Book your tickets before 27 July and save 15% - find out more here

Scotland’s National Airshow is a spectacular day out for all the family. Aircraft old and new take to the skies for an afternoon of breathtaking aerial displays. The RAF’s supersonic Typhoon display team will take centre stage, with a Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. We welcome back the breathtaking Breitling Wingwalkers, the P51 Mustang and the Sea King helicopter amongst others.  

Following my trip north which I discussed in my first blog post, I have put together a tentative programme (in fact, I’ve put together four tentative programmes, three of which didn’t work!!) for the display.

A Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfire to fly at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013 © Crown copyright

It has been a bit of a challenge due to the number of aircraft we are sharing with another display, and the need to allow pilots sufficient time between displays at the two sites to allow them to safely transit and refuel (if required). That probably doesn’t sound too difficult, but when you consider the differing speeds involved (the fastest at over 500 knots for the Typhoon, compared to the slowest at 80 knots for the Swordfish) it does become a bit of a riddle.

Typhoon FRG4 to fly at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013 © Crown copyright

I’m happy with the way things are progressing and I’m quietly confident that we can put on a display that will please almost everybody (I have to say almost, as you can NEVER please everybody, and it would be foolish to try).  We have a great mix of aircraft including more jets than last year which should wake the neighbours up, and with no break in the middle as has been traditional at East Fortune, I think we will provide a really excellent day of aviation.  And just to confirm; I HAVE booked good weather!!

Enjoy the air display at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013

A guest post by David B Craig, SS  Dover Hill

David’s story is one of several told in Arctic Convoys, a new exhibition about the oceangoing convoys of merchant and military ships that provided an essential lifeline to the Russians in their fight against Germany in the Second World War. Arctic Convoys is at National War Museum until March 2014.

In the Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday 8^th October 1943 there was a list of names of nineteen Merchant Navy Officers and Men; five were given the Order of the British Empire and fourteen were given King’s Commendations for brave conduct. The citation read, very simply, “For dangerous work in hazardous circumstances”.

I feel that the story should be told about why the names of these men appeared in the London Gazette. I write the story as I remember it but I write on behalf of the nineteen men, as we all worked together and none of us did anything different from the others.

On 13^th January 1943 I joined the SS Dover Hill at anchor off Gourock in the Clyde.  I had signed on as Radio Officer and, on going on board ship, discovered that we were bound for North Russia. We were heavily loaded with Fighter Aircraft, tanks, guns lorries and a large tonnage of shells and high explosives. Our deck cargo was made up of lorries in cases, Matilda tanks and drums of lubricating oil covered with a layer of sandbags, presumably to protect them from tracer bullets. Needless to say we were not very happy about this last item.

David on his return from Russia in 1943.

We left the Clyde on 23^rd January and arrived in Loch Ewe on the 25^th, where we lay at anchor until the rest of the merchant ships had gathered for our convoy. Loch Ewe is a very beautiful place to visit in the summer but in January/February, with a North Westerly gale blowing and a few, large, heavily laden merchant ships dragging their anchors, it could get a bit hectic at times.

Arctic Convoys memorial at Loch Ewe in the Highlands of Scotland.

On 15^th February twenty-eight merchant ships set out in a gale for North Russia in the heavily defended Convoy No.JW 53. The escort was made up of three cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, one escort carrier, sixteen destroyers, two minesweepers, three corvettes and two trawlers, which was a very good escort, and as the daylight hours were getting longer, trouble was obviously expected.

Due to having to maintain absolute wireless silence, the Radio Officers stood their watches on the bridge with the Navigation Officers on duty.

As we sailed North the gale developed into a hurricane and ships began to get damaged. One of our cruisers, HMS Sheffield, had the top of her forward gun turret torn off and our escort carrier, HMS Dasher, and six of the merchant ships were damaged and had to return to Iceland. On our ship the deck cargo began to break adrift and we were not sorry to see the oil drums going over the side, but when the lorries in wooden cases were smashed up and eventually went overboard things were not so good. However, we managed to save the tanks and kept on battering our way northwards.

I remember trying to use an Aldis lamp from our bridge to signal to a Corvette and found it very difficult since one minute she would be in sight, then she would go down the trough of the wave and all I could see would be her top masts; then up she would come and our ship would go down and all that could be seen was water, but eventually we got the message through. At one stage the convoy was well scattered but as the weather moderated the Navy rounded us all up and got us into some semblance of order once again.

The loss of our escort carrier meant that we had no air cover and, as expected, a few days later a German spotter plane arrived and flew round the convoy all the daylight hours to keep an eye on us. The next day we had a heavy attack by JU 88 bombers in which our ship was damaged and our gunlayer was wounded by bomb splinters, but we still kept plodding on towards North Russia. At this part of the voyage we were steaming through pancake ice floes which protected us from the U-boats, which could not operate in these conditions. The blizzards when they came were always welcome as they hid us from the enemy.

