Missing thread

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Member for

19 years 7 months

Posts: 1,274

I am fairly convinced I did reply to a thread regarding a Yak under rebuild and its South Coast owner. It seems to have vanished however. What happened?

T J

Original post

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

The person who started the thread could have deleted the whole thread...

...it is a bit of a blunt instrument but the only way to delete something that somebody else wrote.

For example, if you divulged something that they didn't want in the public domain?

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

Look up the new GDPR regulations; by being 'helpful' you (and this forum) may have broken the law!

Say, for example, somebody asked: 'Hey, does anybody know who that guy is who is restoring an Armstrong-Whitworth Albemarle to flying condition near Brighton?'

And you answered: 'Yes, he is called Frank Made-Up-Name, and restoration is being done at Made-Up-Name Farm.'

Well, think for a minute; do you think Frank wanted the whole world (potentially) to know what his name was, what he was restoring and where, perhaps, thousands of pounds worth of aircraft artefacts and tools were being kept?

Not saying this is what you did.....just maybe a reason that the thread got deleted?

Personally I think if GDPR protects this sort of personal information, that can only be a good thing!

By the way, I'm certain nobody is restoring an Armstrong-Whitworth Albemarle to flying condition, anywhere!

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16 years 7 months

Posts: 5,927

Well, it's a good job that it's a Whitley that I'm restoring to flying condition near Brighton. Otherwise the letter from Sue Grabbit & Runne would be in the post tonight! ;)

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

How ironic, I'm restoring a Brighton in Whitley!

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16 years 7 months

Posts: 5,927

It's queer that Brighton has never featured - as far as I'm aware - in an aircraft name. No BAC, Blackburn, Boulton & Paul, Bristol or Britten-Norman Brighton. Not even a Beagle Brighton, which would be as close, geographically, as one might get!

Wasn't there a Brighton-Norman Islander? And a Bristol Brightonia?

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11 years 11 months

Posts: 641

Of course, the Brighton Aircraft Manufacturing Co. built the Blackburn Roc under licence, the Brighton Roc; and they wanted to build an aircraft to the design of Sir Malcolm Early, to be named after him, but they couldn't get up in time.

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16 years 7 months

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And there's me thinking that I knew all the British aircraft ever produced. It just demonstrates what you can learn from this forum. False news, did I hear someone say? Nah, mate, if you read it 'ere it must be true!

In the cold light of dawn and with a brain free of alcohol and cheered by a thoroughly unhealthy breakfast, the leetle grey cells, as Poirot would say, have been stirring.

There have been British manufactured aircraft bearing the name Brighton: several gas balloons and the Lebaudy airship replica built by Malcolm Brighton in the late 1960s.

The Lebaudy was used in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and was flown by amongst others, Derek Piggott. Brighton flew a balloon across the Channel and was lost in the early 1970s along with two Americans in an unfortunate attempt to cross the Atlantic in a Roziere balloon named The Free Life.

Recommended reading is "The Free Life" and "The Dangerous Sort" by Anthony Smith - and also "Throw Out Two Hands" about Smith's ballooning adventures in East Africa in 1962. Also, of course, "Delta Papa", Derek Piggot's autobiography in which he describes the Lebaudy.

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17 years 6 months

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Was 'The Free Life' the tiny yacht-shaped gondola / balloon that was featured on 'Blue Peter' (what irony) on the BBC and which was lost without trace?

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16 years 7 months

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Oh, I'd forgotten that there were plans to build the US 'no cockpit' RLU-1 under licence on the Sussex coast. It was going to be called the Brighton Breezy! OK, I'll get my ..... :D

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 9,821

Well, it's a good job that it's a Whitley that I'm restoring to flying condition near Brighton. Otherwise the letter from Sue Grabbit & Runne would be in the post tonight! ;)

Yes, I know the project!
A green farm gate off Brumble road.
. I read in Historic Aviation Quarterly the lock combination to get in is: 24-66-34. Should be an exciting project.

Was 'The Free Life' the tiny yacht-shaped gondola / balloon that was featured on 'Blue Peter' (what irony) on the BBC and which was lost without trace?

Gondola looked more like a life raft I think. It was September 1970 they launched.

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15 years 2 months

Posts: 138

It's queer that Brighton has never featured - as far as I'm aware - in an aircraft name. No BAC, Blackburn, Boulton & Paul, Bristol or Britten-Norman Brighton. Not even a Beagle Brighton, which would be as close, geographically, as one might get!

This might be true but ‘queer’ and ‘Brighton’ have oft been used in the same sentence.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

Gondola looked more like a life raft I think. It was September 1970 they launched.

Must be a different one; the tiny yacht-gondola must have been later maybe 1976 to 1978?

Malcolm Brighton also worked on the Bristol Belle, one of the first hot air balloons in the UK, with a team including one Don Cameron. Whatever became of him? :)