Here’s an interesting sight. I had noticed something a bit out of the ordinary in one of the hangers at this small airport, but today it was outside completing some engine tests.
It’s a de Haviland DH.114 Heron, and this one is the only flying Heron left. And to top that off, it was once the Queen of England’s personal transport. The Heron was a pretty small plane (17 passenger capacity) to have four engines, but then the Gipsy Queen six cylinder motors made all of 250 hp each. This was not a fast plane.
Mr. Happy Miles, the current owner and pilot, purchased it along with another non flyer. I was told that inside there is a fur covered toilet as part of the special royal accoutrements.
Today it is a flying advertisement for the Young Marines, a Boy Scout like organization of which Mr. Miles’ son is a member.
There were 148 Herons built between 1950 and 1959. A number of small airlines and military operators around the globe bought Herons. But this one was one of two custom made for the King and Queen.
Those are some graceful lines on an old bird.
As you can see many interesting things are hidden in small airports like this one.
Cool old plane.
Great plane! There are few things that make my spine tingle like an old piston engine propeller plane in flight. When there is an air show in Indianapolis, there are some old warbirds that fly in, such as the B-24 Liberator from WWII. They lumber through the sky making the most glorious noise. The hourly fuel cost of those big 4 engine planes is just breathtaking. I wonder if this smaller one is any better?
Those are really small air intakes on those engines. A thought strikes me: did British aircraft suffer the same electrical maladies found on British autos of the same era? I would hope not.
If you knew the real nature and object of the relevant FAA regs you’d probably be horrified. One cannot even legally upgrade obvious things like ignition and fuel systems without running afoul of the regs, unless they choose the “certified” options — and those are typically 25 to 30 years behind the times, technology-wise. It’s totally mad. An abused, 30 year old Honda civic is probably an order of magnitude safer and more reliable than the average brand-new piston engined airplane.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me from climbing aboard my friend’s old Cessna 172 every chance I get! 🙂
Oh, I know, alright. I got my private pilot license back in the late 80s and spent a lot of time in a Cessna 150. The only vehicle I knew about that was newer than a Model T and still used a magneto. Dirt simple was the rule.
Very nice find Michael. I live close to a smallish airport, and it is quite surprising what comes out of the private hangers once in a while. This old Canso is airworthy I believe and got this shot on Xmas eve. It doesn’t capture the atmosphere, cooling air and fog coming out of nowhere.
(more aircraft pics on my blog http://shufti.wordpress.com/)
Alistair
One of my fondest memories from my 2 year stint in the UK was a flight in a little de Havilland Tiger Moth that my eccentric landlord owned as a toy. Lots of design language from the pre-war Tiger Moth is present in this post-war example.
HangArs. HangErs are for clothes.
We wanna see the, umm, royal throne!
After making that error I looked up the definition and learned something 🙂
“Hangar came into English through the Old French hangard, likely from a Germanic noun that meant “enclosure” or “hamlet.””
“Hanger is a noun formed from the verb hang.”
Quite different roots.
alistair
A B-17 flew in to my local airport a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful plane, They burn 400 gallons of 100LL ($5.24 per gallon) per hour at cruise!
The first entry in my logbook is for 3/10 hour in the EAA’s B-17, “Aluminum Overcast.” CFI was Col. Hal Weekly, a WWII B-17 pilot and concentration camp survivor. A year or two after I did this, the FAA said no seat time without certification in type (you can still take a flight, just no time at the controls). It’s a memory I’ll treasure always.
A good friend, who also “flew” the Fortress, was bragging about his “multi-engine” time at an EAA dinner at OSH one year. An older gentleman sitting next to him leaned toward his aging friend and said “Bob, ’bout how many hours did you say you had in the ’17?” To which Bob replied, “Somewhere north of 3,000, but I’m a little fuzzy on the exact number at this point.”
There are around a dozen B-17s still flying. It’s worth your time to go see one if it comes to your area – they won’t be around forever (we lost one just this year to an in-flight fire – thankfully they landed off-airport and no-one was injured, but the aircraft was a total loss).
About a year after flying the ’17, I started flight training at the old Stone Mountain airport near Atlanta. There was a TBM Avenger “project” parked along the flight line, and I often tried to arrive early so I could walk around and look at that and other aircraft. The airport was closed for the 1986 Olympics after I had only had maybe a dozen lessons, so I had to move over to Gwinnett to finish. Never found out what happened to the TBM…
And to wrap this up by tying it to a CC, I bought my ’62 VW sunroof from a fellow at the airport in Griffin. I had flown down with a friend, and was poking around behind a hangAr, and found the Bug sitting under a derelict Cessna 150. Walked up to the closest hangar, and found a gentleman working on an Aeronca Champ, who turned out to be the owner. The car was given in leu of payment for something or another and had been sitting several years. We settled on a reasonable sum, and I later rode back with the family, changed the oil and adjusted the points, and drove it home.
That sounds a little high. I’d cut that number in half, prob more like 200 gals an hour
That small of a plane to have four engines reminds me of those BAE 146 four-engine jets I used to see flying out of O’Hare.
Butler County airport has some interesting machines flying around my neighorhood on occasion. A Stearman regularly makes an appearance and Hook Field in Middletown, OH used to have a fleet of DC-3’s used for freight, but have been gone for several years.
Clermont County airport has a flying museum of WWll aircraft, too.
What’s the last ship, with the Navy markings? An A-4 Skyhawk?
That’s what it looks like to me, too.
Actually that aircraft was flag officer naval air command aircraft …on Heron flight .I was a young air engineering mechanic in the Royal Navy back in 1989-1990 before the flight disbanded and the 4 herons were replaced by jet streams
Which airport was that Heron located ?
Please advise