SS Dover Hill.

Two days later, on 27^th February, we arrived at the entrance to the Kola Inlet, which is a long fiord with hills on either side and the town of Murmansk situated near the top.  We had not lost any ships to the enemy and I must pay tribute to the good job done by the Royal Navy and our own D.E.M.S and Maritime Regiment Gunners on the merchant ships. Of the twenty-two merchantmen in our convoy, fifteen were bound for Murmansk and the remaining seven went on to the White Sea ports near Archangel. Little did we know at this time that we would not leave Russia until the end of November. The Navy ocean-going escorts which had taken us to the Inlet would now refuel and set off homeward with the empty ships from the previous convoy.

We were all very tired when we arrived because for the last few days we had either been on duty or at action stations for most of the time. So after picking up the Russian Pilot and setting off independently up the Kola Inlet we were looking forward to having a good sleep when we anchored near Murmansk. We were very quickly disillusioned when, about a mile up the Inlet, we passed a merchant ship on fire and her crew taking to the lifeboats. On asking the Pilot about the ship, which was from the previous convoy, he cheerfully told us that on the way down to meet us he had seen it being attacked by aircraft, obviously a common occurrence. We now understood why we had been fitted with so many Oerlikon and Bofors anti-aircraft guns to enable us to defend ourselves.

After two days at anchor we went alongside at Murmansk to discharge our cargo. The port was being bombed a good part of the time and one of our ships, the Ocean Freedom, was sunk alongside the quay near to us.

When we had discharged all our cargo we moved out and anchored about a mile apart on each side of the Inlet. We happened to be on the side nearest the German lines, which were only about ten miles away, and we were regularly attacked by ME 109 fighter bombers, which used to come over the top of the hill, down the side and come tearing at us about twenty to thirty feet above the water and would drop their bombs as they flew over us just above our top masts. Our gunners were very skilled and used to open fire only when the planes came well within range. These attacks only lasted for about a minute but were very vicious and we had gunners wounded and damage again done to our ship. We shot one plane down into the Inlet and on another occasion we damaged one which got out of range before we could finish it off. The next ship anchored astern of us opened fire when the damaged plane came within range and it blew up. We only got a half credit for this one so ended up with one and a half swastikas painted on our funnel.

We now come to the incident whereby, to our surprise, our names appeared in the London Gazette.

David’s report of the bomb disposal incident.

On Sunday 4^th April we were anchored in Misukovo Anchorage a few miles north of Murmansk and I was playing chess in the Officers’ mess when Action Stations sounded and our guns opened up at the same time. I went through the pantry, looked out of the door, and saw two JU88 bombers coming up from astern, high up. Our Bofors shells were bursting below them and when they turned away I assumed we had beaten them off and stepped out on deck. This was a foolish thing to do as, unknown to me, the planes had released their bombs before turning away.

Four bombs exploded close on the port side and one on the starboard side and I was blown off my feet. As I got up our gunlayer came down from one of the bridge oerlikons and pointed out a large round hole in the steel deck a few yards from where I had been standing. It was obvious that the sixth bomb had gone through the main and tween decks into our coal bunkers and had not exploded. We informed the S.B.N.O, Murmansk of the situation and were advised that there were no British Bomb Disposal people in North Russia. We then realised that we would have to dig the bomb out ourselves in order to save our ship.

The minesweeper HMS Jason was ordered to anchor astern of us and to come alongside to render assistance if the bomb should explode, although I doubt if there would have been much to pick up. You must understand that though the Dover Hill was only a battered old merchantman she was our home and no German was going to make us leave her while she was still afloat.

The Captain lined the whole crew up on the after deck and asked for volunteers, and nineteen of us including our Captain formed our own Bomb Disposal Squad. We had no bomb disposal equipment, in fact we only had a few shovels borrowed from our stokehold and nineteen stout hearts when we started digging back the coal, trying to find the bomb. The bunker was full of good British steaming coal which we were saving for the homeward run so we used a derrick to bring it up on deck, hoping to replace it when we got the bomb out.  When the Russian authorities heard what we were doing, although they had many unexploded bombs to deal with in the town, they kindly offered to send one of their Bomb Disposal officers to remove the detonator if we could get the bomb up on deck.

When we dug about ten feet down into the coal we found the tail fins and, by their size, decided our bomb must be a 1000lb one. Unfortunately the Germans also discovered what we were up to and came back and bombed us again, hoping to set off the bomb we were digging for.  Between bomb explosions and the concussion of our own guns the coal kept falling back into where we were digging and things got difficult at times.

