Aircraft

Tried to show a couple of wreks in the western Brecon Beacons a while ago but failed, so hopefully its sorted
First is a Wellington, second a Vampire.


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Wow! Brilliant. If you're into plane wrecks go see the Superfortess up on Bleaklow near Glossop. I can send you some directions if you wish.

Nice pics, im amazed the vegetation hasnt covered such old relics up.

TeeJF - I'd be interested in the NGR for the superfort, if you would be happy to PM it me. Most times when ive been up on Bleaklow ive found it to live up to its name!

Nice - clearly identifiable double tail on the Vamp. Quite few of these crashed in testing. (I wonder where this one was flying out of?) Just reading Empire of the Clouds, which is a rather exciting book about the pioneers of jet aircraft - 1950's was a scary time to be a jet pilot, as evidenced by this wreckage.
Thanks for sharing
Godzy

The Wellington looks like the one on Waun Rydd.

It crashed on 6th July 1942 after it became lost in thick clouds during a training exercise. All 5 members of the Canadian crew were killed.

Strange, looks like they have just been placed there.

You can still make out the twin booms on the Vampire - nice shots.

godzilla73 said:

Nice - clearly identifiable double tail on the Vamp. Quite few of these crashed in testing. (I wonder where this one was flying out of?) Just reading Empire of the Clouds, which is a rather exciting book about the pioneers of jet aircraft - 1950's was a scary time to be a jet pilot, as evidenced by this wreckage.
Thanks for sharing
Godzy

Click to expand...

Just read this myself. A superb book detailing many of the risks of test flying.

Nice find hebog. Especially liking the Vampire...it looks as though it's pretty much kept it's shape and hasn't scattered much at all.
Cheers.

The Vampire has been rebuilt ?? to look like that, the cockpit is in a ditch further away and has been left alone.
Not a blade of grass or moss grows around the Wellington, I think because the weather is leaching the aluminum away and its poisoning the ground, But the Vampire is ali. as well ?? So could be a more sinister reason.
The Wellington is on Careg Goch. Becons park have a booklet for sale with all details, crash reason etc. About 20 in all if I remember, but very little left of the others.These are stll there because they are way up the hill, if you fancy a look bring strong legs. Got the cordinents if you want, my computer skills prevent me from putting it all on here with lots of photos.

When he was young my Dad can remember about a flight of aircraft which were being flown from a factory to an airbase over the pennines.

The planes weren't fully fitted with navigation equipment, & were caught in fog, casusing a fww to fly into hillsides.

The Vamp crashed in 1953, on a training flight. The aircraft was based at Pembrey. I went there about 10 years ago. at that time I got caught in a nasty squall on the hillside and had to take shelter using the wreckage for a while until the squall passed.

Apparently there is also a Lancaster bomber nearby (which I did not find) and also some very scant remains of a B24 Liberator . Also, in the area, near the Cray reservoir, there are parts of a Vulcan.

The following photos are from 2001.

Vampire VZ106



















Looking at the difference between your photos and mine, it would look like someone has tried to reassemble the wreckage in the general form on the original aircraft. It was a lot more spread out when I went.

The Vulcan site, not much left here actually. XH536, went down testing out terrain following radar at night. It seems it didn't follow the terrain properly and clipped the top of a mountain near Cray. Judging by how little wreckage was left, I think that the RAF cleared most of this one up.









The B24 Liberator, went down in 1943 and was totally destoryed by fire. There are still blobs of once-molten aluminium lying in the grass.





I found about these wrecks from an old site , something like gpswalker.cwc.net. I think the owner took it down after some of the wrecks got plundered.

Nice pics cardiff.

Been caught in a squall up there too so know its not exactly the most salubrious of places when that happens.

Very interesting stuff. I spent a considerable amount of time on Clee Hill earlier this year looking for wrecks and found nothing.

They don't look 50+ years old. Testament to the longevity of aluminium.

The site I was thinking of is defunct, however has been preserved by the wayback machine. phew.

,,,,,,there is nothing much left on site except for this,,,,,

Boeing B-17G 44-8639 of the 351st Bombardment Group, USAAF, returning to the USA were due to refuel at Valley but crashed on Craig Cwm Llwyd on the 8th June 1945.



The impact site in foreground with Barmouth in the distance. The memorial plaque is on the track in the mid-ground



Looking up at the impact site



SWMBO at the plaque