The site was excavated in the 18th century. However, three thousand years earlier a Neolithic long barrow existed on this hill, and later excavations in the 19th century uncovered human skeletons and cremations.

Today, this extensive chalk grassland supports herb and grass species that provide a habitat for a diverse range of insects, including the rare Adonis Blue butterfly and the scarce forester moth.

The White Horse is visible from afar and is a famous local landscape.  Local records suggest that the horse was originally cut in the late 1600s, probably to commemorate the supposed Battle of Ethandun, thought to have taken place at Bratton Camp in AD 878.

The post White Horses, Iron Age forts and Stone Circles appeared first on Beyond.

The airport has a rich history, having previously served as a Royal Air Force (RAF) base during World War II. Over the years, it has transitioned into a commercial facility, catering to the needs of the general aviation community and providing various services such as hangar facilities, refuelling, and flight support.

Kemble Airfield is also known for its active role in commercial aircraft storage, maintenance, and dismantling. The airport serves as a facility for aircraft recycling and end-of-life management, contributing to the aviation industry’s sustainable management of retired aircraft. One photo shows big jets in the process of being recycled.

Furthermore, Kemble Airfield (also known as Cotswold Airport) hosts various aviation events, airshows, and exhibitions throughout the year, attracting aviation enthusiasts and the local community. Its location in the picturesque Cotswolds region also makes it a popular destination for tourists and aviation enthusiasts interested in exploring the area’s natural beauty and historical attractions.

My flight from White Waltham in November 2023 was mostly into a strongish (24kt) headwind, with scattered clouds at 2500ft. The flight back was quicker, with the wind adding 24+kts to my airspeed. Views from the cockpit over Swindon were of clear skies under banks of ominous clouds. Flew via to the north of Reading.

The post White Waltham to Kemble appeared first on Beyond.

The result was an aircraft that looked brand new. Our next step is to refurbish the interior, which will involve new grey leather seat covers, new carpets and trim. This will complete the refurbishment of a much loved aircraft.

The Socata TB is a series of light single engine piston aircraft manufactured by Daher-Socata and designed in the late 1970s. All aircraft (with the exception of the TB9) have a constant speed propeller. The TB series have become widely used training and touring aircraft and are often used for instrument training.

The TB series planes have come to be known as the “Caribbean Planes”, due to their island names, though they are not often seen flown in that region. They are defined by their superior (and contemporary) fit and finish and interior size; compared to other four-seat single-engine aircraft, they are relatively roomy at 49 inches (124 cm) at the shoulder, plus or minus. In part this is due to the fuselage having a pronounced “round out” above the wing. Adding to the actual spaciousness, the side windows extend up well into the roof line, giving the Socata an airy feeling.

Due to the larger fuselage, and relatively heavy weights, TB series aircraft have lower performance figures than a similarly sized and powered but narrower aircraft, and the trade-off of in speed for comfort is often cited by TB owners.

The letters TB in the name stand for Tarbes, a city in the south of France where the aircraft is manufactured.

Looked geat on my flight to Kemble in 2023.

The post G-OFIT respray appeared first on Beyond.

Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side. The Northamptonshire towns of Towcester (5 miles) and Brackley (7 miles) and Buckinghamshire town of Buckingham (6 miles) are close by, and the nearest large towns are Northampton and Milton Keynes.

Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race  in the newly created World Championship of Drivers. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but relocated permanently to Silverstone in 1987.

The Didcot Power Station complex comprise an active natural-gas power plant (Didcot B Power Station) that supplies the National Grid, and a closed combined coal and oil power plant (Didcot A Power Station). They are situated immediately adjoining one another in the civil parish of Sutton Courtenay, next to the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire), in the UK. The combined power stations feature a chimney which is one of the tallest structures in the UK, and three hyperbolic cooling towers (demolished in 2019 – three others were demolished in 2014), which can be seen from much of the surrounding landscape.

The post Winterscapes from the air appeared first on Beyond.

[my_map]

The post Waltham to Le Touquet appeared first on Beyond.

One of the images shows two acoustic mirrors. These are passive devices used to reflect and perhaps to focus (concentrate) sound waves. Parabolic acoustic mirrors are widely used in parabolic microphones to pick up sound from great distances, employed in surveillance and reporting of outdoor sporting events. Pairs of large parabolic acoustic mirrors, which function as “whisper galleries” are displayed in science museums to demonstrate sound focusing.