We had to dig down approximately twenty-two feet before we got to the bomb, but after two days and two nights hard work we finally got it up on deck.

I was standing beside the bomb with two of my fellow officers as our Russian friend started to unscrew the detonator when after a few turns it stuck.  He then took a small hammer and a punch and tapped it to get it moving. I can honestly say that every time he hit it I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up against my duffle coat hood. After removing the detonator and primer we dumped the bomb into the Kola Inlet, where it probably lies to this day. We then moved back to Murmansk for repairs.

Of the fifteen ships which had come to Murmansk in February, one had been sunk and four damaged. On 17^th May, in company with three other ships, we left the Kola Inlet and set out for the White Sea. We arrived in Economia on the North Dvina River where we stayed until 18^th July when we moved to Molotovsk (Severodvinsk) and finally on 26^th November, with eight other ships, some damaged, we set out for home.

Since it was now dark for almost twenty-four hours each day and we could only do seven knots maximum speed we went north to the edge of the ice. Knowing that a Russian-bound convoy was coming up to the south of us we expected the Germans to attack it and leave us alone. This in fact happened and we eventually arrived in London on 14^th December 1943, in time to be home for Christmas.

The time spent in the White Sea area was mostly peaceful but our main problem was lack of food and for part of the time we suffered from malnutrition, but we survived.  I do not think it did us any harm as it makes us appreciate all the more the peaceful times we now live in.

When we sailed up London River towards Surrey Commercial Docks to pay off, with our Red Ensign flying and patches on our decks and side, we were proud of the old ship as if she had been a spick and span Navy vessel arriving in port. Incidentally, the Red Ensign had a hole in it where an Oerliken shell had gone through it during the fighting but it was the only one we had left.

After returning from North Russia, the Dover Hill was taken over by the Ministry of War Transport and was sunk at Arromanches on 9^th June 1944 along with other ships to form an artificial port for the invasion of Normandy.

To finish on a personal note, I was the youngest of the young squad who took part in the incident in Misukovo Anchorage, having had my eighteenth birthday on the way up to Russia. I was no greenhand however, having joined my first ship in Plymouth as a Cadet in 1940 when I was fifteen years and three months old. Due to having a problem with my eyesight I was unable to continue in the Navigation Department and came ashore, went to the Wireless College and then returned to sea in the Radio Department.

I first returned to Murmansk in 1980, mainly to find the grave of a friend who had been killed in the port by a bomb splinter which went through his steel helmet. With the help of the Russian authorities I was able to do so. I went back in 1985 and again in 1987 with a group of veterans and we had great kindness and friendship shown to us by the people of Murmansk, who greatly appreciate the help we brought to them during the war. In 1987 I found out that the name of the Russian Bomb Disposal officer was Panin, and I later discovered from friends at the Northern Naval Museum in Murmansk that he had been killed in August 1943 in a dog fight with German aircraft over the Barents Sea.

I have since returned to Murmansk in 1991, 93, 95, 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2012. On various occasions I have taken part in the Victory Celebrations to mark the anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.

David on a cruise to Russia in June 2012.

By Sarah Barr, Volunteer, Scotland Creates

Our Scotland Creates volunteers are working with curators and other staff from National Museums Scotland to create an exhibition on the theme of Scotland Creates: A Sense of Place.

GREETINGS, FELLOW HUMANS.

So we’re trying to fashion ourselves some sort of logo so that when you come and visit our exhibits you’ll know what’s ours.

Logo. Ok. I’m good at drawing. This’ll be easy. It’ll take five minutes. Yes. Scribble scribble.

I came up with Dolly the Sheep’s face placed over the National Museum crossed punctuation marks, looking like a skull and crossbones. We called it the Dolly Roger. I was a proud little potato.

The Dolly Roger.

Then… Oh. Turns out there are guidelines and things we have to follow.

Lots of them. About fonts and colours and use of museum marks and whatnot.

Ah.

So instead of the Dolly Roger, someone with far more sense than me brought in a clever lady called Eilidh, who also had far more sense than me, from an advertising firm called Frame in Glasgow to have a session with us volunteers about logo design and branding.

Turns out that logos are HARD.

We talked about famous brands and how their logos pop out at us, how simplicity is what we should aim for, and making sure that the logo we come up with really conveys what the heart of the project is all about. So, we grabbed a small forest’s worth of Post-It notes and wrote down words we felt summed up the project and its values, coated a wall with them and gradually whittled them down to a handful of key words.

