Sywell Aviation Museum
REX’S RESTORED RAPIDE AT SYWELL
As it's still gloomy outside, we thought another blast of sunshine might help to dispel the winter blues
A much missed Aerodrome resident, Rex Ford’s de Havilland Dragon Rapide G-AKRP ‘Northamptonshire Rose’ is seen here in the old Fordaire Hangar (F12), which later became the Brooklands Engineering hangar, at Sywell.
She was built by Brush Coachworks and allocated RAF serial RL958 before becoming G-AKRP in January 1948. She went to Morocco in 1958 as CN-TTO before returning to the UK for restoration. This started at Little Gransden and was completed at Sywell with her first post restoration flight taking place on 6th April 2000.
Her C of A expired on 6th January 2008 and was being restored, once again, to airworthiness at Coventry Airport, Baginton. By 2019 she had moved again to Eaglescott airfield, Devon where her restoration continues.
Photograph taken in July 1999 by David Hatch ©
Sywell Aviation Museum
Those planning on visiting us for our Grand Opening on 19th April 2025 please see our latest event post about parking 🙂
Sywell Aviation Museum
A FLYING FLITTERMOUSE AT SYWELL
Frenchman Maurice Brochet had designed the MB.30 parasol light aircraft and the MB.40 cabin two-seater before World War Two. His first postwar design was the MB.50 Pipistrelle (bat) of 1947, which first flew that year. It is a single-seat open-cockpit ultra-light aircraft with a pylon-mounted high wing, wooden fuselage frame and fabric covering. The design was kept simple with the homebuilt market in mind
The prototype was powered by a Salmson 9ADb 45 h.p. radial engine. The subsequent Pipistrelles were all built by amateur constructors. Only 8 were built, other engines used included a 45hp Beaussier 4Bm O2 and a 63hp Zlín Persy II.
This example G-BADV is a Salmson powered machine and was formerly F-PBRJ having been built by A.Bouriquat in France in 1953. She remains extant at Dunkeswell nicknamed ‘Bill’s Bus’ where by repute she is under restoration to fly again.
This delightful photograph was taken by Gordon Riley at Sywell in July 1975 and should help to chase away the winter blues!
Photo thanks to Gordon Riley ©
Sywell Aviation Museum
Hi all, even though it is over 2 months away another reminder that our Grand Opening Event only has LIMITED PARKING - ONCE WE'RE FULL WE'RE FULL and you WILL be turned away!
It's only fair to give plenty of advanced warning - those who have been before will know how it all works but for anyone new who is planning on attending please check out the FAQs post pinned to the event page! 🙂
www.facebook.com/events/1237003904058354/permalink/1237004874058257/
Sywell Aviation Museum
We have new neighbours! Great to see more flight training at Sywell- if you fancy a trial lesson or even a flight experience give them a shout- we haven’t met them yet but will report back on the quality of their biscuits (no plain digestives or Nice ones -ew)
Sywell Aviation Museum
(A) SNOW AT SYWELL..
The Ayres Thrush, formerly the Snow S-2, Aero Commander Ag Commander, and Rockwell Thrush Commander, is an American agricultural aircraft produced by Ayres Corporation and more recently by Thrush Aircraft. It is one of the most successful and long-lived agricultural application aircraft types in the world, with almost 2,000 sold since the first example flew in 1956.
The first spreading of seeds by air was done in New Zealand by hot air balloon in 1906. The first ‘aerial application’ - more popularly known as ‘crop-dusting’ took place in 1921 in the USA. There followed a long tradition of spraying fertiliser (‘aerial topdressing’) and pesticides by air which continues to this day. A wide variety of aircraft were either modified or designed outright as agricultural aircraft or ‘ag-planes’ for this purpose.
In fact perhaps the most famous scene involving a crop duster was in the 1959 MGM Alfred Hitchcock film ‘North by Northwest’ which sees Cary Grant (‘Roger Thornhill’ – mistaken for spy ‘George Caplan’) being buzzed by Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 Canary N45091. The crash scene actually used a Boeing Stearman which is probably why most people swear a Stearman chased Grant when it didn’t!
By the 1980s the growing awareness of environmental issues with crop-spraying lead to a decline in the industry (also do you remember farmers burning stubble - outlawed in 1993?) and an outright EU ban in 2009 closed the industry In UK and Europe though it still exists in other countries across the world.
This aircraft Snow S-2C N12900 is seen at Sywell on the 1st October 1967- a view that hasn’t changed in nearly 60 years!
