Tag Archives: london

Docklands at Night

I was attending an event in Docklands for work, and my hosts were gathering for a drink in a bar upstairs at the hotel prior to the dinner kicking off. The view across Docklands at night was really nice but I was there for work so had to try and ignore the view for a bit. However, as we got our stuff together to head down for the main event, I figured I was going to be fine getting a quick picture through the glass. Normal reflection issues but you have to take advantage of the opportunity.

The Police Seem to be Expecting Trouble

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I was at a petrol station just south of Heathrow picking up a snack from the shop when this vehicle pulled in. When living in the US, the idea that the police would have some vehicles that looked like they were due to assault a small town wasn’t so unlikely but, in the UK, that is not the expected thing. I guess Heathrow has some higher security requirements but, even so, this vehicle really did look quite anachronistic as it came in amongst the cars getting fuel.

Sometimes, the Morning Delivers

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As I emerged from Waterloo Station one morning heading to work, I was surprised to find that, unlike the forecast, there was a hint of rain in the air. I almost changed my plan to walk across the city and take the bus but, it wasn’t that bad and I decided to chance it. Thankfully, it wasn’t really that much rain and I needn’t have worried. More importantly, as I came on to Waterloo Bridge, I could see that the sun in the east was creating a rainbow above the city. Once I got onto the bridge properly, there was a cool view of the rainbow looking down towards Westminster. Commuters normally don’t take photos as they don’t want to look like tourists but, on this occasion, lots of people were stopping to take a shot of a cool view.

Stukas Are Rare as Hen’s Teeth

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Given how many of them were built, it is surprising how few Stukas remain. There is one in restoration in Everett at FHCAM which is supposed to be intended to fly when it is complete. I saw that one at various times when still in Seattle. There is also one in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The RAF Museum at Hendon also has one and this is the one I saw most recently. Any others are wrecks that have been recovered. The shape of the Stuka is very distinctive. Footage of WWII so often includes them diving in on targets with the sound of the noise trumpet device that they could fit having become synonymous with aircraft diving. Not sure how many more of them I will ever see!

The Belvedere Looks Amazing

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I am far too young to have seen the Bristol Belvedere in flight, despite what some might think! Given how old it is, it really does seem like quite a large helicopter to have been developed and operated. I bet it looked pretty cool when it was flying. Even now, when see in a museum, I think it is still quite a beast. The example at the RAF Museum in Hendon was there when I first visited in the late 80s and it is still on display. Getting shots of something this large in a relatively confined space is tricky but worthwhile. Do you think it looks as good as I do?

More Airliner Crossing Shots

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While up near Heathrow, while I was mainly bothered about the arriving airliners, there were a lot of high-altitude aircraft criss-crossing the skies. Every once in a while, their paths would look like they would converge. Obviously, they were at different altitudes so nothing that special, but I did find myself tracking them to see if I could get something like a crossing shot.

It wasn’t to be. A few got pretty close but never was I to get the really cool shot of a crossing. Never mind. Here are a few of the ones that got closer during the day.

Reunited With DA2

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In September 1990, I started work at what was then British Aerospace at Warton in Lancashire. I was part of the aerodynamics department so couldn’t have been happier fresh out of an aeronautical engineering degree. The walk from our office to the staff canteen could be done along the road but, why do that when you can cut through the hangars. 2 Hangar was the easiest route and also happened to be the location where the front fuselages for the Eurofighter were being assembled.

The programme went through a reworking as the German government considered its continued role post the end of the Cold War, but it did end up continuing even if one of the prototypes was deleted and the others got renamed. The first two planes were P01 and P02 which were German and British respectively. They became DA1 and DA2. DA2 made its first flight while I was away on a project, but I got to see it fly shortly after I returned.

I then got to see it fly a lot over the coming years. Initially it was in a grey paint scheme but, when it had the pressure mapping sensors fitted, it was painted black overall. I recall there was a justification for this, but I always felt it was because the initial Rafale had been painted black and looked really cool.

Military aircraft prototypes don’t usually have a long life. Usually, the development programme means that they are quite different from the final article and so not a useful platform for continued development. As instrumented versions of the production aircraft come online, the prototypes are superfluous. That was the case for DA2, and it found its way into the RAF Museum’s collection at Hendon. It is suspended from the roof of one of the hangars. This makes for a dynamic pose rather than just standing on its gear. However, it is a bit more limiting from getting angles on it.

