Having recently returned from a week’s well earned holiday on the sunny Isle of Wight, thought that our latest Newsletter should have something of a nautical flavour to it. Even though our breaks away are extremely hard won these days and we were both certainly in need of a good rest, you can take your editor out of Flying Tigers for a week, but you can’t take the Flying Tiger out of him and there were lots of interesting things to discover. If you have an interest in aviation and military history, you are always keen to learn more facts and join up a few dots – having time on your hands is an ideal opportunity to carry out some investigations, whilst staying on the right side of the ‘big boss’. My usual trip to Sandown Airport was a little bit of a disappointment. I did not really have much time available, but the airport has suffered a number of unfortunate events over recent years and it seemed to be extremely quiet and rather run down. Only two aircraft were visible, with much of the surrounding areas being overgrown and rather dilapidated, which is such a shame for this beautiful little airfield. Hopefully, a change in ownership will bring better fortunes to Sandown and I look forward to a future visit. I was also hoping to pay a second visit to Airframe Assemblies whilst on the island, but unfortunately I was unable to make a prior appointment before I arrived. Airframe Assemblies are world famous for their engineering work on historic aircraft and in-particular, the Spitfire – they have worked on many of the aircraft that are flying today and my first visit several years ago was absolutely fascinating. Again, it was much more difficult to gain access to the site this year and I did not feel like I would have been popular if I had of ignored the barrier notice and walked down to the workshops – I will have to try and be a little better organised before my next visit. Despite these setbacks, the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings provided an excellent opportunity to re-visit a wartime connection to the Isle of Wight which was much closer to home (more accurately, our rented holiday home). The view above is of Shanklin beach in the late evening sunlight and was just a short stroll from our apartment – it was also the site of one of the most breathtaking and ingenious engineering achievements of the Allied war effort and one which quite literally kept the momentum of Operation Overlord moving. PLUTO
Pipe-Lines Under The Ocean – PLUTO
If the Allies were to eventually prevail in World War II, it was clear that at some point, an invasion of mainland Europe would have to take place. The logistics of trying to achieve this are simply mind blowing, but there was one factor which would be critical to its success – ‘How would the Allied armies be fuelled?’. Over-reliance on oil tankers would be extremely problematic and would be disrupted by poor weather and enemy naval actions and it became clear that a more covert solution would be needed, specifically a pipeline. The Chief of Combined Operations, Admiral Mountbatten was responsible for making this happen and he called together the finest minds from the cable laying, petroleum and engineering industries in an attempt to find a workable solution and a submarine cable design was decided upon. Testing began in the early 1940’s, with two basic designs being trialled. The first used a flexible HAIS pipe, similar to existing telegraph cable designs, but this used an extensive amount of lead in its construction. This was to prove prohibitively expensive and was said to have involved the stripping of lead from the roofs of every church in Great Britain. An alternative design used mild steel and whilst this was not as flexible as the previous effort, it was completely successful in the trials. The PLUTO programme had now taken significant importance, as plans for an invasion of France were already being drawn up and the pipe-line was seen as being strategically essential. A full scale rehearsal across the Bristol Channel proved to be so successful that the dimensions of the pipe were increased to reduce the number of lines that would be required for the job and a number of ships were converted for the specific task of laying the heavy pipe-line. The Bristol Channel rehearsal also allowed Army personnel to train on the fuel delivery system, so the process could be quickly operable following actual deployment of the PLUTO lines. It was clear that the delivery of this fuel would necessitate the use of pumping stations at coastal locations in southern England and as work was to be started well before D-Day itself, it was imperative that the Germans were not alerted to any unusual activity, with would obviously result in a visit from the Luftwaffe. Work on the pumping stations at Shanklin Chine and nearby Sandown used existing holiday buildings, or were fully covered by foliage. On the surface, it was business as usual on the Isle of Wight, but these delightful holiday beaches would be critical to the success of Overlord and would have been in severe danger of German attack, had the true nature of these buildings been discovered. The first PLUTO pipe-line was laid on 12 August 1944 and ran for 70 nautical miles on the sea bed from Shanklin Chine, on the Isle of Wight, to Cherbourg and took only ten hours to lay. In the following weeks, a further