Photo courtesy of Gordon Riley ©
Sywell Aviation Museum is with ID Card Centre Ltd.
With thanks to our friends at The ID Card Centre, Kingsthorpe, Northampton, the Museum has some very smart new ID cards for our members so they are easily identifiable to our visitors!
The ID Card Centre have been supporting us for well over a decade and, based locally, are ideal for your security access, ID and printing needs - why not check them out here?
Perfect for clubs, groups, museums and more…..
ThID Card Centre Ltd/IdCardCentreLtd
Sywell Aviation Museum updated their status.
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Sywell Aviation Museum
Just a reminder that our next Winter Talk takes place this Sunday, 9th February 2025 from 1430hrs.
This time speaker Gary Weightman will take you to the South Atlantic to experience RAF operations with the mighty Handley Page Victor tanker....
Sywell Aviation Museum
‘THE RAF’S FINEST LOW-LEVEL NAVIGATOR OF WW2’ – KETTERING’S TED SISMORE
Air Commodore Edward ‘Ted’ Barnes Sismore DSO, DFC**, AFC, AE was born in Kettering on 23rd June 1921 to Claude and Doris Sismore, a middle class family. Educated at Kettering County School, he and his father were fascinated by aviation. His father took him to see the Schneider Trophy Race in Southampton in 1931 then Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus at Wellingborough in 1932.
On leaving school he worked for Kettering Council as a clerk but enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve aged 18 on 1st August 1939 and trained as a Navigator/Observer. He recalled
“I was 16 and we all knew that war was coming. It was all we talked about at school. I was determined to join the RAFVR as soon as I was old enough and could persuade my father to sign the necessary papers.”
His first deployment was as a navigator on Bristol Blenheims with 110 Squadron on anti-shipping strikes. Following his commission in December 1942 he transferred to 105 Squadron on Mosquitoes being paired with pilot Squadron Leader Reginald Reynolds. They were to become a formidable team. Over the next 20 months of operations Ted gained a reputation as the finest low-level navigator in the RAF.
On 30 January 1943, the pair led the first of two raids on Berlin timed to disrupt speeches being made by Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels. The pair led Mosquitoes to attack Berlin's main broadcasting station at Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft at 11:00hrs, keeping him off air for an hour. Goering himself was not amused; six weeks later he harangued aircraft manufacturers that he could "go berserk" when faced with the Mosquito, which made him "green and yellow with envy". Indeed so well known was Ted that the Germans had a file on him!
Further low-level ‘ops’ followed including a raid to Leipzig (the longest low-level RAF penetration of the War) when their aircraft was damaged by flak and Reynolds wounded, though they returned safely.
Following a period of instructing, Sismore was involved in the planning of Operation Jericho - a low-level bombing raid on Amiens Prison in German-occupied France. The object of the raid was to free French Resistance and political prisoners who were facing imminent execution (due to his knowledge of the plans he was not permitted to fly on the raid).
He also participated in the successful raid in late October 1944 against the Gestapo HQ in Århus, Denmark, again as navigator to Reynolds.
In March 1945, whilst serving on No. 140 Wing, Sismore, by then an acting squadron leader, took part in Operation Carthage, a precision raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sismore was the lead navigator in the Mosquito flown by leader, Group Captain Robert Bateson. The raid, while not being completely successful with a large number of civilian casualties, succeeded in destroying the Gestapo HQ allowing some prisoners to escape.
Sismore married his wife Rita in 1946. He received a permanent commission and remained in the RAF, qualifying as a fighter pilot and occupying several senior officer posts. In 1947 Squadron Leader Sismore and former Dambuster pilot, Squadron Leader 'Mick' Martin, broke the London to Cape Town flying record in a Mosquito, covering the 6,717 miles in only 21 hours and 31 minutes.
Sismore was promoted to group captain in 1962, and from 1964 to 1966 he served as the Station Commander of RAF Bruggen in Germany. From 1966 to 1970 he was the Senior Air Staff Officer of the RAF's Central Reconnaissance Establishment at RAF Brampton.
In 1971 he was promoted to Air Commodore and became Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps then in 1973 was appointed the Director of the Air Defence Team, planning a new UK air defence system. He retired from the RAF in 1976 and became an advisor to the Marconi company.
Ted Sismore died in Chelmsford on 22nd March 2012 aged 90, survived by his son and daughter.
His biography ‘Gestapo Hunter’ by Sean Feast was published by Grub Street in October 2024.
Colourised photo by Benjamin Thomas facebook.com/coloursofyesterday