alex taylor’s evocative photograph of xm655...september and the photoshoot on 13th october. on...

Issue No 40 Winter 2018

Alex Taylor’s evocative photograph of XM655

In this issue

Chairman’s Introduction Page 2

Visits to XM655 Page 4

Engineering Report 1

A Tribute to John Lyons Page 14

Moonflower 1972 Page 15

Tales from the Hangar Floor Page 18

Notification of MaPS AGM 2019 Page 20

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XM655MaPS Newsletter Winter 2018

The Chairman’s Introduction Mike Pollitt

Well we all moaned about last winter being freezing cold, but I can’t complain

about this year’s summer. Wonderful! I won’t pinch Eric’s thunder this time and I’ll

let him give you the recent good news on the engineering front. I’ll concentrate

instead on two very successful events this year: our Members’ Day on 16th

September and the Photoshoot on 13th October.

On Members’ Day we had around 130 members arrive, and they were treated to

two very informative and interesting presentations from Sam Weller and Michael

Littler. Sam is a retired Vulcan navigator and a regular visitor to Wellesbourne, often

helping with cockpit tours for our large group visits. He talked to us about the role

of the Vulcan in the Cold War. I learnt a lot from Sam’s recollections of life on a

Vulcan squadron in the 1960s. He recalled the excellent menu and marvellous

meals that were exquisitely prepared for the aircrew by the catering staff. I must say

that by the time I arrived on a Vulcan squadron the menu in the aircrew feeder had

changed somewhat from exquisite catering, to all day breakfasts. Nevertheless,

they were good! If the engineers discovered a snag on our allocated bomber,

which would delay crew-in by more than a couple of hours, we were then entitled

to a delayed meal – another enjoyable ‘fry-up’! Healthy diets were way in the future,

and in my day, you could barely see across the crew room for cigarette smoke. It

was all very different from today’s much more-healthy aircrew environment; they

have gym equipment on the squadrons now!

After Sam’s presentation we were delighted to introduce another friend of XM655,

Michael Littler. Michael, together with brother Rob, own our Vulcan and Michael as

many of you will know is also the Wellesbourne Airfield manager. Michael delivered

a very interesting talk on the history of Wellesbourne airfield. I hadn’t appreciated

that Wellesbourne was once home to the RAF Photographic School, as well as more

briefly hosting the RAF Airfield Construction Unit, and the RAF School of Education.

As well as the RAF period, Michael talked about the latter period of Wellesbourne’s

history, whereupon it has become one of the most successful general aviation

airfields in the country.

After the first of two sets of presentations, as we can only accommodate 75 people

at a time in our marquee, I was joined by Nick Dennis (P2) and Barry Masefield (AEO)

for a successful run of all four engines.

I must thank all our volunteers who devoted their weekend preparing for and then

running Members’ Day, before finally packing all the equipment away again. It was

a very tiring but rewarding experience and I am most grateful for all their efforts.

In October we hosted another TimeLine Events Photoshoot. Thank you again to our

dedicated volunteers for all their efforts to provide 100 photographers with a

memorable experience. Three of our volunteers, James Pritchard, Ben Tapp and

Roger Bowen, filled the gap and acted as re-enactors alongside the professionals

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from TimeLine. They recreated cameos that represented those everyday aircrew

and groundcrew scenes that were once commonplace on RAF airfields around the

UK.

Photograph courtesy of Steve Clarkson. Ben Tapp & James Pritchard to the left.

Photograph courtesy of Jim Sharp. Roger Bowen doing a little re-enacting this time.

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Air Commodore Pritchard did complain that his SD hat lacked a little scrambled egg

and wondered why he hadn’t reached his true potential – Air Marshal!

I’ll simply leave it to Jim Sharp, one of our Photoshoot guests, to sum up the day:

From the minute I arrived I was impressed by the friendly and efficient

marshalling in place for our arrival. After a 130 mile drive the chance to

get a hot drink was most welcome! The introductory address by the

chairman underlined the feeling that we were indeed welcome rather

than merely tolerated. Having not eaten since breakfast, the availability

of some hot food was something of a godsend. All in all, I came away from

the event with a really good feeling in spite of being sleep deprived due

to working the previous night.

