Plane / Planes / Aircraft / Aeroplane / Airplane appreciation

To save others the hunt.

Looks to have a sizeable wingspan (compared to the house), the white patch to the right looks like a engine nacelle, but seems to be missing on the other side, so it could be single engine with something on the floor.

Same area today :

The driveway the aircraft is in would be to between Langford Grn and the house with the circular drive, so maybe a wingspan of 10-15m? It seems a Junkers Ju-87 has a 13.8m wingspan, so could be that, but I'd say the wing shape and tail was wrong...

Dornier Do 17 my guess

18m wingspan heres the top down for comparison

doesnt quite look like the same outline to me, the nose it a bit more pointed like an HE-111, but i doubt its that either.

Could it be just flying at low altitude, not actually in the garden? & therefore a British plane?
EDIT as I can't see any mechanism as to how an essentially completely intact plane just gets lowered into the garden

Could be perspective yes, but it looks like the wings and tail are casting shadows on the ground, of a porportinate length compared to the objects around it which we know to be taller i.e. the house.

It doesnt seem to be there by 1949, 3 years later.
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/record/EAW022350

re: getting in there, you take the wings off, roll it up the drive and re-attach. you would have to do that to get it up the main road in the first place on the back of a lorry.

This blackburn buccaneer has folding wings by design, but you get the idea

you can see a similar process here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnGXerN0tlo

Thanks for clipping & posting @spotter

It does look like there's a shadow under the wings, which checks out with the other shadows. But agree, it's big and couldn't have been moved far at all, certainly that road is too narrow.

Would there be enough height for a car to pass under the wings on that oval driveway, or has it been positioned there and would obstruct access?

Bit of a dredge, sorry.

I spent about 8 months working (as part of a team) to adapt one of the hangars at Heathrow to be able to service those beasts. If you drive round the perimeter road you can see the one, it has a large cut-out in the front of the building above the middle of the doors so that it would be able to accommodate the additional height of the tail. It was a bit weird as a lot of the work was done on scaffold suspended from the hangar roof - it took me a long time to trust the scaffold. Seems like yesterday (he says in soft, lilting tones with a gentle Yorkshire accent and struggling to not complain about how much cheaper everything was then) and is a real shame that it's days of being useful are now numbered.

See my edited post above about how you'd get it in. You're right about the head height, similar sized aircraft from the period wasnt huge under the wings

I wonder. Would the MoD allow one to keep a 'trophy' which would suggest German? It looks like a fighter to me over a bomber tho. Multi role maybe?

I dont think its a multi engine, maybe thats the engine cowling on the floor to the right. Unpainted metal maybe, so it looks bright .

I would think any captured, still airworthy enemy aircraft were sent to Farnborough / Duxford for testing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhXzFLpZ_Dc

I did wonder if it was a War Bond display? They did tour captured enemy tech in displays to drum up intrest and raise money.

I think it was more common in WW1 though, and it seems odd to do it in someones garden...

My other thought is in 1946 there is a huge ammounts of surplus war materials.
Some, amazingly, still being used up till very reciently, lots of aircraft etc for sale for cheap.

There is a excellent blog which covers what happened to lots of it:

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/

Would the MoD allow one to keep a 'trophy'

During the conflict, no. First off, it wasn't the MoD, it was the War Office because we called a spade a spade in those days. Downed enemy aircraft were inspected if of a novel type, otherwise sent for scrap as they contained strategically important materials, mostly the aluminium. Of course, people kept small fragments as trophies, but a substantially intact airframe would have been hauled off by people like great uncle Will, who spent most of the war driving a Queen Mary

is a real shame that it's days of being useful are now numbered

How come? I'm not very up on planes, they not make these anymore?

they not make these anymore?

They closed the line and cancelled outstanding orders because they were making a loss on each one and there was no prospect of getting the kind of additional order volumes which would make continuing worthwhile.

Flying out of Heathrow T2 yesterday and got to see this beautiful bit of human achievement!

Still looks cutting edge, if a little tatty.

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Queen just flew over my gaff.

Never a good sign. :o$

Wfh today so was able to watch a Seafire on its way from Yeovilton to Old Warden, and a dinky little yellow Tiger Moth heading south.

It was a few days ago but I got to see an E3C Sentry doing touch and gos at Luxembourg airport when I was out on a lunch ride. Although I think most Nato E3C are Luxembourg registered, it's not that common to see them here as I think they're all based at Geilenkirchen.

A few years ago I got to go in the jump seat of an RAF Sentry when it was doing touch and goes at Waddington with simulated engine outages. Oh and the crew were messing about in the fuselage with breathing apparatus and fire extinguishers. This was after a day of watching them shuffling dots on radar screens around the Baltic, which turned out to be typhoons pretending to intercept each other. Was a fun day. Final bit of CSB - they told me that the crews only have daughters and blamed it on the radar gear (assume that’s shite)

Anyone catch the RAF exercise over Norfolk coast today? They cleared the seas and sky for it, and two fighters (F-35 maybe?) were dogfighting over land for a good while.

Any ideas?

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C-17 innit?

Thanks!

thats a aircraft i'd say, probably the underside? which i think would indicate its flying, dont quote me on that though

Super useful thanks. Anything else?

Yes, i would say those 4 bumps on the big stickey-outy-bits are engines which, I think, means it not a glider. Really, we're getting into speculation at this point though...