three pipes followed from Shanklin and nearby Sandown, as the Allies consolidated their position in France and went on the offensive. As the fighting moved closer to Germany itself, a more concentrated line of fuel pipes was laid over the shorter distance between Dungeness and Ambleteuse, in the Pas-de-Calais – Operation PLUTO was a resounding success and one of the lesser known aspects of the D-Day invasion. The original Shanklin pipeline delivered 56,000 gallons of fuel to Allied forces each day, but as the Allies built up their forces in Europe, no fewer than one million gallons of fuel a day were delivered by the Dungeness pipelines. Shanklin Chine is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations on the Isle of Wight and is a naturally formed ravine, full of flora and fauna, which takes you from the edge of the village down to the sea. Illuminated in the evening, it is a beautiful and relaxing place to spend an hour or two, but is mostly visited by people who like gardens and nice walks. I doubt that many visitors are aware of the military history associated with the chine, prior to their visit and how it had such an important part to play in the success of the D-Day landings. There is a small heritage centre in the chine, which shows a short film detailing Operation PLUTO and how it was inextricably linked to the chine and one of the most amazing stories of the Second World War. As you stroll around the gardens, you can even see a section of the original PLUTO pipeline – for people like us, this is absolutely fascinating, but I am sure that many of the people intent on enjoying a late evening stroll in the gardens, it looks as if some workman has left a bit of mess on the footpath. When we took our children to Shanklin for the first time many years ago, I have to admit that I was unaware of this history, but pleasantly surprised to discover this gem of WWII – perhaps this is one of the reasons why we keep returning the the Isle of Wight and the village of Shanklin – home of the Pipe-Line Under The Ocean.
The Die-cast Aviation Collecting – A hobby at a crossroads
As we prepared to head off for our recent holiday, rumours began to circulate around the industry that things were not looking too good for one of the established brands in our hobby and indeed an entire die-cast manufacturing facility in the Far East had closed down. Over the past few days, the situation has been clarified by the UK distributor and they have confirmed that this is unfortunately the case and there have been some problems in China – this could be a situation which may be repeated in the future, as our hobby seems to be struggling for an identity at the moment and things could possibly get worse, before they get any better. In the twelve, or so years that I have been involved in the industry, there have been some great times and some which were not so good and I fear that our hobby may now be at something of a crossroads. It is certainly lacking a clear direction and this general confusion is having an impact on both the collector at large and some of his traditional supply points. In my experience, there are a number of reasons for this and it is worth having a quick look at them.
Firstly, China. For a long time now, China has been the home of die-cast manufacturing and the move to the Far East was great for the hobby. It allowed manufacturers to bring quality product to the market at very reasonable prices, with lots of factories competing to take on the work. That does not now appear to be the case – costs have increased significantly, with the Chinese government actually dictating the type of work they want these factories to do. Both manufacturing and general transportation costs have increased and it really is more difficult for companies to have their models manufactured in this part of the world.
Secondly, the die-cast aviation collector has possibly had it a little too good, for too long. What I mean by this is that there have been lots of manufacturers making lots of models and the level of choice available to us has been simply astonishing. Add to this the recent recession and this level of choice has led to some over-production in some areas, with people who are not expert in the hobby thinking that this means nobody is interested any more and closing production lines. It is about quality, not quantity and well researched and executed products are essential in my view, but manufacturers do not seem to be as focussed, in some cases. With less available money around, we are now seeing factories beginning to close and some of the well known names in our hobby, like Witty Sky Guardians and Sky Max disappearing for good. Unfortunately for us, they may not be the last casualties that we see.
Thirdly, traditional retail stores are being left without support from manufacturers and distributors, who are also trying to keep their own businesses profitable. This has seen retail stores of all sizes closing in their droves over recent months, making it more difficult for collectors to see and purchase their beloved aviation models. With extremely tight account terms, increasing costs and diminishing margins, you can hardly blame retailers for deciding that carrying on in the industry is almost futile, which is unfortunate for the collector and in my view, absolutely disastrous for the future of the hobby.
