Wilson ‘Connie’ Edwards and His Hangars Full of History.

VintageAviationNews · **Posted:** Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:04 am

This article has been in the making for quite some time.Way before part of his airplanes were on sale. We hope this article will give warbird enthusiasts a more realistic version of Connie Edwards's amazing story.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-ne ... wards.html

Ken · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2014 6:21 am

This morning Avweb.com reports:

"A collection of historic aircraft that flew in the 1969 movie "The Battle of Britain" and then sat in storage in a Texas hangar for more than 40 years has been sold for more than 10 million pounds (almost $17 million) to a European dealer, the Sunday Express reported this weekend. The collection includes a 1943 Spitfire that flew in World War II, and nine rare Buchons, a Spanish-built version of Germany's Messerschmitt 109. The airplanes were given to stunt pilot Wilson "Connie" Edwards in lieu of payment, according to the Express. "The weather was foul and money tight by the end of filming, so I said, 'Fine, I'll take the aircraft as IOUs,'" said Edwards, who is now more than 80 years old.

"The importance of these aircraft is that they are the last collection of unrestored Second World War fighters in the world," said Simon Brown, of Platinum Fighters, which conducted the sale. "They have not been touched and even have the same oil in the engines that they did back in 1968. The buyer plans to restore several of them for himself and subsequently others may be sold on." The Spitfire IXb, which last flew in 1973, is said to be in "remarkable" condition, according to War History Online. After RAF service it flew with the Dutch and then Belgian air forces and was also used in the 1962 film "The Longest Day." The Buchons had served with the Spanish air force until 1965 before they were bought and used for aerial combat scenes in the film."

VintageAviationNews · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2014 12:54 pm

Ken wrote:

This morning Avweb.com reports:

"A collection of historic aircraft that flew in the 1969 movie "The Battle of Britain" and then sat in storage in a Texas hangar for more than 40 years has been sold for more than 10 million pounds (almost $17 million) to a European dealer, the Sunday Express reported this weekend. The collection includes a 1943 Spitfire that flew in World War II, and nine rare Buchons, a Spanish-built version of Germany's Messerschmitt 109. The airplanes were given to stunt pilot Wilson "Connie" Edwards in lieu of payment, according to the Express. "The weather was foul and money tight by the end of filming, so I said, 'Fine, I'll take the aircraft as IOUs,'" said Edwards, who is now more than 80 years old.

"The importance of these aircraft is that they are the last collection of unrestored Second World War fighters in the world," said Simon Brown, of Platinum Fighters, which conducted the sale. "They have not been touched and even have the same oil in the engines that they did back in 1968. The buyer plans to restore several of them for himself and subsequently others may be sold on." The Spitfire IXb, which last flew in 1973, is said to be in "remarkable" condition, according to War History Online. After RAF service it flew with the Dutch and then Belgian air forces and was also used in the 1962 film "The Longest Day." The Buchons had served with the Spanish air force until 1965 before they were bought and used for aerial combat scenes in the film."

The Morale of this story?

Simon Brown is a rich man :-)

hang the expense · **Posted:** Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:11 am

Not as rich as the guy that bought them.Glad to see someone has the money and the desire to see all these birds fly again.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:45 am

But the question still remains…

WHO BOUGHT THEM?!

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:44 pm

No idea here but I had seen CF all over that 2 seat to go with their ride program. Imagine your choice of german fighter? 262 or 109???? guess we will find out at some point when the deal is done.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:50 pm

Back on Connie Edwards..............Now that Warbird Radio is back on the air............it would be AWESOME if you could get Connie on the phone to tell some BOB film stories!!!! I got to hear a few of them one Friday evening at a party during a airshow weekend in Ft. Lauderdale Fla. His son Tex flew the TBM over to Commemorate the anniversary of the Flight 19 disappearance. From what I remember, Connie jumped in the Albatross and flew it over for free. He told some pretty good stories in the evening.............just a all around great guy and family.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 3:02 pm

Quick share on one I remember as an example.

