Farnborough 1990

Post by **DerekF** » Thu 22 Jun 2017, 9:56 pm

Carrying on with some scans from Farnborough. Friday 7th September 1990 this time, memorable for the An-225. Not much else as far as I recall.

Post by **Wes_Howes** » Fri 23 Jun 2017, 5:39 pm

I remember watching the BBC coverage of the show, fond memories of Julian Tutt explaining how the NOTAR worked, the big section the EH-101 Heliliner and finally getting to see the An-225 take to the skies

Post by **DerekF** » Mon 26 Jun 2017, 7:42 pm

I think that was the year the An-225 broke the tow bar with huge bang.

Looks like I might have to work on my editing - they looka bit noisy. Noisier than they should be.

Post by **Pat Murphy** » Mon 26 Jun 2017, 7:59 pm

Not many threads on here where I can say my workmanship is on show once, let alone twice. Built the cabin (with help :grin:

) for both of the 125's. The 800 was a success but the 1000 was a total dog to build and didn't sell well....

Post by **DerekF** » Mon 26 Jun 2017, 9:07 pm

The 125-1000 wasn't BAe's finest hour. I remember going over to Hawarden to work on the flight test instrumentation at night as that's all the programme could manage. Built by supervisors and apprentices becasue of industrial action if I recall.
I flew in 258151 G-EXLR over 60 times during its test phase. It was supposed to have transatlatic range but we spent ages tweaking every last component to get the fuel burn down. We blamed Pratt and Whitney and they blamed us. In lots of ways it was better than the -800 but wasn't a big enough improvement to warrant the sales.

Post by **Pat Murphy** » Mon 26 Jun 2017, 11:16 pm

DerekF wrote:The 125-1000 wasn't BAe's finest hour. I remember going over to Hawarden to work on the flight test instrumentation at night as that's all the programme could manage. Built by supervisors and apprentices becasue of industrial action if I recall.
I flew in 258151 G-EXLR over 60 times during its test phase. It was supposed to have transatlatic range but we spent ages tweaking every last component to get the fuel burn down. We blamed Pratt and Whitney and they blamed us. In lots of ways it was better than the -800 but wasn't a big enough improvement to warrant the sales.

The whole programme seemed doomed to failure from the start Derek. Hastily renamed the "1000" after the Falcon 900 was pointed out :clown:

The fuselage construction I was involved with, which was going to put an end to the handbuilt nature of the 800 (no two were anything like the same) was beyond ridiculous. Fuselage frames on 258151, faced the wrong way for many weeks while someone worked out the jig location posts were fitted the wrong way round, 11a and 12a if my memory serves me right. Various longerons below the window pans, were to be fitted. You couldn't touch the tails with your finger let alone get a dolly on them, due to the reduxed stringers being in the way. It got worse the further down the track it went, as we followed it with mods and re-designs. As for the industrial action bit, The famed drive for 35!! A disaster for the 125 and a start of the end really. By the time we got back in, half the department had gone to sub-con. Not the AEEU's finest hour. Redundancies followed in the years to come and I saw a better life outside BAe and took one of the last voluntary redundancies.

I can assure you, the fuse was built by the 125 Fuse team, I was one of them :lol:

. As for the rest of it? Well the overtime bill must have been huge and various people even came out of retirement to assist. Sadly your assessment is spot on. The only time we thought it's bigger fuse might have come in handy was for the U125 for the JASDF....Now THAT was a handbuilt affair let me tell you.......no another time maybe :grin:

Pat

Post by **Wrexham Mackem** » Tue 27 Jun 2017, 7:28 am

Ah the 1000.. it defined an era at Broughton. It was the first 'first flight' I experienced working there, getting to wander out onto the airfield with everyone else was great for a first timer like me, but the thing was hardly popular around the place as Pat remembers so vividly. It was the beginning of the end as you say, and it needn't have been, as there was life left in the 125. The strike was a disaster (at least I got to park 'down the drive' for many weeks!). Some strikes are for a worthy cause, that one certainly wasn't, and all that subbie work was going out hand over fist to other BAe sites which were our biggest rivals for survival. Letting so much experience go on VR was a mistake too, seemed like there was nobody left over 50 by we got to the early 90s. Anyway, the press release photo of the workers dressed in red and blue making a giant BAe logo has Mrs Wrexham Mackem on the front row, she tells me. She still has the baseball cap. :grin:

'Aerospace' reminiscence out of the way, these are a nice set Derek. The An-225 was a sight to behold, one of the highlight flying displays I've ever seen. I mean, its just a beast. I've never really been a fan of Farnborough, but certainly have of certain displays I've seen there. Personally, I managed to repeat the mistake of 88 when I attended on the MiG-29 rest day, I did the same with the Su this time. Honestly, hopeless :grin: