Well, I didn't, 'till yesterday, care of a friend working on the water supply, to Buckingham Palace.
Apparently the lack of greenery & big trees, along The Mall, as well as minimal street furnitre together with lamp standards which are actually HINGED, is due to the carriageway (motor related) being a runway & landing strip for aircraft, to evacuate the Roayl Family, should need arise!!!
We can now add this to the previous posts, about the 'secret' slip roads onto our motorways, mysterious ventilation shafts & other supposedly non-existing structures, along the UK's highways & byways!
VB
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Being of a certain age, I have the mental image of Thunderbird 2 going don the Mall.
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Surely a helicopter in the Palace gardens would be the most likely means of transport if the need arose?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Some of these 'secret' sites, underground complexes etc do exist. For example, many people my age and above might recall the subterranean aircraft factory complex built during world war two in north wiltshire (which didn't work very well, I gather) And (motoring link!) there's a bridge carrying a railway line over the M5 just before the Dunball junction (23?) in Somerset, which doesn't appear on maps - at least it didn't when I lived in England. The line serves (or served) the former Royal Ordnance explosives factory at Puriton. In the early 1970s a book called 'Beneath the City Streets' detailed many of these mystery sites. Can't remember the author's name but I borrowed it from my local library! It was re-printed in the early 1980s, at the height of the nuclear war scaremongering going on at that time - and was promptly banned by the Thatcher government and cleared from shelves.
Probably, not many people know that...
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I've had a trip round the "secret" nuclear bunker at Ongar, where the great and good were going to sit out the holocaust while the rest of us fried.
Regarding the escape from Buck house, HM does not travel by helicopter as it is deemed to be too dangerous.
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Regarding the escape from Buck house, HM does not travel by helicopter as it is deemed to be too dangerous.
Are you sure?
The Queen leases a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter for transport purposes.
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Leases? Can she not afford one of her own?
--
Adam
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I have onecopy of "Beneath the city Streets", so they let a few out before (if!) they censored. Published 1970, under that subversive Penguin house, author Peter Laurie.
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For all things underground (in the south west at least), including that aircraft factory / ammo dump / hideaway in Box tunnel:
www.nettleden.com/main.html
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It's the same as any of thge Armed forces installations. They aren't on maps, but if you've ever past Wittering on the A1(M) you will know when a plane crosses the road in front of you.
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Davy S.
Oops, where did that screw go!!
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"We can now add this to the previous posts, about the 'secret' slip roads onto our motorways, mysterious ventilation shafts & other supposedly non-existing structures, along the UK's highways & byways!"
Do tell more - I am always interested ina bit of mystery and intrigue :))
Andrew
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These things may not be on maps but they are on satellite imagery. Have a look at this link to an MOD ordnance depot near Carlisle.
tinyurl.com/829at
Others can be found in the google maps section, look for Maryport Cumbria, go a bit south of the town and try Kineton Warwickshire, just south of the old Gaydon Airfield which is/was a Rover test track.
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I never realised that about the Mall. Surely though, it's far too short for anything much bigger than a small twin-prop?
When I lived in Singapore (20-odd years ago), they had just finished constructing Changi Airport. It was served by the East Coast Parkway, a motorway leading up from the main part of the city. Just south of the airport, the carriageway was extra-wide, with lamp posts set well back. There was no central reservation as such, just decorative plants in tubs/troughs surrounded by light concrete edging. The idea was that in an emergency, the stuff in the central reservation could be bulldozed out of the way and that part of the motorway used as an emergency runway.
On the subject of secret military installations etc, there's a lot of material on tinyurl.com/cp6ql - worth a visit if you have time on your hands.
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What you want is www.subbrit.org.uk/ Subterranea Britannica
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I wonder if someone has been jumping to conclusions about hinged lamposts? I've noticed quite a few of these on station platforms and I assumed that it was simply for making repairs to the lamps easier and safer in such close proximity to the railway track. I'd be delighted to be proved wrong though - something about the vision of HM zooming off on a jet up the Mall appeals to my sense of the bizarre!
Yes - also being of a certain age I can recall the hinged palms on Tracy(?)Island!
'Shall I clear the Mall m'lady?'
Graeme
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I've never got past wittering.....just keep hoping nobody notices!
Graeme
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Re the Queen and 'copters, although she may lease one it would be for use by other members of the royal family. As far as I know she never travels by helicopter herself.
I have heard that American freeways have to have a one mile long straight section every so many miles, for use as an emergency runway in a war situation.
Anyone confirm that?
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The Swiss definately did it in the cold war.
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AFAIK the Airfield at Macrahanish ( badly spelt) is an emergency runway for the shuttle if they can't get it down in the USA.It's something like 4000m long.
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The Swiss definately did it in the cold war.
As did the Swedish.
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Re the Queen and 'copters, although she may lease one it would be for use by other members of the royal family. As far as I know she never travels by helicopter herself.
I believe that she's not 'allowed' to fly in anything with a single engine.