They were filming one of the high altitude scenes and there was a solid cloud layer at a lower altitude. In the middle of filming and the fight this Avro Vulcan appeared out of the cloud deck at a high rate of climb. Immediately the Vulcan started to dump fuel as it rolled over and pitch back down through the cloud bank. The radio went completely crazy with everyone calling in as they thought they had just lost an airplane that involved the Vulcan hitting it. The filming was stopped and everyone returned to its base, including the Vulcan. It was told later that the very shaken Vulcan pilot immediately reported to his wing commander and threw his wings on his desk saying that he quit. When his wing commander asked him why, he shaking, replied back that when he broke through the cloud deck he immediately had seen spitfires, ME109s and HE-111's so he broke back down through and returned to base. It was then when his commander informed him that they were filming the movie.

I don't know if its Actually true or not but there was a lot of cold beer coming out of the albatross that evening

VintageAviationNews · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 5:16 pm

N3Njeff wrote:

Quick share on one I remember as an example.

They were filming one of the high altitude scenes and there was a solid cloud layer at a lower altitude. In the middle of filming and the fight this Avro Vulcan appeared out of the cloud deck at a high rate of climb. Immediately the Vulcan started to dump fuel as it rolled over and pitch back down through the cloud bank. The radio went completely crazy with everyone calling in as they thought they had just lost an airplane that involved the Vulcan hitting it. The filming was stopped and everyone returned to its base, including the Vulcan. It was told later that the very shaken Vulcan pilot immediately reported to his wing commander and threw his wings on his desk saying that he quit. When his wing commander asked him why, he shaking, replied back that when he broke through the cloud deck he immediately had seen spitfires, ME109s and HE-111's so he broke back down through and returned to base. It was then when his commander informed him that they were filming the movie.

I don't know if its Actually true or not but there was a lot of cold beer coming out of the albatross that evening

Love this. Thanks for sharing these stories Jeff.

CH2Tdriver · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:56 pm

N3Njeff wrote:

Quick share on one I remember as an example.

They were filming one of the high altitude scenes and there was a solid cloud layer at a lower altitude. In the middle of filming and the fight this Avro Vulcan appeared out of the cloud deck at a high rate of climb. Immediately the Vulcan started to dump fuel as it rolled over and pitch back down through the cloud bank. The radio went completely crazy with everyone calling in as they thought they had just lost an airplane that involved the Vulcan hitting it. The filming was stopped and everyone returned to its base, including the Vulcan. It was told later that the very shaken Vulcan pilot immediately reported to his wing commander and threw his wings on his desk saying that he quit. When his wing commander asked him why, he shaking, replied back that when he broke through the cloud deck he immediately had seen spitfires, ME109s and HE-111's so he broke back down through and returned to base. It was then when his commander informed him that they were filming the movie.

I don't know if its Actually true or not but there was a lot of cold beer coming out of the albatross that evening

This story was also appeared in the making of the BOB movie book which came out at the time, and a must have should you ever see it a book sale/flea market.

The book mentioned it was a Canberra though, and it punched up through the cloud deck, right through the middle of the big dogfight they were filming. Could you imagine though?! This was before the war bird movement. The pilot has no idea of the movie in the works. I'm not sure if the BBMF existed at the time, or maybe they only had a Spit or two. And here's this pilot in 1969 suddenly in the middle of a balbo of two dozen Spits and 109's (and two HE-111s) twisting and turning through the sky. Probably really thought he entered the Twilight Zone!

JOHN MILLER · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:33 pm

I heard a story a long time ago, of a pilot ferrying a WWII fighter, when a couple of fighter jets came along side of it looking it over, The lone fighter then did a roll and came up and over so he was behind the jet. they left in afterburner, That would have been a story back at base to hear

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Wilson ‘Connie’ Edwards and His Hangars Full of History.

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