We then split ourselves up into smaller groups, each group taking a word and trying to come up with some simple, clear images to represent them. The whole group then voted on which images we liked best, which turned out to be:

• A classic house shape with a heart inside it (representing “Home”, as in, home-is-where-the-heart-is… do you see what we did there? Do you? Do you see?)
•  A magnifying glass in various guises (representing “Discovery” which we thought was an important part of identity in Edinburgh)
• Keys, a key, or a keyhole, sometimes dressed up as a thistle (representing a mix of those last two key words. Hah. Key words. Keys. Hah.)

Happy with our ideas for potential motifs, we then had to find a volunteer to put it all together into a logo (Technically, we’re to call it a “visual identity” because the National Museum only has one logo).

Cue some shuffling of feet, and me eventually being stupid and saying “I could give it a go?” or something like that, because I apparently haven’t learned my lesson from my attempt with the Dolly Roger and my brain clearly enjoys torturing me by making me offer to do things I can’t do very well. Huzzah!

So I am working on a handful designs for everyone else to vote on based on the motifs we came up with at the brainstorming session. (I say working; every time I saw my sketchbook and the museum CD called “Identity Guidelines” over the past fortnight I ran away and watched an entire season of Xena:Warrior Princess in the hope that magical little elves will have broken into my flat and done it for me.)

I am so very nearly done though, and will hopefully be done in… ten minutes including procrastinating by writing this blog post. Mostly because I finished Xena. And Game of Thrones. And The X-Files. And somehow haven’t eaten my laptop in a fit of rage at MS Paint and my touchpad, which are as much Adobe Photoshop and a graphics tablet as I am a fairy princess.

And here they are…

‘Home is where the heart is’ motifs.

Key and magnifying glass motifs.

A selection of thistle and keyhole motifs.

Anyway, I hope you like what eventually gets chosen!

Bye for now,

Sarah Barr

By Victoria Adams, Assistant Curator East & Central Asia and Middle East & South Asia

Every year the University of Edinburgh holds an Innovative Learning Week, allowing students the opportunity to attend creative and experiential learning events. These open up new perspectives on their studies, inspiring debate and prompting future research.

National Museum of Scotland recently hosted a Japanese tea ceremony for students from the History of Art department, within the serene environment of the Japanese tea house (chashitsu) in the Lady Ivy Wu Looking East gallery.

The ceremony was led by Mio Shapley, a qualified Master in the Urasenke tradition. Hiromi Moffat set the atmosphere by playing the shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese instrument played with a large plectrum (bachi). All four participants in the ceremony wore elegant kimono and hair ornaments.

Mio Shapley preparing Japanese green tea. Photo by Paul Dodds.

Tea has been drunk ceremonially in Japan since at least the 8^th century, although the basis of the existing tea ceremony probably dates from the 16th century. The highly symbolic ritual follows prescribed actions and gestures, demonstrative of purity and balance.

Traditionally the ceremony takes place within a tea house; a deliberately simple room usually set within an apparently uncultivated garden. It has no furnishings beyond the traditional tatami straw matting on the floor. A small sliding door requires the guest to bow humbly and enter on their knees, before symbolically closing the door to the outside world behind them. The room often contains an alcove used to display a naturalistic flower arrangement, and a hanging scroll with either a painting or calligraphy appropriate to the season or occasion. At the start of our ceremony, one of the students was asked to arrange seasonal foliage in a vase, and place it in the alcove.

A student arranging foliage before the ceremony. Photo by Paul Dodds.

Essential equipment for traditional tea preparation includes: the tea bowl (chawan) for drinking; the tea whisk (chasen) carved from a single piece of bamboo; the tea scoop (chashaku) and tea caddy (usuchaki or cha-ire), together with a cloth for wiping the bowl clean (chakin). Also necessary are a kettle (kama) and brazier (furo), and a long bamboo ladle (hishaku) for scooping boiling water from the kettle to the tea bowl. Additional items include storage containers made of natural materials such as wood or bamboo, and cloths for ritual cleaning and handling of hot items. All utensils are chosen with consideration for quality and aesthetics; some may be antique, passed down through generations. All are handled with great care and respect.

Mio Shapley pouring hot water for Japanese green tea. Photo by Paul Dodds.

The tea ceremony is highly spiritual and closely linked to Zen Buddhism. It is conducted in silence, and the calm, deliberate movements create a meditative atmosphere. The central tenets of the ceremony are harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity; participants also endeavour to cultivate a greater awareness of themselves, as part of their personal progression towards spiritual enlightenment.

Following the silent demonstration, a student was invited to prepare a second bowl of tea, whilst the first bowl was passed between her colleagues, accompanied by various traditional sweets (wagashi).

A University of Edinburgh student learns the etiquette of the Japanese tea ceremony. Photo by Paul Dodds.