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In 2002 The Queen toured the UK and several visits were made by helicopter.
She also toured Canada that year. The link below is to her itinerary for part of the tour which details her travel by helicopter.
www.gnb.ca/cnb/Promos/Royal/itinerary-e.htm
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Well, I didn't, 'till yesterday, care of a friend working on the water supply, to Buckingham Palace. Apparently the lack of greenery & big trees, along The Mall, as well as minimal street furnitre together with lamp standards which are actually HINGED, is due to the carriageway (motor related) being a runway & landing strip for aircraft, to evacuate the Roayl Family, should need arise!!! We can now add this to the previous posts, about the 'secret' slip roads onto our motorways, mysterious ventilation shafts & other supposedly non-existing structures, along the UK's highways & byways! VB
This I suspect how 'Urban Myths' are created.
The street furniture - Traffic lights - keep left bollards and lamp standards can indeed can easily be removed; and frequently are. The purpose is for the ceremonial occasions such as Trooping of the Colour etc. Have a look next time you see a TV shot along the Mall.
Also there are enough trees lining the Mall to make a microlight wary of landing.
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tinyurl.com/cf2wt
so it has ! - an even stronger Thunderbird image
(Found on Google, not my album)
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Yes, but look closely, the trees are hinged as well!
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Well, if they can do it on Tracy Island...
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singapore airport is indeed surrounded by roads which can be turned into emergency runways if need be, plant pots only in the central reservation
some swiss roads are designed in the same way
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The Royal Swedish Air Force certainly used to use highways as runways for their Gripen, Draken, and Viggen aircraft, and may very well still do so today, whilst on a somewhat different scale, RAF Harriers also operated from roads, particularly in Germany. As a curious corollary, I believe that part of M5 between Junctions 12 and 13 follows the line of the former main runway at what was once RAF Moreton Valence, last used as a base for Gloster Javelins.
Incidentally, and so far as the first post is concerned, I rather suspect that someone at the Palace is taking the "water" ....
Jack
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a curious corollary, I believe that part of M5 between Junctions 12 and 13 follows the line of the former main runway at what was once RAF Moreton Valence, last used as a base for Gloster Javelins.
The M62 at Burtonwood passes over the main runway of what was RAF/USAAF Burtonwood. There are three hangars and bits of taxiway still visible just to the north.
For a time in WWII, this was one of the busiest airfields in the world, as fighter planes brought over the Atlantic on ships to Liverpool were re-assembled at Burtonwood for onward flight.
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In the 50s/60s Burtonwood was the location of a complete air portable field hospital; now the airfiled is all closed down and sold off and the old hangars are used by road haulage firms and the like.
BAe Jaguars did test landings and take-offs on a section of the M55 into Blackpool - before it was open to public of course!
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When I lived in Surrey I was told on good authority that the police station at 'Beemfutupof' (yes that is code, well if I told you I would have to kill you!) which was built in the 60's has a large nuclear shelter undeneath designed to house various dignataries in the event of a major threat, far enough from central London to avoid the main blast and near eneough to get there in resonable time following a warning.
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police station at 'Beemfutupof' (yes that is code, well if I told you I would have to kill you!)
Hmmm thats not a million miles away from Addlestone then,
Its a complete fabrication (both the code name and the story) by the way
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Close to where I live in Kent there is a long narrow flat field on top of the Downs that is suitable for a Hercules aircraft to land. How do I know this? Well someone I know showed me a large scale aerial black and white photograph by the RAF of the area and pointed the field out to me. He used to be the local coordinator for civil defence during the Cold War.
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Oh no, if a Herc can land there then an ..... an ..... an Antonov can land there as well, burning bails of hay at night, torch lights flashing, large demand for Vodka at the local pub, see where I am getting to, jolly hockey sticks, lets tell father!
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Re. HMQ and helicopters - I suspect the Mall was designated as Buck House's runway before the advent of the helicopter.
Hey! Here comes Hitler, time to buzz off down the Mall!
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Don't a lot of large helicopters have twin turbine engines, allowing them to continue flying even if one fails?
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Dual Carriage way roads in Oman are built with one carriage way suitable for very heavy machinery in case the military need to re deploy. The other is just normal motorway grade so I suspect convoys of tracked vehicles would tear it up.
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wittering is on every map I have! what isnt tho is the nuclear arms store next door in collyweston woods. No longer used now, and I have wandered around it.. Its now locked up again.
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I thought 'she' used a helicopter to sneak off on Christmas holidays??
{Rest of post removed as information *might* prove invaluable to someone with evil intent. DD}
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The Merlin helicopter has three engines, and plenty of helis have two gas turbines, which should enable controlled (but not perhaps level) flight on one, depending on AUW and altitude. The fact remains that they only have one gearbox for each rotor (main and tail), and if one goes, it's curtains. HMQ does use a heli on occaisions, but she hates them. Charles and the rest use it plenty. The S76 heli is leased on a PFI type deal, and operated by Air Hanson news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/53964.stm
Another fact - Aldermaston AWRE does not show on the OS maps, so how did the Greenham wimmin find their way there when Greenham shut?