Between the World Wars, before the invention of radar, parabolic sound mirrors were used experimentally as early-warning devices by military air defence forces to detect incoming enemy aircraft by listening for the sound of their engines. During World War 2, on the coast of southern England, a network of large concrete acoustic mirrors was in the process of being built when the project was cancelled due to the development of the Chain Home radar system.

[my_map]

The post Waltham to Lydd appeared first on Beyond.

At Duxford, we were asked to park next to the “B17”, otherwise known as the Memphis Belle…not the original, but the aircraft that starred in the film “Memphis Belle”. Old Buckenham had been a US airbase during WW2.

The actors, James Stewart and Walter Matteau had been based there while serving in the US Airforce.

[my_map]

The post White Waltham to Old Buckenham appeared first on Beyond.

The Bristol Mercury is a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, single-row, piston radial engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s.

Developed from the earlier Jupiter engine, later variants could produce 800 horsepower (600 kW) from its capacity of 1,500 cubic inches (25 L) by use of a geared supercharger.

There are other aviation finds that I located on this classic wreck, including:

Westland Lysander wings

Blenheim bomber engine exhaust rings and tail planes

Trolley accumulators

Pundit lights

The post Bristol Mercury Engines on the Thistlegorm appeared first on Beyond.

The pictures above, taken on the Thistleform and in the workshops of the Aircraft Restoration Company, show the distinctive shape of the leading edge of Westland Lysander – looking back towards the wing root. The wings on the Thistlegorm are stacked on top of each other, revealing the tubular structure of the Lysander wing.

There are other aviation finds that I located on this classic wreck, including:

Blenheim bomber engine exhaust rings and tail planes

Bristol mercury engine

Trolley accumulators

Pundit lights

The post Lysander on the Thistlegrom appeared first on Beyond.

A number of dive guides will tell you that you can see motorcycle sidecars on SS Thistlegorm. In fact, these odd-looking contraptions are trolley accumulators.

Trolley accumulators were produced in several forms, but they all had a bank of lead/acid batteries contained in a covered box, which had been wired ‘in series’ so that each lead/acid cell (nominally producing about 2 volts) produced 12 volts and sufficient power to turn over the standard aircraft engines of the day. The reason it is called an ‘accumulator’ is because some early batteries could not be recharged using an electrical current and needed to have their electrolyte renewed after discharge! In 1881, the standard sulphuric acid/lead plate battery (approximately one volume of concentrated to five volumes of distilled water) was revolutionized by the use of lead grids, into which lead oxide paste was pressed. If you connect the negative terminal of an electrical circuit to one plate, and the positive to the other, then electrons will be ‘forced’ into the -ve plate, making it contain a higher proportion of pure lead, and ‘stripped’ from the +ve plate, making it contain more lead oxide. Theoretically, therefore, in a fully charged battery, you should end up with a -ve plate of pure lead (Pb, and rather nice slate blue colour), and a +ve plate of pure lead oxide (PbO2, a rather sludgy brown); the liquid electrolyte flowing around them should be a much weaker mixture of sulphuric acid. As the ‘accumulator’ discharges, the exact opposite of the above process happens.

When not in use these trolley accumulators were connected to the mains electricity supply at the RAF station they were on, to build up charge (usually overnight); they would need periodic servicing, and topping up with distilled water, as they tended to lose that component of the electrolyte during the charge/discharge process. You may have observed that this ‘trolley acc’ has what appears to be an engine on top of it. This is because on remote sites, the small generator set/control panel mounted directly to the right of the engine’s cylindrical fuel tank, and capable of producing about 300 watts, would then be able to recharge the batteries fitted below it. This was also used if the ‘trolley acc’ had been used a lot during the day, or in cold weather. As a rough guide, for every 1 degree Centigrade drop in temperature, you lose about 3% in maximum available electrical charge. To access the batteries, you unbolted the engine/generator set, and two men lifted it off the battery compartment lid.

There are other aviation finds that I located on this classic wreck, including:

Westland Lysander wings

Blenheim bomber engine exhaust rings and tail planes

Bristol mercury engines

Pundit lights

The post Trolley accumulators on the Thistlegorm appeared first on Beyond.