Finally, we have seen the traditional suppliers to the retail trade decide to offer their own direct sales operations recently, which has led to the unbelievable situation of your closest allies becoming your biggest competitors! I agree that choice is a good thing and that the customer is king, but I fear that these developments have led to a distinct lack of passion and focus in this industry and surely that is what collectable product is all about. I think what is left of the retail trade and the collector at large is really confused at the moment, which is why I think that the hobby is at a real crossroads. As with everything else, the fortunes of this industry suffer troughs as well as peaks and I am sure that it will sort itself out in the end, but things could get worse, before they start to get any better. I could be wrong, but I think it is going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride in the short term, so we had better hold on tight.
Flying Tigers Offer of the Week
I am afraid that I have to report a slight problem with our previous Offer of the Week model. As we were heading off for a short break, I decided to offer a really spectacular model, to ease the pain of not having a Newsletter to look forward to that week and I made a mistake. This model proved to be so popular that we quickly sold out and I am afraid that there simply were not enough to go around – I am afraid that I am going to have to disappoint some of our collectors and I am really sorry about that. I will try to let everyone affected know by Monday, but will try to offer an alternative model, which may be acceptable. This week, we have another Hobbymaster WWII twin on offer, which is equally appealing and just as good a deal. For some reason, this beautiful model was removed from the pre-order section of the Flying Tigers website whilst we were working on the upgrade and as a consequence, we have a few more models available than we would usually have, so this is going to be our latest offer model. The Douglas Invader was an advanced medium bomber, which appeared towards the end of WWII and if anyone has been lucky enough to see one perform at an Airshow, you will know that it is an extremely spritely performer. This particular model (HA3208) presents a USAAF aircraft, from 13th BS/3rd BG, flying out of Atsugi air base, in Japan, in late 1945. It was equipped with the savage nose mounted cannon arrangement and is finished in this attractive olive drab colour scheme – originally priced at £65.99, our last remaining models are being made available at just £39.99. This represents a massive saving on what is an absolutely fantastic model and if last week is anything to go by, you will have to be quick with this latest OFFER OF THE WEEK. As usual, I am afraid that we will have to allocate the models on a first to order basis, to give everyone a fair chance.
By way of something of an apology for last weeks problems, we have decided to include two models in THIS WEEKS OFFER and for the first time, we are delving into the magnificent world of 1/200th scale Military Models. This stunning Hogan M series model is a beautifully produced, solid plastic model of the awesome Boeing C-17A Globemaster III and if you have not experienced the quality of these models in the past, you are in for a real treat. Possibly manufactured with even more detail than a traditional die-cast model, these really do show off the handsome lines of the mighty Globemaster to magnificent effect and we really do have something of a deal for you this weekend. H7648 is a beautiful example of one of the four C-17A Globemaster III’s operated by the Qatar Emiri Air Force and this particular aircraft A7-MAA (08-0201) has actually visited Manchester Airport. These superb models are usually priced at £54.99 each, but we are making our last remaining examples go for just £29.99 – a really fantastic deal, on what are really spectacular models. To snap one of these Globemasters up, please click on this OFFER OF THE WEEK link, where you can find out more and reserve your example.
Finally for this week, you will notice a change at the very bottom of this Newsletter page, where we have added a discreet Paypal donate button to our footer. This weeks Newsletter is our 368th edition and from the outset, we have always made it freely available to our Newsletter subscribers and this is the way we intend to continue. It is, however, proving to be ever more time consuming and costly to produce each week and indeed this latest edition has been produced using our new computer and software upgrade package, which brought a financial tear to my eye. Hopefully, you all enjoy reading our weekly Newsletter and the idea behind this button is to respectfully ask that if you do, you may consider making a small donation towards the continued development of your Flying Tigers Newsletter. I have to say that I am a little uncomfortable asking the question, but if you would like to make a small donation, any amount would be gratefully received and I assure you that it would be put to very good use. Please do not be offended by its addition to the site, as this is definitely not my intention, but it has been mentioned by a number of our readers over the years and I have finally decided to do something about it. Anyway, thank you very much for your continued and much valued support and I hope that you enjoy our PLUTO edition of the Newsletter.