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Because everyone around these parts knows where it is ?
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The Merlin helicopter has three engines, and plenty of helis have two gas turbines, which should enable controlled (but not perhaps level) flight on one, depending on AUW and altitude. The fact remains that they only have one gearbox for each rotor (main and tail), and if one goes, it's curtains.
Merlin helicopter has 3 engines, but quite happily produces enough power to fly on 2 with the third engine either shut down or backed off to idle. The 3rd engine is basically a redundancy in the event of ECU failure. AUW, Pressure Altitude, OAT,cleanlineess of the compressors, all effect gas turbine engine efficiency.
Tail rotor gearbox failure results in loss of tail rotor torque reaction to counter the torque produced by the main rotor head. Loss of Main rotor gearbox drive can be addressed by autorotating to the ground or in the worse case sea.
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We have hinged lamposts near where I work - emergency landing strip for Birmingham coucil!! ;-)
They are standing under electricity wires and allows them to be hinged down for bulb changing instead of using a cherry picker near dangerous voltages.
Those on the Mall may be like that because HRH does not like to be overlooked as you would be from a cherrypicker - all buildings near there which are higher have provisions in the leases to say you cannot stand and look out of the window on the palace side!
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{Rest of post removed as information *might* prove invaluable to someone with evil intent. DD}
Sorry DD. info was 5 years old and from the air taffic control web site available to all. But I see what you mean.
Martin
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>Tail rotor gearbox failure results in loss of tail rotor torque >reaction to counter the torque produced by the main rotor head. >Loss of Main rotor gearbox drive can be addressed by autorotating >to the ground or in the worse case sea.
Indeed, if the power input (ie engine failure) is lost, an auto is straightforward enough, assuming you've got some height, but if the gearbox seizes, and they do very, very rarely, then the large overhead cooling fan disintegrates, and you are snookered. Loss of tail rotor effect is also a nasty, and needs no mechanical failure, bit that's another story.
Did my first auto in a Gazelle in 1980 - and being paid to fly one at age 19 was triffic - getting extra (flying) pay to fly one was even better.
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I cycled along The Mall this morning and could not help but notice that about 2 foot from most of the lamp posts were trees. Now I looked close up and these did not have hinges.
Also, at about every 400 yards were a set of traffic lights right in the middle of the road, so that would also stop most planes from taking off.
I reckon it is all a myth
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One of my more memorable driving experiences was in Jordan where the desert highway out of Aman suddenly streches to something like 10 lanes wide for a mile or so as an emergency runway.
It was rather fun to do that with no cars on it whatsoever, but my wife still lost the plot when I started taking photos from the behind the wheel at 70mph....
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I reckon it is all a myth
A Tiger Myth?
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Frankly, I think all the latter entries have Mythed the point!
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Perhaps this thread was a Mythtake?
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>>to evacuate the Roayl Family, should need arise
Doesn't HM actually live at Windsor, anyway?
The M11 is built across the Duxford landing strip. So the Concorde that lives at Duxford museum can never leave again. (I dare say that there would be other operational reasons for it's remaining there1)
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If they wanted to fly Concorde out of Duxford, for whatever reason, the length of the runway would not be a factor IMHO; it could get off in a very short distance i lightly loaded. The ones you used see going out of LHR were fuelled and loaded for a 4 hour flight. A no passenger Concorde with minimum fuel would get off in a very short distance. Plus I am not sure that the Duxford runway was shortened by the building the M11 anyway.
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Photos at Duxford show the runway in early 76 left in situ as long as possible (M11 foundations either side) waiting for wind to be right to land the Concorde. Lost about a thousand feet I think, useable length now around 5000feet.
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I also seem to remember they brought a NASA space shuttle into Duxford piggy-back on a 747 sometime in the early eighties.
This was also done before the M11 was completed.
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I also seem to remember they brought a NASA space shuttle into Duxford piggy-back on a 747 sometime in the early eighties. This was also done before the M11 was completed.
I am fairly sure that the Space Shuttle went to Stansted and not Duxford.
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rjr,
Sorry, I've just checked and you are quite right, it was Stansted and not Duxford. The year was 1983 and the Shuttle which came over was "Enterprise".
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A light concorde has a fairly short take off profile, but due to its landing speed requires a long runway
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>A light concorde has a fairly short take off profile, but due to its landing speed requires a long runway
OK, pedant. On the basis that Duxford wants to have a Concorde... then it cannot take off.
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Put it like this Mappy, if they let it escape they cant get it back.
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Early '80's, I saw the shuttle on the back of a 747 flying along the route of the Thames, I was in Staines at the time. G-AXDN is no more likly to fly out of Duxford than Percy is to leave his sty in the local farm and do barrel rolls over the airfield.
There are but three or four Concordes that could, possibly, fly again though the chance is lessening by the day, G-AXDN is not one of them.
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As interesting as it may be, back to motoring please.
DD.
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