Perhaps because of the latter, there were shots that I either missed or

could have done better. This gives me the perfect excuse to return to

Wellesbourne should you host another photo event!

The work that you do is crucial to preserving our heritage, and the care

that you give to what must now rate as a most important historical artefact

is most impressive. The challenges that you face as an organisation are

not lost on me, and I wish you every success in the future. To this end I

intend to apply to become a member of 655MAPS in the very near future.

Jim, thank you so much for that tremendous feedback. Your appreciation justifiably

demonstrated the sheer hard work of our volunteers to put this show together.

I look forward to meeting many of our members at Wellesbourne over the coming

months. In the meantime, a very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year

too.

Visits to XM655 Damaris Tapp

My last visits report started with Remembrance Day and a photo of XM655 sporting

a rather large poppy on its front undercarriage. The photo on page 5 shows the

aircraft forming the background to a lovely shot of some real poppies back in June,

on a sunny day when a steady stream of visitors kept some of our volunteers busy

while others carried on with a wide range of engineering tasks. It is important to

balance both aspects of MaPS work, not only to ensure the engineers have time on

Saturdays to carry out the tasks needed to maintain and preserve the aircraft, but

also to show our visitors just what their donations enable us to achieve.

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June continued with the AC Owners Club bringing their beautiful cars to be

photographed with XM655.

And a return visit by the London Douglas Motor Cycle Club, who had been so

accomodating last year when we had to move their visit to the Wellesbourne

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Wartime Museum at the last minute, due to the BBC filming of 'RAF at 100' with Colin

McGregor. It was lovely to see them again and enable them to get a bit closer to

XM655!

The good weather also brought us a different type of visitor - a Pitts Special, which

one of our younger volunteers had actually been lucky enough to fly in on a previous

occasion, thanks to Rich Goodwin and his generosity towards the Air Cadets.

Other visitors were an AN-2, the largest single engine bi-plane in the world, and a

P51 Mustang.

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Visits from interesting and unusual aircraft are a treat for volunteers and visitors alike

and can cause work to stop, visits to be temporarily abandoned and cameras to

suddenly appear from every angle!

July is always a quiet month for organised visits, as our volunteers love of aviation

tends to mean a large MaPS attendance at the Royal International Air Tattoo!

However, we remained open to visitors throughout and were very happy to show

around anyone who dropped by the pan. We did have some groups visit us towards

the end of the month, though, including the Classics Corvette Owners' Club,

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And the Northampton Industrial Archaeology Group who, although not a car club,

brought some lovely cars that they allowed our volunteers to get rather closer to

than is normally the case!

Rather more exciting than the usual MaPS

transport!

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Many of our visits are organised by MaPS members and this has included the Royston

and District Motorcycle club

And some Gordon Gilder trucks, definitely our largest visitors of the year!

The summer weather continued for visits from the North Cotswolds Vintage Motor

Cycle Club, and, on a particularly lovely day, a group organised by MaPS friend

and supporter, Neil Grant.

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The focus for September was getting the aircraft ready for Members' Day, but we

still managed to fit in a good number of pre-booked cockpit tours as well as a few

Group visits, the largest of which was a classic car club, all the way from the Usk

Valley.

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This was one of the last sunny days of the summer and they took the opportunity to

picnic in the car park prior to the visit and what a picnic! Not only bacon butties,

but some lovely cake, too. They were definitely a popular group with our volunteers!

By October the weather was turning distinctly autumnal, with the busiest 'visit' to the

pan being the Night Shoot, organised by Timeline Events, which this year featured

three of our volunteers as re-enactors.

Finally, our last large visit of the report was from our old friends the Bugatti Owners

Club.

The above is just a snapshot of the wonderful visitors we have shown around our

treasure of an aircraft over the past few months. We hope they have enjoyed it as

much as we have, and I'd like to end by saying a special thank you to all the

volunteers who help run these visits, we couldn't do it without them!