University of Edinburgh students try Japanese green tea. Photo by Paul Dodds.

We would like to thank Mio and her colleagues for offering us a short glimpse into an ancient cultural tradition. This gave us all a moment to pause, reflect, savour, connect with each other, and then carry within us back into the pleasures and distractions of the everyday world.

A guest post by Captain Tony Yule, former British Airways Concorde pilot who will be speaking at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013.

Book your Airshow tickets before 27 July and save 15% - find out more here

Scotland’s National Airshow is a spectacular day out for all the family. Aircraft old and new take to the skies for an afternoon of breathtaking aerial displays. The RAF’s supersonic Typhoon display team will take centre stage, with a Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. We welcome back the breathtaking Breitling Wingwalkers, the P51 Mustang and the Sea King helicopter amongst others.  

In two parts Captain Tony Yule tells us about his career as a Concorde pilot with British Airways. In part 1 he describes the Concorde pilot training programme he undertook and in part 2 he reveals tales of his adventures piloting Concorde. Why not see and experience Concorde for yourself at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune. 

USA, Caribbean and beyond

Once I had passed my Concorde training,  I began six years as second in command, flying primarily to the USA and back with Barbados included in the winter schedules. During my time, I completed just over 2500 hours with most of those hours being to New York and back.

Time zone clocks in Concorde hangar, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune

I think I went to New York twice a week for six years. It was my favourite destination and I even wrote a “walking tour” of the city, for newcomers to the fleet. It was that tour that got me on BBC Radio 4′s “Going Places” in 1989, with Molly Price-Owen and Clive Jacobs, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Concorde’s first flight.

The Concorde operation, in my period on the fleet, 1987-1993, was two flights a day to JFK, three flights a week to IAD/MIA (Washington Dulles and Miami), one flight a week to BGI (Barbados) from mid-December to just after Easter. There were many charter flights to a wide variety of destinations around the world.

By the time Concorde had finished, she had made the equivalent of 250 round trips to the moon, flown to more than 250 destinations, of which 80 plus were within the USA.

British Airways Concorde in 1986 © Eduard Marmet

Flying Concorde was great fun

Flying Concorde was great fun. It was a very stable aeroplane and for half of my time on the fleet I never used the autopilot. It was a fabulous experience to handle such a great flying machine.

Supersonic flying was quite unique at first. Concorde flew two and a half times faster than subsonic aeroplanes and it took a few months of flying to become really comfortable with the operation. You had to be “on the ball” throughout the short flight. It was not an aeroplane where you wandered into the cabin to chat to the passengers. They in fact, came to visit us.

Celebrity Concorde

I met a few interesting people, Brigitte Neilson, Steven Spielberg, Jackie Stewart and Nigel Hawthorne, these last three always came straight into the flight deck for the take off, then returned for the landing. Incidentally, Steven Spielberg never used his real name.  It reminded me of Julia Roberts in the film ‘Notting Hill’.

At the latitude we flew, Concorde travelled two and half times faster than the setting sun. One of the most memorable things that occurred to every Concorde pilot was the first time (in the early Autumn), you took the late service, BA003. If you departed at 7pm, now darkness and by mid Atlantic, heading West of course, you experienced a sun rise for the second time that day, duly landing in daylight at JFK at 6pm local time. You never forget your first time – ever!

Serving champage aboard Concorde G-BOAA, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune © Jenni Sophia Fuchs

Over the years, other than the scheduled services to New York, Washington Dulles, Miami and Barbados, I flew charter flights to Lexington Kentucky, London Ontario, Seattle, St John’s Newfoundland, Santa Maria in the Azores, Cairo and Luxor – on ‘Red Nose Day’, while I talked with Simon Bates and the listeners on Radio One about the operation we were doing.

A Supersonic Christmas

One of the best trips I made was to Rovaniemi in Lapland in December, where the passengers went to see Father Christmas. On two occasions I spent Christmas there in the hotel. On Christmas morning, all the children from the town plus those returning on Concorde came to the hotel. The manager of the hotel led the children to a wood for them to select the tree that they would decorate in the hotel before lunch.

The crews always became involved in a sort of pantomime after lunch for all these children. I ended up on one occasion, as the back end of a cow while at the front end was a beautiful stewardess. I was given a yellow rubber glove to use for ‘udders’!

