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I went to Brooklands Museum last weekend and while the focus is on its’ association with pre-war racing cars and aircraft the place also boasts a rich heritage of motorcycle racing and engineering. This a fantastic facility; the home of the worlds first race circuit (1907). Later the location where many famous British aircraft were built or partly built, right from the first fragile Avro biplane, through to the iconic Hurricane and onward to the amazing and still futuristic Concorde. Brooklands show cases the achievements of this countries engineering talent over the last century, something we should all be proud of and strive to maintain…anyway a few pictures to give you a flavour of the museum:
Lovely old Norton set in a garage diorama…the smell was to die for, seriously
1904 Humber
BSA, check out that exhaust!
Mind you the one on this Grindley Peerless was even better!
What a stunning machine, that front suspension and steering is engineering art…I give you the fabulously titled Grindley Peerless
What is it?
Brough Superior, the gentleman’s sporting motorcycle of choice…pure class
Some highly impressive cars are on show too…this Napier Railton is powered by a W12 aero engine!! This holds the lap record for the circuit at a little over 143mph!
A surviving section of the original 1907 track…cars and bikes would thunder around here at speeds in excess of 150mph! Sometimes with all four wheels off the ground…it was not the smoothest surface. It must have been an amazing sight and sound…
Many thousands of aircraft were built here, including significant sections of Concorde!
Vickers Wellington, built here and it flew on many perilous combat missions before being lost on a training flight. Ditched in Loch Ness in 1940 it was recovered some 45 years later and restored
My partners in crime for the day…casually stood in front of the cockpit of a TSR2…a sensational military aircraft that got to the early testing stages in the mid 1960’s before getting cancelled, 10 years before the Tornado even flew…there is a complete example at RAF CosfordIf you are a petrol head or engineering buff this place is a must visit….it only £11 to get in too
https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellington
Did you know, the autopilot on a Vanguard submarine is related to the autopilot on a Lancaster Bomber?
Did you know, the autopilot on a Vanguard submarine is related to the autopilot on a Lancaster Bomber?
I didn’t know that…how so?
(it might be a Jack myth though…. I never researched it! lol)
I am going to have to investigate this now!
I think that air crew also nicknamed the auto-pilot George, I wonder if that is the link!?
Apparently the first “practical” autopilot was invented by a bloke called George DeBeeson – This seems to be the most likely reason for the informal name “George” for the autopilot system on aircraft and on your sub
Interesting article on the BBC website
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