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Engineering Report Eric Ranshaw

I remarked in the last newsletter that with so many large parties of visitors throughout

the summer, we need to do the majority of our engineering work during the quieter

winter months. There has certainly been no shortage of visitors this summer, both

large booked parties and smaller “walk-in” groups and individuals. However, looking

back it seems we have also been able to get quite a large amount of work done.

We completed the re-installation of the No.2 engine after its inspection, and

although the EGR to test it was delayed by airfield politics, we were finally able to

run it just before Members’ Day. There were no significant problems, and it then ran

faultlessly on the day.

One of the major tasks this summer has been the rebuild of the 28 volt Transformer

Rectifier Unit (TRU) from the Houchin Ground Power Unit. This has been ongoing for

a long time since it was damaged trying to start the visiting Vampire at Wings and

Wheels 2016, and we have been relying on a TrolleyAcc to supply the aircraft for

systems demonstrations. This has been reasonably

successful, but it does mean that the aircraft battery has

to carry more of the load than usual. We discovered

that replacement TRU components built to modern

standards simply didn’t work. The control system of the

TRU relies on inherent

inefficiencies in the

transformer and

transductors, and modern

replacements were too

efficient for the task. After

struggling with it for a long

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time, we decided to try to do our own refurbishment of the old components. This

involved dismantling the main transformer, adjusting the efficiency using paper

shims between the halves of the core, and then re-strapping it and testing the results.

After a couple of tries, we were able to get the transformer performing to the original

specification on all three phases. The voltage regulator was also stripped and rebuilt,

together with a spare in case it should be needed, and the TRU was then re-

assembled. Bench tests at low loads indicated the unit was working satisfactorily, so

it was re-installed in the Houchin GPU. One of our volunteers made a number of test

loads of varying sizes, and we have now tested the TRU up to its rated output of 450

amps. This is significantly more than the Vulcan requires, so we are confident it will

now be able to meet our needs for the future.

We have spent quite a lot of time working on our various aircraft batteries to try to

rationalise our holding. This has involved building a test unit to allow us to test the

capacity of individual cells. We have also compared various charging and testing

procedures so that we can develop a suitable maintenance programme.

Work has continued on our Garrett Airesearch starter turbine, and we have been

able to find a 28 volt generator for the unit which was available from the USA via

the internet. Hopefully this will mean that when the

Garrett is back in action, it will also be able to charge

its own batteries. This was never the case in the past,

it was always a source of concern during Wings and

Wheels and Members’ Day events, and we always

had to keep a second set of charged batteries

available “just in case”. All our other ground

equipment has a battery charging capability, so it

makes sense that we should aim for the same capability on the Garrett.

We took delivery of the second of our new No.1 fuel tanks last spring, but we have

been unable to work on their installation during the summer due to the requirements

to provide access for visitors. Now that the rush is

over, we have prepared the airframe spaces and

commenced installation. I am very pleased to

report that so far this has gone more smoothly than

we could have expected. As we go to press with

this newsletter, both tanks have been installed and

the multiple “press studs” which secure them to the

airframe have

been secured. We

will now continue

with the installation of the internal fittings and then

the pump assemblies, and commission the tanks.

This will give us more flexibility in terms of keeping

the aircraft centre of gravity forward during the

winter to combat the effects of snow on the wings.

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Only the No.1 and No.2 tanks are forward of the c of g, and in the past we have

had to rely on the No.2 tanks as the old No.1 tanks have been unserviceable for

many years.

Work has continued during the summer to tidy up our Standard

Airfield Bomb Trolley. Much de-rusting and painting has been

completed, mostly by the various Air Cadet squadrons who visit

us regularly to gain practical experience. We have now started

stripping out the old hydraulic systems with a view to getting the

braking system working again.

We have not had to do very much work on our

various buildings recently, but on the 10th of

September, many of the businesses on the airfield

were targeted by burglars. We were very lucky

that we only lost a couple of walkie talkies, but the

roller shutter which closed off one of our storage

areas was damaged beyond repair. This has been

replaced with a set of folding doors which give us

better access to the space and which can be

secured from the inside.