Supersonic Christmas, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune © Paul Dodds

I feel very privileged to have had a career as an aviator spanning 46 years, including being part of history in flying Concorde.  Lastly, it was my privilege to have introduced my replacement on the fleet, “The Crimper”, Barbara Harmer, who died two years ago on on 20 February. You can see my tribute to her on my page at, www.facebook.com/concordeheritage

Book your Airshow tickets before 27 July and save 15% - find out more here

Scotland’s National Airshow is a spectacular day out for all the family. Aircraft old and new take to the skies for an afternoon of breathtaking aerial displays. The RAF’s supersonic Typhoon display team will take centre stage, with a Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. We welcome back the breathtaking Breitling Wingwalkers, the P51 Mustang and the Sea King helicopter amongst others.  

In two parts Captain Tony Yule tells us about his career as a Concorde pilot with British Airways.  In part 1 he describes the Concorde pilot training programme he undertook and in part 2 he reveals tales of his adventures piloting Concorde. Why not see and experience Concorde for yourself at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune. 

A dream becomes reality

My stomach was churning with excitement as we sat in the stillness of the flight deck, waiting for the controller to give us our clearance, “Concorde AG you’re cleared for Take-Off, climb straight ahead and maintain three thousand feet”…..

Mach sign on board Concorde G-BOAA, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune © Jenni Sophia Fuchs

I looked around at the other crew members saying, “Everyone ready?” Then with their acknowledgement I said, “3-2-1 NOW” immediately pushing the four throttle levers rapidly fully forward. I was totally unprepared for the acceleration as she roared down the runway with the performance of a F1 sports car. She seemed to leap into the air climbing like a homesick angel…..We passed three thousand, then four thousand and I finally got her under some semblance of control at just under five thousand feet………….. A dream come true but long before this…

Captain Tony Yule with Concorde G-BOAA at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune

I’ve always wanted to be a pilot

“I have a dream….”  said Martin Luther King.  I too had a dream that was very different from his. It was as I remember, that from the age of eight I wanted to be a pilot. Ten years later in December 1958 that dream became a reality, when I was accepted for pilot training in the Royal Air Force. I had almost completed my four year tour as a QFI, Qualified Flying Instructor, at the RAF College Cranwell, when Concorde made her first take-off from Filton, Bristol on 9 April 1969. This beautiful slender delta aeroplane, even today still more futuristic looking than any other, caught my imagination. “Oh I wish I could fly her one day”.  I thought, little realising that in less than four years I would join BOAC, (pre British Airways), where in exactly fifteen years and twelve days after Concorde’s inaugural flight from Filton, I would be sitting in the right hand seat of Concorde G-BOAG on the end of R/W 31 at Prestwick airport, with my left hand on the throttled…

Beneath Concorde G-BOAA at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune

Concorde training was very different

These days, the training of pilots to fly most, if not all modern aeroplanes, is undertaken using a CBT, Computer Based Training system, for learning the INS and OUTS of the workings of an aeroplane. The exams are set electronically at the end of each system and a pass of 100% is required. The British Airways Training Centre is at Cranebank – we called it Branecrank – less than one mile to the East of the airport at London Heathrow. All flight and cabin crew training is still undertaken there.  It takes about two months to learn to fly a Boeing 747 there. As part of the training the pilots make around three landings and one missed approach with the most critical engine(s) failed. These are legal requirements for the pilot to demonstrate his flying skills. Concorde, on the other hand, was very different. The course lasted around six months. I was initially put through seven weeks of ground school where the instructors, using the old “chalk and talk” method, stood in front of the blackboard and took me through the nuts and bolts of all the mechanical and electrical systems of the aeroplane. Every Friday there was a test with 100 questions on the previous week’s work. This was followed by a test of 150 questions on what I had learnt during the week.  At the end of the seven weeks, there was a three-hour test that had been set by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). This is a legal requirement for all, with a pass of no less than 85% being accepted. The Flight Simulator phase was next. The simulator is an exact replica of Concorde’s flight deck. This phase lasted seven weeks, with some to three sessions each week, each would be a briefing and flight preparation of one hour, and then four hours in “the box”, as the flight simulator is affectionately called, followed by up to two hours of debriefing.

Captain Tony Yule aboard Concorde G-BOAA at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune

A complicated machine

It’s worth noting that Concorde was like two aeroplanes in one.  She had to operate in the same environment as conventional aeroplanes up to 40,000 feet – then to operate in the hostile environment of “Super Cruise”, that is speeds of Mach 2 – twice the speed of sound – 1350mph which is 23miles/min or 1mile every 2 ¾ seconds, at altitudes up to 60,000 feet – just over 18km. A lot of problems could ‘leap out of the woodwork’ at a moment’s notice and we needed to deal with them quickly. Much of the simulator flying time was spent perfecting the handling of major emergencies at 60,000 feet for example double engine failures, pressurisation failures and also engine failures on take off and landing. The penultimate phase was ‘Base’ flying. Base was airport used by British Airways such as Prestwick in Scotland or Shannon in Ireland, for the flight training known as ‘circuits and landings’. The Concorde pilot had to make 35 approaches and landings, over a period of about two weeks. Each flight, the pilot would make around five approaches.

