Jersey veteran pilot flies WW2 plane for 101st birthday present

Jersey veteran pilot flies WW2 plane for 101st birthday present

A heart-warming story from April 2023 now, featuring remarkable WWII RAF veteran Bernard Gardiner who, for his 101st birthday, took a flight - and what's more after nearly 80 years, the controls! - of the world's only two-seater Hawker Hurricane.

As well as being a well-deserved and very apt gift for Mr Gardiner's milestone this was also something of a "thank you" not only for his admirable service during the war but also his role as a patron of the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group, a charity set up in 2016 with the aim of returning an example of another of Hawker's famous Second World War aircraft - the Typhoon fighter-bomber - to airworthy status.

The Typhoon, which first flew in February 1940 and entered service in 1941, was intended to be the replacement for the Hurricane and was initially deployed as a pure fighter to counteract the German Focke-Wulf 190 which was outclassing almost everything the Allies could put up against it.  Although it proved to be the equal of the Fw190, especially at low level, some early structural design flaws held it back and it was subsequently switched to the roles of low level ground attack and interception.  Armed initially with six .303in machine guns, then later four 20mm cannons, the Typhoon was also able to carry up to 2,000lbs in bombs or eight wing-mounted rockets making it a formidable foe against German armour and reinforced positions.  The Typhoon continued in this multi-role function for the remainder of the war, finally being retired in October 1945.  Prior to that however, in September 1942, it begat the Tempest - a development of the original Typhoon design (indeed early examples were referred to as the Typhoon II) that was intended to be more of a true fighter aircraft than the Typhoon (or "Tiffie" as it was affectionately known).  The Tempest would go on to become one of the most powerful piston-engined aircraft of the war - at low level the fastest single-seat propellor-driven aircraft of the time, so fast that it was easily able to deal with V1 flying bombs and even Messerschmitt's jet-powered 262.  

Flight Lieutenant Walter Dring, commander of "B" Flight, No. 183 Squadron RAF,
with his Typhoon Mark IB, R8884 "HF-L", in a dispersal at Gatwick, Sussex.
source - IWM

Unlike the Tempest, of which there is one airworthy survivor (which made its maiden flight only last October following seven years of restoration) and at least three around the world currently undergoing restoration to flying condition, there is currently only one extant (static) example of a Typhoon - MN235, which over the last few years has been on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C.,  the RAF Museum at Hendon, the Canada Aviation & Space Museum in Ottawa and - at the moment - the RAF Museum London.  All that will hopefully change soon, though, thanks to the hard work of Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group which is aiming to restore Typhoon MkIB RB396 to airworthy condition so that people can see this remarkable (and, in relation to the Spitfire or Hurricane, somewhat forgotten) Second World War aeroplane take to the skies again in honour of those, like Bernard Gardiner, who flew them.  After a pause of a couple of years due to the pandemic work has restarted and continues apace; with luck and thanks to the HTPG we (and hopefully Mr Gardiner!) may yet see a Tiffie in the air once more.

The world's biggest collection of airship memorabilia goes on sale

source

The world's biggest collection of airship memorabilia goes on sale

Some Zeppelin news now, featuring the largest selection of airship memorabilia valued at potentially £1,000,000 and which is due to be sold off in four auctions over the coming eight months.

Rare Zeppelin items for auction for the first time

The result of 40 years of collecting by a Jersey businessman who had intended to set up an airship museum but who through a combination of old age and other business commitments never managed to, the collection contains many hundreds of photographs, some of which are reproduced here.



These pictures (and the above footage from Youtube, which I make no apology for including every time I blog about airships) give a fantastic idea of the sheer majestic size of the Zeppelins and the wonderful sense of occasion they would have provided.  Not only in seeing them at ground level, from within, in flight and - sadly - at war but also the views they provided to the lucky passengers privileged enough to fly in them.  Never was the advantage of all-round vision as afforded by a gondola more perfectly illustrated than in a number of these photos.

source

Comprised quite literally of tons of Zeppelin-related artefacts the collection would have made a wonderful museum, all the more so considering the seller had even bought one of the massive hangars at Cardington Aerodrome in Bedfordshire (home of the British airship industry and the ill-fated R.101) to store it all in and in which he had intended to base his extensive display.  What a gem it would have been - a real counterpart to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany.  Sadly it was not to be and now this incredible collection is about to be broken up.  At least the profits will be given to charity, which is a good thing.  One can only hope that the pieces find their way to the Zeppelin Museum or to collectors who will equally appreciate it and, who knows, maybe even use it to help open up a British airship museum in the future.

One of the Cardington airship hangers

Vintage look for Jersey Airport

Vintage look for Jersey Airport

This is a rare event - a building being redesigned to look the way it did when it first opened. The fact that the building in question is Jersey Airport's Art Deco 1937 terminal makes it even more of a welcome occasion.

With the bulky and ugly Seventies additions removed the geometric lines of the arrivals building will once again be visible for all to see and appreciate, hopefully for a long time to come thanks to the planning authority arranging for listed status.

Jersey may be one of the smaller airports in the grand scheme of things and so be more readily able to accommodate such a change (not to mention lucky to have the original building still standing) but it is still a great triumph for a beautiful design style, applied to such a commercial building. If only more airports could look like this, travelling might not be such an unpleasant experience. In fact I feel a trip to Jersey coming on right now!

Jersey vintage cars featured on island stamps

Jersey vintage cars featured on island stamps

I actually stumbled across this while searching for another article, but as it combines two of my great loves I thought it at least deserved a place here.

Jersey has a good record of having very attractive and interesting stamp sets and these are no exception. One of the reasons I enjoy collecting stamps is that in many cases they are like little miniature portraits and the care and detail that goes into the designs is, to my mind, absolutely amazing. The artist in this case has done a really first-class job(!).

Jersey also has a good record of preserving classic cars very well, as a result of the warm climate and an island-wide speed limit of 40mph. Both these factors work in favour of the vintage car and so have provided the artist with a nice wide range of vehicles to depict.

Hum! I feel an urge to add to my collection...!

Rare stamp sells for £400,000 on Jersey

Rare stamp sells for £400,000 on Jersey

At the risk of this blog turning into "Eclectic Stamp Collector Monthly" or something I shall just mention in passing this article about the recent sale of another valuable stamp, this time from the Channel Islands.

What this and the previous auctions prove is what many have been saying for some time - stamp collecting is looked upon more and more as a serious investment opportunity with the possibility of continuing increases in stamp values leading to ever greater returns. In these times of economic uncertainty and distrust of some banking institutions many people are turning to stamps as a form of safe investment with an almost guaranteed return, and who can blame them?

Unfortunately such rarefied collections are outside the reaches of this humble blogger's purse (although this hasn't stopped Stanley Gibbons, Britain's premier stamp dealer, sending me an e-mail offering me a rare set of early 20th Century New Zealand stamps for "only £75,000"!) but it is interesting to see how a once-simple pastime, which I enjoy in my own small way, has morphed into a worldwide multi-million pound investment business.