The painting of the aircraft upper surfaces has

continued whenever possible during the summer, but

the very hot and sunny weather meant that there were

times when the metal was too hot to work on. However,

the whole of the starboard wing has now been

completed, and the team will be moving over to the

port side next spring.

During the Engine Ground Run carried out on

Members’ Day, it was noted that the alternator on

the No.4 engine wasn’t generating any output. This

is extremely difficult to trouble-shoot as we can’t run

the engine on the pan. We have done some

investigation whilst cycling the engine on the starter

motor, and this will continue. Now that the visitor

commitments have reduced, we also hope to be

able to move the aircraft onto the taxiway so that

we can run the engine and alternator up to speed.

We will let you know how we get on in the next newsletter.

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A Tribute to John Lyons

Mike Pollitt

It is with very deep regret that we have to

inform you of the death of one of our

extremely popular volunteers.

John Lyons passed away on 10 November

peacefully at home, after a long illness. He will

be sadly missed at XM655 by us all. He was a

genuinely nice guy, always polite, courteous

and extremely affable. He was a Liverpudlian

and typified the breed for his tremendous dry

sense of humour, regaling us often with his

wonderfully funny tales of his service life. He

was a brilliant man and exceptionally brave in

the face of such adversity, as his failing health

caused him enormous pain and concern, but

he maintained his wonderful sense of humour

throughout.

As Barry Masefield said, ‘John was instrumental

in maintaining the Victor tanker force at a high

state of serviceability on Ascension Island during the Falklands Conflict of 1982’. ‘His

infectious good nature and sense of humour prevented many a dark day’.

John’s description of his time on Ascension Island are both highly informative and

hilarious. He worked on a 24-hour shift pattern during the Conflict, barely staying

awake on those dark nights to keep his aircraft serviceable. I shall never forget his

story of how he and a couple of chums had written back to loads of girls back in the

UK who had taken the trouble to write to ‘our boys’. But they signed them all from

David Wells, another colleague of theirs on Ascension, and David received literally

dozens of sacks of mail to answer. I just loved the humour, the passion and the total

commitment to the task that emanated from his talks on the subject, the can-do

attitude and there was no question of failure entering the equation.

I asked John to give us a hand in creating an information sheet on the role of the

Vulcan in the Falklands Conflict; ‘oh and with just a line on the Victor please John’?

Within the day I received this:

That most ingenious, powerful and cutting-edge Victor - superbly crafted by

the gods of aviation to be the most capable V-Bomber ever produced, took

to the skies in numbers in the spring of 1982 to recover the Falkland Islands

from the hands of the Argentinian aggressors.

With thunderous roar of unbridled power, the fleet of Victors did slip the bonds

of earth upon silvered wings and, as an airborne armada, set course to deliver

liberty to the imperiled islanders.

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Through raging tempests the Victors, in perfect formation, did cut through the

inky black sky, hidden from the malevolent intentions of the enemy far below.

Every aircraft, with faultless performance and tuned to perfection by the RAF's

finest engineering team did achieve their unbelievable objectives despite the

burden of having to give up a little fuel to their 'dependent'.

To this day, the Victors are hailed as central to the most audacious

undertaking by the Royal Air Force.

Oh, and worth a mention, is that this aerial ballet was an outstanding success

despite having to drag an ungrateful Vulcan across the sky.

John Lyons 15 January 2018 (some apologies to Mr McGee)

Despite being a Victor man, John was full of energy and enthusiasm for XM655, very

often entertaining our visitors with his memories of the Falklands Conflict. He was a

true friend of all of us at Wellesbourne he will be very sadly missed, and in the words

of Shaun Thomas, one of our volunteers, ‘I hope his wife Sue and family are able to

take solace from the high regard to which John is held by our members and

volunteers’.

