mushroomman:
“240 Gardner” “DEANB”
Have a fair bit on Concorde.
Is there anything that you don’t have clippings about?? 
Hi Dean, would you happen to have a copy of a Long Distance Diary from 1979/80 which was about an Atkins from Derby doing a trip to Hungary. I am fairly sure that it was one of Atkins although at the back of my mind it might have been one of Berrisford’s from Stoke. Thanks in advance.
Here’s an article from my old scrapbook, it’s from an old edition of the Bedford Transport magazine that somebody may be interested in. If I remember correctly those tanks on the Bedford T.K. held 950 gallon and were made by Gloster Saro and that photo was taken at R.A.F. Kemble which is now Cotswold Airport.
Dean, when I had just turned eighteen I was a driver in the air force at The Central Flying School Headquarters at Little Rissington in Gloucestershire. One day in June 1968, I was detailed to take ten officers to The British Aircraft Corporation’s airfield at Filton near Bristol in a fourteen seater Bedford crew bus. These air force officers were not ordinary pilots, they were all examiners who the other pilots called “The Trappers” as it was their jobs to check out the flying instructors at most of the Commonwealth Air Forces around the world.
A driving job like this one usually involved dropping the passengers off, arranging a time to pick them up then spending a few hours, sometimes several hours passing away the time. The senior officer told me that he wasn’t certain how long they would be on their visit and he asked me what my plans were. I think that I said that I would find a café somewhere and he asked me if I could be back at 3 p.m.
When we arrived at B.A.C. Filton we were met by a small welcoming party and I noticed the senior officer talking to one of their guys and then he started pointing towards the bus. They both came over and said would you like to join us on the tour driver, so I said O.K. well it sounded better than sitting in a transport café for five hours. I had heard the word Concorde mentioned a few times on the way down and I did wonder if I might catch a glimpse of it.
I tagged along at the back, we first went into what looked like a conference room where we were welcomed to The Concorde Tour. We had coffee and biscuits and were told that under no circumstances were we allowed to take any photography. A couple of the officers had brought their cameras with them and they were asked if they would leave them with their security man.
We were then shown a short 16 mm film which included showing a Vulcan bomber that was testing one of the new Concorde engines and I can remember that it also contained footage of the T.S.R. 2 which was also involved with the development of the Concorde. Then we went along to where they had a “Mock Up Concorde”. The fuselage was exactly the same size as the life size Concorde and was kitted out with all the cockpit gauges, galley fittings, toilets and leather passenger seats. They told us that this “Mock Up Concorde” was used to show potential customers what the finished aircraft would be looking like inside. I am sure that The Shar Of Iran was mentioned as one of their potential customers and it’s now known that when the Americans said that Concorde would not be allowed to fly into America in the early seventies that B.A.C.’s order book was drastically cut.
After lunch which consisted of prawn cocktails and I think that it was fillet steak, (I had never had a prawn cocktail before) in the managers dining room we were shown around the factory floor where Concorde 002 was up on hydraulic jacks waiting to do some undercarriage trials. I seem to remember that there were three planes on the production line and that none of them were painted up in livery colours. We were taken into one of the aircraft to have a quick look around but the galley and the passenger seats had not been fitted yet so it was just an empty fuselage with lots of wires hanging around. All in all, it was a very interesting day apart from a lot of the technical data which I didn’t really understand.
Ten months later on April 9th 1969 (I have just checked on Google) I was driving along The Fosse Way heading towards Cirencester on my way to R.A.F. Kemble when I looked up and saw three aircraft in close proximity. One was a Hawker Hunter, another was an English Electric Canberra which were both used for photo reconnaissance and the other one was Concorde 002 on her maiden flight from Filton to R.A.F. Fairford. At the back of my mind I think that the undercarriage was still in the landing position but I could be wrong.
If ever you get the chance to go to the new Concorde Museum at Aerospace Bristol near Filton then it’s well worth the visit. We went there three years ago and for £13 for O.A.P.’s you can spend a very interesting four or five hours looking around. Check for Covid opening times before you go.
AEROSPACE BRISTOL WEBSITE.
Now that’s what i call a post “mushroomman” 
Worthy of a gold star chap.
Nice to see the mighty Bedfords doing a bit,heres another one. 
You mentioned that the Bedfords had tanks built by Gloster Saro.
Nice story about having a look at Concorde. When i was very young probably about 6/7 my uncle worked at Hurn (Bournemouth) airport and the company he worked
for were doing some work on a Concorde and he took us to have a look and i cant remember a thing about it ! 
With regard to the Long Distance Diary to Hungary. Its not ringing a bell to be honest ?
I have posted 2 LDD for Atkins on here on page 398 plus some other stuff.
I have also posted some stuff about Beresford on page 176.
I looked through 1979 and nothing and also 1980 but i could not find 2 or 3 of the magazines which i have so they are probably in the wrong place and will no doubt
turn up sometime.
Heres one for Beresford.
Click on pages twice to read.
