Fox Golf was withdrawn in 1984 at Heathrow and became the first aircraft to be painted into the new Landor Associates designed livery (albeit with slightly odd titles which I have not reproduced in this repaint!). It remained in very good order (able to be powered up and possibly even run?) into the early 1990s. At some point during the 1990s it was passed over to fire training, replacing a Comet that had been used previously, thus renaming the bend in the taxiway where it stood from "Comet corner" to "Trident turn" by passing pilots. In 2000 it was broken up to be used as a crashed airliner for TV drama "A&E".Some while ago I found a clip on British Pathe whilst searching for Trident footage which ended up setting me off to do a bit more research and reading into.
In 1954 a couple under the named Peter and Helen Kroger entered the UK from the United States and rented a bungalow at number 45, Cranley Drive, Ruislip. They traded in antique books and made friends around the area. Here they would live for another 7 years.
Six years on, in 1960, the British Security Service, more popularly known as MI5 received a communication from the CIA that information was being passed to the Russians from the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland. Suspicion fell on a man named Harry Houghton at the base, who together with his mistress, Ethel Gee, was placed under surveillance. The often travelled to London to meet a Canadian businessman called Gordon Lonsdale where they would be seen to be exchanging parcels. Lonsdale would then visit the Krogers in Ruislip.
MI5 decided to place the Krogers under surveillance too and moved some agents into a house at the end of the adjacent Courtfield Gardens, from where they could observe the Krogers. This house was owned by Mr & Mrs Search, whose daughter Gay is better known now in the UK as a journalist and TV-gardening show presenter.
The noose was now drawing in on what has since become known as the "Portland Spy Ring". On 7th Janurary 1961, Houghton, Gee and Lonsdale were arrested in London. Special branch were sent into 45 Cranley Drive (MI5 have no powers of arrest). Microdots other photographic materials, coding pads, large sums of money, fake passports and a radio transmitter were found in the house. A second transmitter was unearthed in the garden (literally) in 1977.
All were tried and found quilty. Houghton and Gee were sentenced to 15 years but were released in 1970 whereafter they got married. Lonsdale - real name Konon Trofimovich Molody, though this did not emerge until years after - was exchanged for British spy Greville Wynne who had been arrested by the Russians. The Krogers, real names Morris and Lona Cohen, who had earlier assisted in espionage in the United States, including the famous Rosenberg case, were sentenced to 20 years each. They were not permitted to see each other whilst in prison.
By now you are probably wondering how Tridents fit into this....
In 1965, a British lecturer, Gerald Brooke was arrested in Moscow for anti-Communist activities. In 1969, he was "exchanged" for the Krogers, which was regarded as a bad deal by the British government - two high profile spies for a "nobody" as they described him. It later transpired he had been passing documents and code for the NTS anti-Soviet organisation.
The Krogers were driven to London Airport (LHR) one day in October 1969 in separate prison vans, where they were then reunited boarding Trident 2E G-AVFG (presumably for Moscow, which was their eventual destination).
This is shown in British Pathe clip# 3324.12
http://myaviation.net/search/photo_sear ... size=large
'ZK and 'FG together at LHR west base in 1990
http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_ ... d=00093142
As a fire trainer
After arrival at Manchester, having been patched up and stuck back together, but still in the fictional "Skyways" livery from filimg
Since then it has been painted green and given the false registration "G-SMOKE"!
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0718859/L/
Heres a couple of pictures of what might have been:
The repaint can be downloaded from the Trident Preservation Society at http://www.zulukilo.org.uk or http://www.hs121.org
Downloads -> FS2004
regards
Toby