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Moonflower 1972 Len Hewitt

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Having been on Line Squadron for the past two years, I was delighted to see my

name on the list for the 1972 Moonflower which meant a visit to Darwin and

Singapore. Everyone was dashing around ensuring jabs were up to date - TABT

(Tetanus, Typhoid, Paratyphoid A and Paratyphoid B), Cholera and Yellow Fever,

not only were those necessary to go overseas, but on the V-Force you didn’t get

your leave pass signed if those were not up to date!

Then there was the lecture from the top Station M.O. warning us of the danger of

STDs and dehydration. We were told we must drink a pint of water for every pint of

beer we had consumed the previous night and “You’ll know you are dehydrated

when you go for a pee and only produce a puff of steam!”. That was the best joke

of the lecture.

A week later we were all loaded onto a Britannia with a first refueling stop at Akrotiri,

Cyprus. However, when it came time to take off for the next stage to Masirah (where

myself along with three other groundcrew and a very new Pilot Officer had been

nominated as Transit Servicing Party (TSP) to see the four Vulcans in, refueled,

afterflight servicing, and the following morning beforeflight servicing,

and to see our aircraft off), No 4 engine refused to start. Why they had chosen myself

as the one trade who had no servicing to do (being a Navigational Instruments

fitter), is anyone’s guess.

We were all off-loaded and told we would be there at least overnight, and so three

of the younger guys persuaded me to hire a car as I was twenty-five, the minimum

age for car hire. Not knowing for how long we would be on the island, I arranged to

drop the car off at the guardroom when we were leaving. After a great day touring

Cyprus and finding some of the Roman remains, it was back to camp.

The following lunchtime we were having a meal in the Airmen’s Mess when the

Tannoy announced that the Waddington TSP for Masirah were to report to Air

Movements immediately. I returned the car, picked up my small pack, and headed

for Air Movements to join up with the others. We were told to board the Hercules

C130 with engines running. We did ask if we could get our kit off the Britannia

pointing out that it was the last kit loaded so would be easy to locate. However we

were told in no uncertain terms that we were to board the C130 immediately and

there was no chance of retrieving our kit.

Several hours later and in darkness we landed at Masirah, to discover the wind there

was a similar temperature to exhaust gasses. Having got our accommodation sorted

out, and having also managed to borrow a pair of shorts each, we were told our

four aircraft had already landed and been shut up for the night, so we settled for a

couple of beers.

Masirah was a strange and somewhat inhospitable station. Largely desert and only

7 miles wide by 40 miles long and with very infrequent rainfall. We were told it hadn’t

rained there for the past several years. Wildlife wasn’t the friendliest either, being

largely 8” diameter Camel Spiders, and a couple of species of poisonous snakes.

The Sultan of Oman wouldn’t allow the Airfield to be fenced and so before any Air

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Movements could take place, Air Traffic had to clear the runway of camels and

donkeys!

The next morning we prepped the four aircraft and having ensured there were no

camel spiders hiding in the undercarriage bays, saw them off on their next stage.

Now we were stuck on the island with no change of clothing and the only uniform,

borrowed KD shorts. All the water was desalinated (but still vaguely salty) and the

showers were salt water and so we had to use special salt water soap. Three days

later a 35 Sqn Vulcan came in with our kit in the pannier. It is hard to describe how

good it is to put on a clean and ice-cold shirt under those conditions!

The following day we were able to cadge a lift on a passing 30 Sqn C130 that was

taking a detachment from Marham to Gan. After an uneventful flight we were on

the descent when suddenly the aircraft depressurised as the freight ramp dropped

a couple of inches onto its safety hooks, and the air turned into thick cloud. It must

have been a real shock for one of our Ltechs who happened to be on the loo (which

was located on the ramp) at the time!

Our only travel authority was a signal saying “proceed Darwin soonest”, and so we

persuaded our accompanying officer to take it at once to Air Movements and see

if they could get us on our way. As a result the next morning we boarded a VC10 to

Singapore, where we learnt it would be 6 days before there were any flights to

Darwin! Time to break in to the in-flight impress and draw some cash!