Thankfully, the museum has a couple of balconies at that end of the hangar that you can access so you can try a variety of different positions to get a shot. There is always a problem with a black painted aircraft when photographing it indoors. The light is a bit limited and the backgrounds are quite bright compared to the subject. Definitely some challenges with taking the images and then processing them to show what you want without making it look wrong. Then again, that’s part of the fun, I guess. It was fun being reunited with a plane that I haven’t seen for a very long time, and I am glad that it has found a home that means many people can get to enjoy it too.

Natural History Museum

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The end of the year is the time when there is an exhibit of the wildlife photographers of the year. The display is held at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. We went to see the images and there were some truly amazing shots that had been selected. It was also a chance to have a wander around the museum while we were there. Having lived in South Ken as a student, it was a nice return to familiar territory.

With a historic building like this, things don’t change dramatically but credit is due for the improved entry route that they have created from the subway that comes in from the tube station. The ramp brings you up through a nicely landscaped area which I am pretty sure was nothing like that when I lived there. Then again, I didn’t make the most of the museums when they were on my doorstep because you figured they would always be there.

It was a lovely day when we went so the light on the gothic structures was really good. However, I became quite fixated on the internal architectural elements. There are so many details to find whether it is the large-scale stuff like the roof framing or the little details on the railings and walls. Even if the exhibits are not of interest, you could spend an age checking out the building itself. Of course, a skeleton of a whale or a dinosaur is not going to pass you by while there.

A Spey with a Burner Grafted On

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British defence projects have a bit of a reputation for trying something that will boost domestic content but that compromises overall performance. In fact, some civil aviation projects would probably fit that description. One such project was the procurement of the F-4 Phantom. To boost UK content, the J-79 engine that was used in all other variants was replaced by the Rolls Royce Spey. This engine made it into various civil and military aircraft over the years. For the Phantom, it needed an afterburner.

An example of the engine is on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon. I was first interested by the patterns of the flameholders in the afterburner so took some shots looking straight up the jet pipe. Then I moved around to the side. It is so easy to see where the original engine ends and where the added afterburner starts. It does not look like an integrated design whatsoever. It worked well enough although the redesign of the fuselage to accommodate it resulted in significantly increased drag. Top speed was reduced as was climb performance. One upside was that the Spey was a turbofan so, in the original ground attack role the Phantom had in the RAF, it actually improved low level fuel burn. It probably wasn’t so welcome once they moved across to the air defence role, though.

RAF Museum Hendon

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Early January of 1989, I had just got back to my college accommodation in London and decided to pay a visit to the RAF Museum in Hendon. I had a good time wandering around and looking the various old aircraft (and some that were not so old). There was a Lightning that was on display and they had only been withdrawn from service a couple of years before. Until recently, that was my only visit to the museum. I decided it was time for an update.

Plenty has changed in the intervening years (although some things haven’t – the Lightning exhibit seems to be exactly as it was back then judging by my old photos). The Beverley has gone from the car park, and a new building has gone up. Plenty of exhibits have changed around with some having relocated to other museums and others having been added.

The place was very busy. It is free to visit so, I suspect that makes it a popular place for families on a rainy weekend. Lots of young kids there including some that seemed young enough that they wouldn’t really be aware of what their parents were desperately trying to get them enthusiastic about. They did have a lot of learning exhibits which gave the kids things to try out.

I wasn’t there for that stuff, of course. I was just interested in the planes themselves. It was a lot of fun checking out the various hangars with their different subject areas. I wish I had noticed that the battery in my camera was not fully charged as I got to the end of the visit and was nursing whatever juice was left in it. There is always the phone to use, of course, so I wasn’t stranded but I might have been a bit miffed to carry around a body and two lenses if I couldn’t use them!

As is the way with this blog, I will be finding some specific exhibits from the museum that will get their own posts, so this is a more generic look at some of the other bits the museum has to offer. Looking at planes is not going to be everyone’s thing but, if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing (and the fact you have got this far down in a post about the museum suggests you might have), I would recommend you spend a day in Hendon.