Concorde G-BOAA’s flight controls, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune © Jenni Sophia Fuchs

A good pilot takes practice

The reason so many landings were practised, is that Concorde has this huge delta shaped wing that when she came into land, her nose was extremely high. Her delta wing created a high amount of drag, a similar effect to putting a hand out of the window of a moving car and feeling it being ‘dragged’ backwards. There’s a special technique to fly Concorde on the approach to the runway. Get it wrong, the end result could be a really bad landing that could damage the aeroplane. So it was practice, practice and more practice, to ensure we were competent. Remember, a ‘good pilot’ is one who has the same number of landings as take offs! My completion of the course was checked by an observer, in this case the Flight Manager Technical, on a scheduled flight from London to New York and back the following day. I passed!

You can read part 2 of Tony’s story here.

Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has been researching and developing ideas for a contemporary art exhibition inspired by National Museums Scotland’s collections. The exhibition, The Library, is open from 24 May-29 September 2013. Over the past few months, she’s been looking through National Museums Scotland’s collections, finding out about minerals, fossils, molluscs and rocks and uncovering some fascinating stories. In this series of blog posts, we share some of the fantastic things she’s found.

Artist Ilana Halperin has come across some incredible discoveries during her research at National Museums Scotland, but these have got to be some of the strangest. Who knew that snails were sculptors and molluscs were the real makers of the Golden Fleece?

“While at National Museums Scotland I’ve been branching out into other areas beyond geology and mineralogy: I’ve been spending time with corals and molluscs and the curators who look after those collections. I’ve been looking at some lovely things in those departments, such as carrier shells. As these molluscs grow their shells, they also pick up bits of rocks, coral or other shells and attach them to their own. So their shells become these crazy, fabulous sculptures.

Coral specimens in the National Museums Collection Centre.

Hexacorallia (coral).

Tubipora musica (organ pipe coral).

Xenophora conchyliophora (Atlantic carrier shell).

“I’ve also been looking at golden sea threads, which are rumoured to be the substance that the Golden Fleece was composed of. The threads are made by a particular bivalve to tether itself to a substrate, like an anchor. At various points these threads have been harvested and woven together. National Museums Scotland has a really beautiful pair of gloves and a matching scarf all woven from this thread!”

Gloves and scarf made from golden sea threads.

You can visit Ilana’s website here.

Book your tickets before 27 July and save 15% - find out more here

Scotlands National Airshow is a spectacular day out for all the family. Aircraft old and new take to the skies for an afternoon of breathtaking aerial displays. The RAF’s supersonic Typhoon display team will take centre stage, with a Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. We welcome back the breathtaking Breitling Wingwalkers, the P51 Mustang and the Sea King helicopter amongst others.  

Another year has passed and here we are again preparing for the Airshow at National Museum of Flight -  this is therefore part 1 of my ‘East Fortune 2013’ story.

Last week a meeting took place at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune to discuss the coming show and to ensure coordination between the National Museum of Flight team, the emergency services and other interested parties.  I always look on this meeting as the start of the display planning ‘proper’, as it’s the first time all those involved get together to talk about our aspirations and plans.

A Sea King SAR helicopter will be appearing at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013.

The display planning involves quite a number of different agencies including the police, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance, East Lothian Council and St Andrews First Aid for emergency planning and support, the AA, Traffic Scotland and BEAR Scotland for road and traffic management, and various companies dealing in security, marshalling and car parking, as well as the usual agencies and the museum staff involved with actually delivering the show on the day.  I am pleased to say that the meeting was successful on all counts, with everyone satisfied with their place in the plan and all the changes from last year understood.

The Grob 115E, known by the RAF as the Tutor will form part of the air display at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Saturday 27 July 2013.

This meeting was only the start of a busy couple of days for me, so from East Fortune It was back in the car to Edinburgh Airport to speak with the Airport Authority, Air Traffic Control and the aircraft Handling Agents.  It would be impossible for me to organise the flying display without the help and assistance of these three organisations as Edinburgh is a busy airport, and the coordination plan for getting aircraft in and out on display day can be quite complex.  With this in mind, a face to face meeting with all concerned is always a good idea, and also helps build good working relationships.  I shall be parking several aircraft at Edinburgh for the display, and as always the Edinburgh authorities were helpful and understanding which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about the developing plan.  It was also a fine opportunity to sort out display day domestic issues for the crews – even pilots have to eat!!

