Warbird Information Exchange

Based on the way that Cavalier (and follow-on companies) did business, it's impossible to know which airframes became which Cavalier airframes.

Cavalier disassembled all 'intact' Mustangs they purchased, stripped, cleaned, painted, etc the parts, and they simply became anonymous overhauled parts in their warehouse. I'm told that there were no issues with latent radioactivity noted when the aircraft were disassembled.

Based on when these particular aircraft were imported to the US and purchased by Cavalier, one can make some educated guesses about where the airframes went, but there is absolutely no solid tie-up on precisely where.

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would digging out the 8 track of Kool & the Gang doing 'jungle Boogie' help?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Thanks Randy, I thought as much, but in here with the amount of knowledge, I thought I would pose the question just to see if there was a "Maybe". When I read of a businessman in Alabama getting one, Wiley Sanders immediately came to mind. Obviously I don't keep up with -51s but I do recall him having two of Mustangs at one time in a hangar in Troy.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

I've been following this story for a bit cos of a family connection to time date and places mention. There is a great photograph getting around - which I can't locate just yet - of a Canberra bommber parked at the end of the old Edinborough airstrip. It showed the Australian servicemen in shorts and hats washing the machine down and the pommie scientists wearing "special' 1950's atomic protective gear...

My father told the story that most of the Australians outlived the poms cos the material they used in these "Special" 1950's protective gear was more harmful than the atomic dust residue the Aussie lads were washing off the aircraft. Anyway that's only one part of the story from the Nuke testing. Whatever you do, don't tell the yanks what happened to all the rocket gear they left behind in the early to late 60's.



Peter

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Peter
ESAD (E-Science and Digitalisation)

Sadly that's just a nice 'story', not borne out by research - the disproportionate radiation illness and death rate among the British and Australian service personnel, and the aborigines on the land are well documented if you go looking.

Other than things like the more general anti-fire asbestos suits, I'm not aware of any anti-radioactive clothing equipment that is likely to cause long-term health issues; methodologies and other equipment was certainly an issue. Do you have any details rather than the general anecdote?

An example is the British service personnel made to crawl across the radioactive earth after tests. You'll note also that this was lied about by Her Majesty's Government. Whatever one may think of Wiki, this is a good start for following on references.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nu ... _Maralinga

We published articles on the 'hot' Mustangs and mystery Swifts in Warbirds Worldwide and Flightpath. I may see if the author is interested in adding his primary-research understanding to the story here, if it is of interest.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

It is easy to look back on 1950's nuclear testing and safety with contemporary expectations.
My father was a geologist at the Rum Jungle (Batchelor) uranium mine, just south of Darwin in the 1950's. He describes how early in the life of the mine they were extracting the best ore, with high concentrations of uranium. The sampling of the loads of the trucks was initially done as though it was a load of wheat, with a man in shorts jumping into the truck load and using a spear to extract some of the load to be bagged and tested. When someone realised just how concentrated the ore was full protective gear suddenly appeared for the task.
Add some government callousness in a cold war environment to this lack of general knowledge of the dangers and it is easy to see how innocent parties were exposed to risk.

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Chris Mellor

JDK, you're correct in that Wiki is not the best reference however it does cover this subject in a general way. My father worked for WRE and was involved in alot of activity at woomera, Maralinga etc etc. He, along with a number of other technicians raised concerns about the minimal safety standards being applied and the apparent double standards he observed between ranks and nationalities. I understand, but wouldn't know how to prove, that some of the images taken by my father or requested by him to be taken finally resulted in a preliminary review of satey standards. He was then transfered to WRE at salisbury where he took pictures of thes canberra's returning 'hot' from the particle collection flights. Some of the early protective gear did have dangerous substances in their construction ie the face shield seal and gloves.

I'm not trying to dispute anything you have said but really to reinforce what Rick65 has indicated. At the time these events took place, very little was known about the true impacts of these tests. It wasn't that long ago we watched in horror as our advanced soviet scientists sent in 'volunteers' to throw radioactive material back inside the collapsed building, wearing nothing but rubber gloves and gas masks. Today, Japan, probably one of the top 5 technically advanced nations on the planet, continues to struggle with this material.

But getting back on track, there is declassified material now available which could indicate the location of buried low grade radioactive materials, possibly including aircraft.

thanks

Peter

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Peter
ESAD (E-Science and Digitalisation)

Hi Digger, Rick,
I quite agree regarding the various points. I wonder what the materials were in the face shields and gloves?
Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com