Antar Gallery

[antarmike]

Not all the mk3 Antars had the Motor Panels (rust bucket) cab. The Ex beverley Museum Antar has a totally Fibreglass cab. Fred Lawton owns another example with a glassfibre cab ( oh I wish mine had one too!!!)

[Snapper]

I won't be changing my name to IltisMark. Wonderful stuff, Mike. I think I recognise the Bailey's pair in their somewhere - one went to Australia last year. I've got a disk of snaps of a day with them from 2001. Glorious.

 

MB

[AndyFowler]

I think Snapper ought to show us a few of these Pics please ! Andy F

[antarmike]

Here are some to go on with

[antarmike]

Both 1963 Antars from the same order but note relective/ non reflective Registration plates, number of driving mirrors, types of fire extinguishers etc

[antarmike]

Somewhere in Lincolnshire

[Guest catweazle (Banned Member)]

A Client of mine as a young man driving out of FVRDE.

[Guest catweazle (Banned Member)]

Snowy mountain project.

[antarmike]

I posted a piccy of my Antar at Cardington, in the Constructor thread, but here are a few more

The Antar was used for a while to open these doors at 470 tons each..

[antarmike]

Hunt the Antar in the vastness of the hanger. Nelons column will stand happily inside, and the Hanger would only have to be 10 feet wider to get two Wartime HMS Ark Royals inside side by side!

Antar is just to the right of my Matador...

[antarmike]

Inside the hanger looking back. This is the first time I got the Antar running and I am waiting for the doors to open. (with the new winding gear installed it still takes 15 minutes to open a door)

Yes that is a six storey block of flats built indide the Hanger, behind that was an 8 storey office block. The Building Reseach establishment use the hanger now to built experimental building, then set them on fire knock big chunks out of them etc. It is their large building test facility now..

[AndyFowler]

Just posted a short video of Mike pushing some traction engines around at GDSF :-D ! Look forward to seeing his vehicle roadtrain there again this year ! Andy F. http://www.hmvftv.com/watch/52637daa540ea9cbc474/AntarMike%20having%20fun%20!

[younggun]

still need to thank antar mike for putting some air back in the tires on the alelly tractor unit at the dorset last year a usefull thing to have on larger vehicals cant see y modern trucks dont have them !

[ArtistsRifles]

Was that the hangar for the ill-fated R101 airship???

[radiomike7]

Was that the hangar for the ill-fated R101 airship???

 

Certainly was, I drive past there most days on the Bedford bypass. There are two of them, shed 1 and shed 2, one seems to be in a better condition than the other.

 

Mike

[TooTallMike]

I response to the comments earlier about the Antars at Hunt's of Molesworth, here is one of them (in case you can't see it, the cab is on the left & the front top of the rear wing can be seen towards the right!)

[antarmike]

The two Cardington Hangers were built for the R31 and the R32 but both were re-erected in an extended form to house the R101 (hanger 1) and the R100 (Hanger 2)

 

Hanger two was extensively restored a few years ago. This involved making rolls at at steel mill to roll the corrugated sheets, whoose profile does not match any current standard, about 300 Tons of new sheeting went into the refurbishment. It took four tons of paint to paint it. A number of later windows where deleted to bring it back to an older spec.

 

Number 1 hanger is in a poor state of repair. Netting is hung inside to catch pieces of falling tinwork, and daylight and rain come in everywhere.

 

The two Airships were both built in the hangers. The hanger is also a crane. You can hang 3 tons from any part of the roof and traverse the load along the length of the hanger. The Airships were built out of rings that were assembled on the groung, then lifted vertically ang travelled along to bolt/rivet onto the growing Airship Frame.

 

The Hydrogen plant was in a neighbouring building, It is now gone but a 6 foot Dia pipe still runs into Number 1 as a reminder of how much gas was needed to fill the balloons.

[antarmike]

The hanger doors are 180 fet tall and each is 90 foot wide. Even so the R series airships only had four inches clearance on the cruciform tail. When entering or leaving every person on the airfield was used to hold lines to steady and guide them.

Ie the bottom of the tail was 2 inches from the ground and the tip of the tail missed the door frame by 2 inches also.

 

Originally the doors were opened manually by a Capstan system, using manpower, this later got changed to an electric drive but this failed in the late 70's early eighties, and at first a pioneer was used to open and shut the doors. Later they used my Antar.

 

Each door is free standing. There is no connection to the building, (ie no top track)

 

The doors run on parallel railway lines about 50 feet apart.

 

There is 220 tons of steel in each door, but because each door is in effect a 180 foot tall railway truck on a 50 foot gauge track, the wind could just blow them over. for that reason there is a further 250 Tons of concrete, cast around the base, to give stability.

 

Even so the doors are only designed to be opened at windspeed of 5 mph or less.

 

But concidering how tight an airship was in the opening, they could only come in or out on still days.

[6 X 6]

I response to the comments earlier about the Antars at Hunt's of Molesworth, here is one of them (in case you can't see it, the cab is on the left & the front top of the rear wing can be seen towards the right!)

 

Thank you for posting this 'photo. I was there buying bits about 7 or 8 years ago when, as you may remember, the Hunts were gradually clearing their yard with a view to selling it to developers. Jacob Hunt was a real gentleman and charming to deal with. I didn't meet his brother Joe who was seriously ill with cancer. Apart from the Antars being there, I seem to remember quite a few other interesting MV's, either complete vehicles, or just the remains of. I may be wrong, but I doubt if much was saved.

[Degsy]

Yet another brilliant thread, thanks Mike.

[antarmike]

In the picture of my Antar coming out of the doors, partly hidden by the right hand door, is a blast cell. The Building Research Establishment are licenced to test building panels in explosion situations . The can use up to 10 lbs of Semtex, but normally it is 2 or 3 lbs. The cell is hardened on all sides apart from the front that faces out across the Apron. The panel under test closes this face of the cell and is blasted out over the Apron.

 

This job is usually a Friday afternoon job, cos when the bang happens tons of pidgeon shyte fall out of the roof and you can't see more than half way along the hanger.. But if you have a bang on Friday, all is clear by start of work moonday morning...

[antarmike]

My Antar, the day I drove it home, on that Apron. Number two hanger in the background.

Antar is in Dept of the Environment PSA (Property Services Agency) livery, having gone there from the RAF via Ministry of Public Buildings and Works MPBW.

[AndyFowler]

How long have you owned your Antar Mike ? Any idea how much fuel you've put in her over the years ? She is a credit to you ! Andy F.

[Tony B]

What is it with the name MIKE and big toys? We ought to arrange a tug of war.:cool2:

[antarmike]

I have had it 10 years in June..not counted the fuel, but my yearly trip to Dorset Steam fair is 150 gallons..I have taken it p to Pickering, down to Bristol, To Guildford, but it is not as widely travelled in my ownership as it was in it's runway testing days, having been to every airfield in Britain, all round Holland, Germany, Malta, Gibraltar, Cyprus, by landing ship tank to the outer Hebrides, and even to Antigua and back in in the early 1970's...