully catalogue what we have and see about making them available as they are now our property. Steve

I had a couple of empty night shifts a few years ago and had a dig on the Internet about TEL in fuel in the 40's and essentially it was added from the 20's on in increasing quantities until a few refineries had 'incidents' with workers succumbing to lead poisoning and doing some not very nice acts and the congress ordered the levels to be reduced. The levels didn't seem to increase again until the early 50's until unleaded was introduced in the late 70's onwards. At the airfield I volunteer at we used to run the ferguson tractor and a model T on 100LL due to it being the fuel to hand and it destroyed the valve seats with low use within a couple of years, now on unleaded and at least 5 years on no signs of trouble yet. I did read I a CMV that an owner of a M2 halftrack had replaced his self sealing tanks as the fuel was softening the interior lining and forming a solution which blocked his fuel lines, so when E10 unleaded becomes more common I expect we will start to see problems as will owners of modern cars with magnesium alloy fuel injection systems as apparently mag is eroded by the ethanol. Steve Steve

Can't wait to see the pictures Tom and it was good to see you all yesterday at old warden and glad you got home alright, hope the hand brake is a quick fix and everyone is happy to help with the fabric covering, just pop in and talk to Andy or Rory. Steve.

I saw the publicity tent at w&p and watched a trailer which sadly had me walking out of the tent at the end shaking my head, it looked atrocious with a Hollywood tick list of one group of americans holding back the whole german army, a troubled leader, a rookie recruit and even tried to make a catchphrase popular "best job in the world". I'll see it at some point but I wish the writers would try to show that others were involved. Steve

Congratulations Steve

Still a few shows left http://www.shuttleworth.org and I'm having a meeting on Thursday about possible MV requests for next years shows so I'll post up what I find out. Great video of the nash as well Steve

Great pictures and nice filter work as well. Steve

With a good head wind 100 yards to clear any trees should be plenty but to save the engine road transport is far more preferred. Steve

Great picture of the pup, I just hope we can get it out ok afterwards. ..

Ok Clive, glad the place is busy as it's the first time we've done away days with aircraft like the pup so happy it's being received well. The rockets are mock ups we made a few years ago when we refurbished the airframe and are purely cardboard tubes fettled to look right, it would have been a very brave man to use them in anger as the rocket plume could catch the fabric. Cheers Steve

Congratulations Steve

Clive if you get a chance can you put up any pictures of the Shuttleworth Collection's Sopwith Pup in the WW1 display tent as I'm not going to make it down to see it away from home. Cheers Steve

Great video of some fantastic vehicles, we were camped opposite these guys and they do some great work. We were amazed at the Stuart driving onto the trailer it just purred up at idle speed with no effort at all. Steve

Pretty sure it was proven to be a cleverly edited picture on another forum a while ago with the undercarriage/jacks removed in processing and a helpful erk laying down to help the illusion. Regards Steve

We were very lucky to have both Lancasters display to the Shuttleworth collections flying proms to a full orchestra playing the dambusters march, here is a video I've found on youtube. Steve

Fantastic sight thankyou for posting it up for us. steve

Fantastic pictures Tom what an amazing opportunity you had to deliver the wreaths and the combination looks really perfect. Well done. Steve

Just had some pictures of my drive of the Dennis sent to me so here's a couple and the grin still hasn't left my face. Thanks again Steve hopefully next time we have good weather and can show the trucks alongside their flying contemporaries. oh and a review http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/08/15/aviation-event-review-shuttleworth-ww1-commemoration/ Cheers Steve

I'm not sure of the exact address in Batley they've been in but they have been there a while and the lease was running out hence why the Camel came earlier than planned and with the average age of the group they didn't feel they had another workshop move and then a ten plus year project on a large aircraft like the DH2 sadly, we did several trips to pick up all the consumables before we collected the aircraft. At least one of the group still comes down for each airshow to help with the rotaries and hopefully they will all make it down for the first flights of their Camel when the time comes. Steve

Yes the Batley built example was being built by the Northern Aeroplane Workshops for the collection after the triplane and M1c they'd produced for us, the camel has come down for final work and covering and sadly the NAW have ceased building aircraft as they don't feel they have another 10 year project in them. The Brooklands Camel has been up a few times now and some of the collection's exhibits will be heading south for their displays. The Brooklands Camel did successfully run once during the day and we swiftly got it away as the heavens opened once more. Here is a picture from the top of the B type bus of the two camels in hangar 1 at the end of the show. Cheers Steve

We held a short commemorative service outside Hangar 8 with all the vehicles lined up alongside our SE5a with re-enactors and a bugler playing the last post, and the Sopwith camel replica from Brooklands carried out a short engine run during the day. Thank you again to everyone who turned up and we'll try it again and hopefully the weather plays ball next time. Steve

We had a fair turnout yesterday for a difficult show, the forecast was awful and fortunately a lot of people decided to chance it and were rewarded with the sight of 4 Great war trucks, a B type bus, a replica MKIV tank, re-enactors and all of the collections WW1 aircraft in one hangar with no barriers around them to allow the best access possible and two Sopwith camel replicas together in another hangar. We also got some of the collection's period vehicles out, the Crossley staff car, 1914 Clayton and Shuttleworth traction engine (which saw service with the war department), 1913 Morris Oxford, 1898 Panhard, 1904 Aurora and 1921 Triumph motorcycles and the 1919 Austin tractor ( I look after it and it's only a year late and really reliable on a wet day). The magnificent Dawn Patrol radio controlled aircraft group brought around 20 1/3 scale aircraft with them and gave two displays ( one cut short by the weather). We had to accept the wind and rain was too much for our aircraft and so we abandoned plans to fly and displayed the vehicles in front of the hangars for the public and I was very grateful to be given the chance to drive Steve's Dennis, which was a personal highlight for me.

It was great to see you all and thank you for coming, without you all the show would have been completely different. I think we had all the seasons in one day and fortunately a safe day was had by all with only one of the dawn patrol group r/c aircraft damaged while landing in conditions far beyond it's limits. Thank you everyone who came Steve

Just a quick heads up on Sunday 10th of August the Shuttleworth Collection in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire are holding a WW1 commemoration airshow with visiting acts such as a fokker triplane replica, DH2 replica, Be2 replica, as well as the home based Bristol f2b, Avro504k, Sopworth pup, and Se5a which has recently had it's original colours reinstated as it wore when it shot down a fokker DVII on the 10th of November 1918. Also the based replicas of Bristol m1c and Be2e pair will also fly weather permitting. The collection's Crossley staff car will be joined by several vintage lorries and a replica mkIV tank on the ground. I look forward to seeing some of you there http://www.shuttleworth.org/tickets/event-details.asp?ID=267 Steve