Christmas Quiz

[Airspeed]

Neither of them are in the marked parking spot? No, well, how about the car being at Hawke's Bay Car Museum, near Hastings, NZ, and the aircraft is a Hastings?

[Dev One]

Unfortunately don't recognise the car - its probably one of those GRP bodies one could buy back in the 60's & plonk on a Ford engine & chassis.
The aircraft I believe is an Avro Tudor 7.
*idea
Tudor 7 & Austin 7 under the skin?
Keith

[Nick M]

Sorry chaps - no cigars yet!

Keith is correct about the aircraft being a Tudor, though it's not the Tudor VII. They only made one of those I believe, with Bristol Hercules radial engines. The engines on the aircraft pictured are Merlins.

Mike is on to to something with an Antipdean connection though. However, the clue is in QLD, not NZ.

Nick

P.S.

[...] its probably one of those GRP bodies one could buy back in the 60's & plonk on a Ford engine & chassis.

Nope - er, classic British Engineering! Here's a later marque sporting looks only a mother could love!

[511Flyer]

Did they both jump about like Kangaroos?

[DaveB]

How's about Air Vice Marshall Donald Bennett/BSAA

ATB
DaveB

[511Flyer]

Merlin? They made cars and kits.

[DaveB]

The car is a Fairthorpe Electron Minor and wasn't a kit as far as I'm aware.
ATB
DaveB

[Paul K]

All I could offer was that if you blew down that pipe at the front, it may sound like a trumpet.

And you'd probably be right, Mike - I grant you the second prize.

[Nick M]

How's about Air Vice Marshall Donald Bennett/BSAA

¡Si Senor! We have a winner!

That Don Bennett was a rather interesting character. Hailing from Toowoomba (In QLD) he's most famous for leading Bomber Command's Pathfinder Force in World War II. However, after his RAF service he acted as a director for the troubled BSAA and founded his own airline 'Fairflight'. Sadly, fatal crashes of Avro Tudors featured rather heavily in both, and the 1950 Llandow Air Disaster (the crash of one of two Tudors operated by Fairflight) was, at the time, the deadliest airline crash in history.

Later Bennett went on to create companies building both light aircraft and cars. Although somewhat obscure nowadays, the latter enterprise 'Fairthorpe' clearly leaves behind at least a few Electrons Minors along with examples of the 'TX', which has a somewhat elusive beauty to my eye!

Don Bennett also served as an MP for Middlesborough West, earning the distinction of being one of the shortest-serving MPs in history.

In digging out the photos for this thread, I found this rather nice personal account of the TX (and 'TX Tripper') and of Bennett driving a flaming Electron Minor along the M1!

Cheers,
Nick

[DaveB]

I like his quote of the 70's.. 'The Decade That Taste Forgot'

Nice link Nick
ATB
DaveB