After a great break in Singapore, we boarded a C130 out to Darwin. As it was a

Crew I knew from my previous posting to Fairford, I was fortunate to be able to spend

a couple of hours up on the flight deck. As we were disembarking, one of our party

was carrying a carrier bag with 3 bottles of of duty-free spirits, which parted

company spilling its contents which bounced down onto the concrete where a litre

of vodka rapidly evaporated! Not long after our JENGO (Junior Engineering Officer)

came over to see us and said “You’ve had a hell of a journey over here, lads, you'd

better take 24 hrs off!”

Accommodation in Darwin was somewhat sparse. The barrack blocks were all built

on concrete stilts, and to accommodate our detachment, the RAAF had rigged

tarpaulins between the stilts and given each man a camp bed, so we were living

beneath the block.

When we eventually got to see the flight line, setting up was still in progress, in

particular the high pressure rapid air bottles were being offloaded from a truck and

into a temporary compound. As we watched, one fell from the crane and on

landing the valve was smashed off leaving the gas bottle to become a positive

torpedo streaking across the apron and towards the sandbag compound the

armorers had just constructed as protection around the 1000 lb munitions. Never

have so many armourers moved simultaneously so quickly as they realised the air

bottle was heading straight for them!

That detachment must have been one of the last times that Vulcans practiced live

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21, 1000 lb bombing before the Falklands raids.

The sorties consisted of heading for the bombing range immediately after take off,

releasing the weapons and then heading towards Alice Springs before returning to

Darwin where the RAAF Mirages were supposed to intercept them. One of our crews

came back with all his ECM kit in active mode, reputedly causing havoc to just

about all transmissions in a travelling circle across the Northern Territories!

Immediately after the debriefing, I asked the captain if he had had his wrists slapped

for doing so. The answer? “Well, a touch, but the b_____ds didn’t get us, did they!”

From Darwin we returned to Singapore for further exercises, but that’s another story...

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Tales from the Hanger Floor Mark Bumford

I have over the past twelve months witnessed at first hand the trials and tribulations

of the volunteers as they labour, sometimes under trying circumstances to keep a

54 year old aircraft if not airworthy, certainly road worthy. I thought it might be

interesting to share some of the trials and tribulations that we experienced at

Bitteswell with a Vulcan fleet that was considerably younger than XM655 is.

My first contact with a Vulcan was during my apprenticeship when XM597 and 598,

although just fresh out of the showroom were the first two aircraft in a modification

programme that was to continue until the last aircraft flew out in 1981.

When I started my apprenticeship with Sir W G Armstrong-Whitworth Aircraft in 1959,

there were more aircraft companies in existence than you could shake the

proverbial stick at. Two years later the amalgamations began. We joined with

Glosters to become Whitworth Gloster then two years later Glosters disappeared

altogether and we became Avro-Whitworth. Hence in five years I had three sets of

indentures! More amalgamations followed and the industry separated into two

factions, British Aircraft Corporation and the Hawker Siddeley Group with Handley-

Page ploughing a lonely furrow in between. Handley-Page then disappeared when

it declined to join the newly formed British Aerospace, and of course BAe then

morphed into BAe Systems, a conglomeration of every defence contractor in the

country whether it supplied army, navy or air force. However, there was one small

way in which the absorbed companies could keep their individuality, but more of

that later.

When I as at Wellesbourne in early June the engine bay doors of numbers one and

two engines were open and as the sum caught the oil stains on the centre door of

number one engine I noticed that it has received a ‘cheap’ repair at some time. I

say cheap, but those of you who have studied the balance sheet will know that

nothing to do with aircraft maintenance is cheap! The last time the door was

repaired, instead of the whole press formed and therefore expensive skin being

replaced only the outer edges were replaced to a standard repair scheme.

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Reading the serial and modification (mod) plates told me of the door’s history.

Each major component on the aircraft will have its own unique serial number which

will produce a paper trail in whatever quality assurance system is in use at the time.

During my time in the industry we were working within Defence Standards or Def

Stan, these later became Allied Quality Assurance Procedures or AQAP. Both these

are closely related to both the civilian British Standards and ISO the International

Standards Organisations.

The Serial plate will carry the following information:

DRG No. The drawing or part number of the component

ISS The issue number of the drawing it was manufactured or repaired to.

