Blackburn Beverley In Action

Here's a Beverley in action.

This aircraft had a double decker type fuselage, the crew being upstairs
with accommodation extending into the tail boom This, as well the side
doors, could be used for paratrooping purposes but luckily, as it
entailed jumping into a hole in the floor of the boom, I managed to
avoid that pleasure.

I did notice on one drop, where I got the number one position to be
first out of the door, that the wheels were spinning pretty fast with
the slipstream.

Its aerodynamics preclude using this aircraft as a glider, and on
another occasion, this time with me being the last in a stick of twenty
on the starboard side, we were flying into a closed valley, at between
600 to 800 feet which was our usual dropping height, with the land
rising in front of us.

We were stood at "action stations" with about a hundredweight of kit
attached to our bodies. The red light was on as we waited for the "green
on GO" order when all four engines stopped. As the parachute dropping
speed of this beast was only about ten knots above stalling speed this
could have been a very difficult situation and, indeed the aircraft
immediately started to yaw.

After an hour or so of low level flight with several other aircraft (low
enough for livestock to stampede as we went over) in a non-pressurised
aircraft, the lack of noise was stunning. You could here the wind
whistling over the aircraft.

The RAF dispatcher was up the steps to the crew cabin in seconds and
almost immediately the four engines coughed and then roared back into life.

Full power, a hasty climb, then a circuit and return to the original
course and off we went.

We later learnt that someone in the crew had failed to switch over to
the reserve fuel tanks, an oversight that could have had very annoying
consequences.

Interesting times! I never did tell my wife about that one.

Ri©ardo


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Moving Things In Still Pictures