Lost Aviation Collection of Britain ...

[JohnB]

Any notable non-survivors from that first photo?

[Archer]

The Vickers Valetta if you ask me. Those are pretty scarce by now.

[Hooligan2]

As suggested, it was He 162A s/n 120227. The fuselage was under restoration at the time of the photo and it is now at the RAF Museum at Hendon.

Thanks to all who responded - I'd never have got that!

[JohnB]

The Vickers Valetta if you ask me. Those are pretty scarce by now.

That's what I thought.
Wiki lists only two survivors.
Any idea what happened to the one pictured?

I have been in the one at Flixton....I recall a spar carry through in the cabin.
Odd, and not very handy, for a C-47 replacement.

[Hooligan2]

John, the only info I have is that it was scrapped - I imagine that was on site at Colerne when the collection was dispersed as the RAF Museum already had VX573 in their collection. Very sad.

[Paul Stroud]

The Valetta, WD159, was transferred to Hereford, presumably so the S.A.S. could play with it. It was apparently destroyed in December 77. Surprised it wasn't offered to another museum, I would have thought Duxford or one of the major private collections would have taken it.

[Archer]

I have been in the one at Flixton....I recall a spar carry through in the cabin.
Odd, and not very handy, for a C-47 replacement.

The design is based on the Wellington bomber and the first version used the exact same wing panels. Later ones used metal covered wings. Because of that ancestry they were stuck with some limitations as to where the main components were placed.

The wing spar did have some advantages though.... regular travellers sometimes preferred to sit next to it. Apparently the cabin crew clambering across the spar offered some interesting views.

[Hooligan2]

The wing spar did have some advantages though.... regular travellers sometimes preferred to sit next to it. Apparently the cabin crew clambering across the spar offered some interesting views.

Think I've seen a cartoon depicting that!

Had a look inside a Jetstream 31 once, had the same type of spar carry through across the aisle as I recall.

[Archer]

I may be partially responsible for that....

Arthur Whitlock did a very good drawing of that scene for his book 'Behind the Cockpit Door' and back in the late '90s I created an enlarged copy of that page for one of the teammembers restoring Viking G-AGRU at Brooklands. He really liked it, framed it and hung it on the interior wall inside that Viking, next to the wing spar. It is still there to this day and visitors have regularly photographed that drawing and posted their photos on the internet... where you probably saw it pop up in a forum. Somewhere in my collection of photos there should be a photo I took of the framed drawing several years after the fact and I may have posted this one to a forum myself at some point. Right now I can't find the photo and the book is in a storage box somewhere, but don't worry, the drawing is out there!