Every time a major alteration or modification is carried out on a

component the issue number of the drawing is raised to reflect this.

SERIAL NO.

As I mentioned earlier, the constituent companies still managed to retain a little of

their individuality. At a date lost in the mists of time each company was given a

unique number/letter combination, thus Avro became R3, Hawkers 41H, Armstrong-

Whitworth S4 and so on. These codes were used in the serial numbers of the

components produced or repaired by the various companies.

So, to return to our engine door, the serial number is: S4R/R/S4/R3/698/70344. I will

attempt not to be too ‘Janet and John’ but we will start from the end and work

forward:

70344 is the doors unique number and no other Vulcan engine door will have this

number.

The 698 is of course the Avro type number for the Vulcan.

The R3 indicates that Avro is the main contractor and S4 that the door was

constructed as a ‘new build’ by Armstrong-Whitworth as sub-contractor.

As a digression, in the 1960s, as well as building both civil and military versions of the

Argosy and the last Sea Hawks for the Indian navy, we were sub-contracting Vulcan

bomb doors, engine doors and inboard elevons, Javelin belly tanks, Boeing 707

engine nacelles for Rolls Royce Conways, with the experimental shop doing work for

the Bristol 188 stainless steel research aircraft. And, to really diversify, the machine

shop was turning out fuel cans for the nuclear power stations!

Back to our door, the /R indicates that the first repair was carried out by the

company whose code preceded it. It saves having to stamp S4R twice. (If the first

repair had been carried out by Avro the number would have read S4R/R3R/S4/R3

etc.). Some Shackleton bomb doors had that many /Rs you had to count them

twice to ensure you had the correct number!

Lastly the date of final inspection and the inspectors stamp. All other serial plates

were disposed of except the original new build plate which was riveted under the

latest repair plate. There is an apocryphal story of a batch of Hunter Ailerons from

the Swiss air force that came to Bitteswell for repair and the only original part that

left the factory were the new build serial plates.

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The modification (or mod plate) in the case of our engine door is the original and is

stamped with the various mods incorporated together with the relevant inspection

stamp. As we always repaired to the latest standards, I always used to fit a new mod

plate anyway but stamped with the latest mod. If you get a chance to view the

mod plate on our door, the last three mods are 1503, the fitting of three reinforcing

angles (but I can’t remember where), 2280 which replaces the door edge weather

seals with one made from butyl rubber and 2327 which is the acrylic paint scheme

that 655 had when it first arrived at Wellesbourne.

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2019

The next Annual General Meeting of MaPS will be held at 10.30 am on Saturday, 4th

May 2019. This notice may appear to be somewhat premature, but the publication

date of our Spring Newsletter is such that we would be unable to give the specified

notice as required by the Society’s rules.

As in previous years, the meeting will be held in the Wellington Room at On Track

Aviation, Wellesbourne Airfield (near to the Control Tower and Touchdown Cafe).

All members are welcome and tea/coffee and biscuits will be provided.

The agenda will be:

• Chairman’s introduction and annual report

• Membership report

• Treasurer’s report and approval of annual accounts

• Appointment of auditor for the coming year

• Election of committee members

• Any other business

Any items that members wish to add to the agenda must be sent in writing to

The Secretary,

655 MaPS,

Wellesbourne Airfield

Loxley Lane,

Warwick

CV35 9EU

to arrive no later than four weeks before the date of the AGM.

During the afternoon, XM655 will be open to visitors, and we will be carrying out

demonstrations of as many aircraft systems as are possible on the pan. We hope

that combining the AGM and an “open day” for visitors to the aircraft will

encourage more members to attend the meeting.

PHOTO CREDITS

Cover photo by Alex Taylor: https://www.facebook.com/alextaylorphotos/

Moonflower 1972 copyright Ministry of Defence.

All photographs not crediting their photographer are taken by 655MaPS volunteers.

https://www.facebook.com/alextaylorphotos/

alex taylor’s evocative photograph of xm655...september and the photoshoot on 13th october. on...

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