The RAF Tucano team will be part of the air display at the Airshow, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Sat 27 July 2013

After all these meetings I always try to find a little ‘me’ time while I’m up here, as it’s such a beautiful part of the world.  This time it took the guise of a flight in a pre-war biplane.  It was lovely to fly over the Bass Rock, and to check out all the golf courses along the Forth, especially Muirfield, with the stands in place ready for the Open.  I picked the right time as well; although the weather was glorious for the flight, an hour after we landed it was throwing it down with hailstones!!  I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to Scottish weather.  Then it was back in the car for a relaxing (?) drive back to Gloucestershire.

It’s always a good feeling to have these initial planning meetings under your belt and some decisions made.  Even at this early stage, the more things I have decided the easier the planning process becomes.  I already have numerous aircraft planned and allocated to the display – you can find out more about the display highlights here. Suffice it to say that I think we’re going to have an excellent display this year, and I’m looking forward to another brilliant (and hopefully dry) day at the Airshow in July.

Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has been researching and developing ideas for a contemporary art exhibition inspired by National Museums Scotland’s collections. The exhibition, The Library, is open from 24 May-29 September 2013. Over the past few months, she’s been looking through National Museums Scotland’s collections, finding out about minerals, fossils, molluscs and rocks and uncovering some fascinating stories. In this series of blog posts, we share some of the fantastic things she’s found.

Born in New York, USA, in 1973, Ilana Halperin was fascinated by geology and museums at an early age.

“As a child, one of the main places that I went exploring and adventuring was the American Museum of Natural History, specifically the Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals. In 1976 the Hall had just been redeveloped and reopened. It had been built to mimic the interior of a cave and all of the rocks and minerals were spot lit. So, even before I started carving stone there was an unadulterated, primary experience of being in this beautiful space where all these beautiful, incredible mysterious things were glittering in the dark.

“In the Hall you could explore and discover things, clamber over huge chunks of copper and jasper. The Hall was actually designed to make you want to climb all over it; the Museum wanted children and adults to interact with the geology. In an article I found about the reopening of the Hall, they even said they wanted people, ‘to touch these specimens, put their arms around them, fall in love with them.’ OK, very 1970s, but I guess you could say that I’m a case study for a success story. Because that incredible feeling of encountering these rocks and minerals, and having access to them like that, definitely had a huge impact on my development as a human being.”

In 1998 Ilana moved to Scotland to study at the Glasgow School of Art, and since then she’s gone on to make exhibitions in museums and galleries all over the world. While she’s working at National Museums Scotland, she’s also making a permanent display of geology for Shrewsbury Museum – not many artists get invited to do that! So why does Ilana like working with museums?

Ilana Halperin, installation view of STEINE, Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité, Berlin, Germany, 2012.

“I encounter ideas or objects I haven’t come across before, because every collection is completely different. You never know what you’re going to find out about, and what totally unexpected routes you might take. Certain objects, and conversations with the people who know about the collections, can open up a whole new world, or a completely new way of thinking about things.

“For example, at Manchester Museum I came across a cave cast, which was an object formed in a cave, and by a cave, over a period of one year. That object sparked off a whole new direction in my work, within my thinking about time and our relationship to geology. Then in Berlin, I was introduced to a collection of body stones, gall stones and kidney stones, and this was a huge revelation that the body could produce geology. I wasn’t aware of that until I was put into contact with that particular collection.”

Ilana Halperin, Physical Geology (new land mass/fast time), 2009, still from Super 8 film, 3 min 48 sec.

Ilana Halperin, Physical Geology (new land mass/fast time), 2009, still from Super 8 film, 3 min 48 sec.

You can visit Ilana’s website here.

A guest post by Emma Kaye-Hudson and Elizabeth Morrissey, aka The Blitz Sisters

The Blitz Sisters will be performing Second World War songs at Wartime Experience on Sunday 12 May 2012 at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune. Book your tickets in advance here.

We are a 1940s singing duo who met at university whilst studying for performing arts. After graduating we decided to create some work together and after realising that what we both enjoyed most was singing, we created The Blitz Sisters! That was two years ago now and we have loved every minute.

The Blitz Sisters will be appearing on Sunday 12 May at Wartime Experience, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune.

All our songs are from the 1940s and 1950s, however we have also arranged a few modern songs to fit the sound of the era, so there is something there to suit everyone.

The Blitz Sisters will be appearing on Sunday 12 May at Wartime Experience, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune.

Before a show we try and get a good night’s sleep and then have a honey and hot water in the morning to help look after our voices.

At the Wartime Experience you can expect to hear songs from artists such as Vera Lynn, George Formby and The Andrews Sisters. We are really looking forward to returning to Scotland after a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe last August and we hope you have a great day!