Shuttleworth & SuperNats 3

This amused me, in one of the hangers there were a number of 1920s / 30s posters with - say a picture of a dynamic looking couple of blokes labelled "Pilot & Navigator" or "Engine & Mechanic" or "Explorer & Driver" then there was this one..... if you were a woman, you only got to be a blonde or a brunette - this was in the era of Amy Johnson & Tilly Shilling for goodness sake!!! How times change.

 

 This is the original Wallis Autogyro from whichever James Bond film it was. Dummy rockets, missiles & guns of course, I doubt the structure could take the recoil. Only as I post the picture here do I notice ANOTHER Kingston designed aircraft in the background, looks like a Sopwith 1 1/2 Stutter - yes the actually named it the One-And-A-Half-Strutter. That's what the pilots nick-named it after the struts between the wings - & it became official, but that's not really an excuse.

Ah the Dragon Rapide, Another badly named aircraft. I remember as an apprentice being told that guys working on Concorde would occasionally be flown to Filton (Bristol) on the Company Dragon Rapide & would look out of the windows as the cars on the M4 overtaking them.


 





At the other end of the scale, but still with DeHavilland is the DH88 Comet, designed specifically for the MacRobertson air race from London to Australia. With 400bhp & able to travel at 200mph for 2500 miles, this was a pretty hot ship in it's day.

It's a ply wood monocoque, so a direct ancestor of - the DH98 Mosquito

There's more here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88_Comet




Like all the planes at Old Warden it is airworthy, but it's a bit of a handful, look at pictures of it on the ground & think about what the pilot could see when on the ground. It's ealy life was Race, Crash, Repair, Repeat.

But isn't it stunning

 




Onto the cars & a lot less waffle from me

 

WHY don't any of the Cobra kit makers do a 59 'Vette shell as an alternative??

 Thus was weird, Good weird, but weird
 


 

It takes a lot of work to look this un-cared for

 

Some people have TOO much time on their hands

Would you call that a paint job, or dazzle pattern camouflage?

Just classic (see what I did there) 

Who doesn't like a big purple Willys?

Austin Devon (or possibly Dorset)

 

I know it's "only" a Morris Minor, but look at it - EVERY panel has been re-worked to such a high standard that you don't notice the work. Minor doors don't blend like that, the headlights are 2" forward, then Frenched in, the font panel is blended, the more I looked, the more work there was.

 

 

This appeared to be built on a DAX Tojero chassis - camber compensation
system gave it away. The trailer has double wishbone suspension & coil-overs

Feeling Peeky?

Had two, still want another one

 

This was - odd. Fantastic workmanship, amazing design & vision, but (I have to ask) why??

Well, what else would you want to sleep in?

On a HotRod, there's no such thing as "can't be seen"

This is under a hinged panel in the pick-up bed