(PIcs) 1954 Mercury Sun Valley

Sure is a nice model, and as usual, nice photography.

Good images as always Mike. Nice Neo model. I was quite taken with the Bristol Brabazon picture which implies your Mercury was in Britain.

As ever, lovely car, model and evocative photographs. I was also surprised to see the white elephant Brabazon in there. The post war era was a golden age for the British aerospace sector but it was terribly let down by a disinterested and distracted ruling class, and by a small coterie of vested interests.  It is not by chance that B.O.A.C. was universally referred to as Boeing Only Air Corporation.

Posted by: @david-green

Good images as always Mike. Nice Neo model. I was quite taken with the Bristol Brabazon picture which implies your Mercury was in Britain.

Posted by: @charles-rockett

........As ever, lovely car, model and evocative photographs...............

Thanks ! You're right : the Mercury would likely have to be in Great Britain, as I don't think the giant eight-engine Brabazon left the vicinity of the Bristol factory in England. Pictures of the giant airplane at the Farnbourgh airshow are really impressive and are spectacular images.

Posted by: @charles-rockett

As ever, lovely car, model and evocative photographs. I was also surprised to see the white elephant Brabazon in there. The post war era was a golden age for the British aerospace sector but it was terribly let down by a disinterested and distracted ruling class, and by a small coterie of vested interests.  It is not by chance that B.O.A.C. was universally referred to as Boeing Only Air Corporation.

I thought BOAC bought some Bristol Britannia aircraft circa 1957 for the London New York route.  Here is a restoration of one in Canadian Pacific livery.   Flying Tiger bought some for freight but these were Canadair CL44 versions.

@john-quilter They did buy British aircraft but not in numbers that could maintain an industry - as a state owned corporation should have done. A classic being the stunning Vickers VC10 which was designed entirely around B.O.A.C. specifications and though it was one of the finest and most popular jet aircraft of its day, B.O.A.C. started to cut its order dockets almost the moment production began, in favour of Boeing's 707, resulting in only about 54 ever being built. Britain's ruling class - contrary to appearances - have never been particularly concerned with nationalism.

@john-quilter 

Excellent restoration John. I can imagine that CP Britannia sitting on the tarmac at old Malton Airport.

Mike your pictures are superb as usual. I have the model in red. Over the years I have heard several negative comments regarding Neo models and while there were a few that might not have been up to par, the vast majority in my collection are outstanding images that I'm proud to have . Thanks to David and Charles for their comments regarding the Bristol Brabazon.

Thanks, Bob ! This Neo/American Excellence 1/43 Mercury seems to have held up well and it's of a very good-looking 1:1 automobile. The huge Bristol Brabazon looks amazing, too, but there are not any real full size ones around to marvel at !

Posted by: @ed-davis

Sure is a nice model, and as usual, nice photography.

I did not pop for the NEO 1954 Mercury Sun Valley having the Collectors Classics slightly less high quality version already.  But one of these made a nice four door sedan conversion and, along with the Brooklin station wagon, completes the model range for '54 except for a two door sedan and non Sun Valley hardtop.

Posted by: @charles-rockett

...........I was also surprised to see the white elephant Brabazon in there. The post war era was a golden age for the British aerospace sector but it was terribly let down by a disinterested and distracted ruling class, and by a small coterie of vested interests.  It is not by chance that B.O.A.C. was universally referred to as Boeing Only Air Corporation.

There is a great picture of the huge Bristol Brabazon in one of the lounges at London Heathrow airport. Britain was pioneering with the DeHavilland Comet jetliner, but the terrible accidents caused by metal fatigue in the early 1950's and finally discovered by researchers in the water tank at Farnborough made British airlines like BOAC wary of home developed airliners, although they did take delivery of Comet IV, VC-10 and Super VC10 airliners. An interesting book on the many British cancellations of aircraft is "Project Cancelled" by Derek Wood. Unfortunately, this disease also affected America (and others) too.

It is a bit like an automobile firm spending a great deal of time, effort and money developing a great new production automobile, only to cancel the whole thing just as the car is nearly tooled up and the factory is reading for production.

@mikedetorrice Mike, this is an interesting post, but I cannot think of a British jet airliner that suffered as the Comet did.  I know Derek Wood is a highly respected writer, deeply embedded within the aeronautical establishment. But there are other considerations of what was going on within British political circles at the time. Little known facts are that Britain developed its A-bomb entirely independently of the combined effort of the Manhattan Project, because Truman refused to comply with Roosevelt's assurance that America would share the development with them. People still wonder why Britain dropped its Blue Streak intercontinental ballistic missile programme in favour of buying American systems; over which they would have no control and would ultimately be more expensive. I have spoken with people close to the Vickers management of those times and they would argue that these questions - including BOAC's subtle refusal to maintain the British aerospace industry - are to be looked at as a whole.  Even today, the U.K. cannot be said to be a nuclear power in the way the same may be said of France.

I think sometimes when you are  pioneering, one can also first come across (and suffer) the ensuing technological/material surprises that arise. The development of Britain's Avro 730 multi-sonic bomber and other aeronautical cases (like interceptor aircraft, etc in both Britain and America) can point up the problems and waste involved in going right up to testing and production and then deciding to cancel everything.

Certainly, it can be true that attempting to "force" in advancements , ....or apparent advancements, can lead to trouble and wasted time/money. The battery problems/fires with electric vehicles  shows just one issue that can arise. Both the aircraft and the automobile industries provide many unfortunate case studies. Bureaucrats in those fields can cause problems and disasters !

@charles-rockett BOAC was scarred for life after the 1954 DeHaviland Comet disaster and took the safe out using American passenger planes. Most of the post war military hardware although technologically cutting edge hardly got past the R&D stage due to the simple fact that their economy took decades to recover from WWll and the post war socialists.