Manston Airport history books, racial apartheid in Thanet and minor Manston update.

The picture is Red Arrows, Russian Roulette, Manston Summer 1968 from the featured book.

Today’s featured book is the only book I publish about the history of Manston Airport. To be honest if you are interested in the history of Manston Airport there are very few books about it and this is the only one you are likely to get under £10, here is the link if you want to buy it online http://michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/1997_twilight_of_pistons.htm

There are of course plenty of books about Manston as a military airbase, this is a picture of the Manston books on the shelves in my bookshop today.

If you are interested in Manston Airport then probably the background to how and why the airbase there became an airport is the first two chapters of Twilight of Pistons written by one of the Manston staff who was there is probably the best account of this. Here are the links to the first two chapters in full:-

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tp/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tp/id3.htm

The old question of whether there will ever be an airport at Manston is still ongoing with the possibility of a DCO still in the offing, there is much hot air about this, however the reliable updates are on the Department for Transport’s website at https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/south-east/manston-airport/?ipcsection=advice

What does seem to be certain is that the American real estate brokers RiverOak Investments have sold off their interests in the Manston airfreight hub DCO to a different company RSP, here is their website http://www.rsp.co.uk/

The other side of the coin here is that the site owners Stonehill Park are still getting on with their plans for a mixed use light industrial and residential development, here is their website http://www.stonehillpark.co.uk/

My own stance on the issue, which dates back over the last ten years and is all published on my blog, just click on the link and when you get to the bottom of the page click on the Older Posts link http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manston%20Airport is pretty much sceptical support for a regional airport.

This stance has always been coupled with my feelings that were Manston ever to be an airport again it must have proper environmental controls and not be run with out an EP (Environmental Permit) like it was before.

I don’t want an airfreight hub that I can’t fly from and have never supported that, and on the Stonehill Park plans for housing and job creation it’s one again sceptical support. This is supported by the fact that the same people did pull this off with the Pfizer site, which is now the largest local source of employment.

With both of these one of the key issues is the environmental balance which is a sum that’s answer is a measure of local health and life expectancy. So if you go back into prehistoric times you had no industrial pollution to reduce health life expectancy but none of the benefits of an industrialised society to increase it. The net result of this was a life expectancy of about 35.

I can’t really say much about the plans for light industry on the Manston site as I don’t know what it would be at this stage, but the airfreight hub has taken a downward swing in the last few days.

The main pollution problem with Manston back in the days when it was an airbase was the noise. Now when it comes to internal combustion engine noise, it can be very enjoyable, I have had various classic motorbikes and cars over the years, and making the noise can be very enjoyable. There is also a spectator side to this, go to a motor race or speed trials and the noise is part of the fun, but there comes a point when even the drivers or pilots want a break from the noise.     

Back in the 1950s and 60s when Manston was an American airbase the American pilots and officers were all white men, while the support staff were mostley black Americans. The aircraft noise was over the town of Ramsgate, while Margate was both quiet in terms of jet aircraft noise but a lively seaside town in terms of entertainment. 

The American air force officers produced what to them (at the time) was the obvious solution, a color bar or racial apartheid based on skin colour. With Margate being of limits to coloured Americans [black Americans] and white Americans not going to Ramsgate where the black Americans were and also the aircraft noise.

This link takes you to one of the newspaper articles http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id71.htm

Anyway the news articles this time around relate to diesel fuel and the particulate pollution, the little particles that it produces which lodge in your lungs if you breathe the fumes in and reduce your life expectancy.

Jet engines burn avgas which is much worse that diesel engines on the particulate pollution front and particularly a problem in the area upwind of where it is burnt for about a distance of seven miles.

Now a 747 type freight plane burns a ton of avgas during each movement, either landing or takeoff, I don’t suppose I have to explain the prevailing wind direction in Thanet, draw a diagram, talk about turkeys voting for Christmas etc for you gentle reader to see the problem.

Of course when Manston closed we were all being encouraged to buy diesel cars, but now assuming a 747 movement took half an hour, it does make you wonder how many diesel cars it would take to burn a ton of fuel in half an hour.    

Turner Contemporary Margate. Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing, initial thoughts, sketching towards a review.

I have always been a bit of a slow thinker, particularly when it comes to art, the latest exhibition at The Turner Contemporary Margate. Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing, isn’t easy to take in at one viewing, the upper floor of the gallery has been turned into a maze which may eventually lead to what? A walrus? Turning into a walrus? I am one as you are one as you are me and we are all in the maze together.

Seeing how it runs run like pigs from a gun, does it fly? I'm crying. I guess the answer is yes it does for me.

Up the stairs or sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the lift to come.

Expecting a Corporation art-show, stupid sheep eyed dog.

Yes really in the first gallery the first thing you encounter is dog with a sheep’s head accompanied by the inevitable narwhal’s tusk.

Photography is of course banned, so I sketched what was going on here, the books on the table, people looking at art, people looking at people looking at art.

 Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow wrong. If it isn’t art the tusk the strange sheepdog, well it certainly grips the attention.

Into the first gallery and you are in the maze with Leonardo, nice one HM Queen thanks for the loan of the Leonardos and top marks to the gallery for displaying them in a wall where we can see both sides,

So here is the sketch in the maze, being amazed at the Leonardos.

After this everything got a bit confused, possibly the influence of Elizabeth I’s magician’s black scrying mirror and crystal, there was only one place in the maze to sit down and I sat down and sketched something, here by a great rack of boxes and a glass spiral.

goo goo g'joob goo

I really could have stayed all day, but the gallery was filling up and I had other commitments, I sat in the galley’s café and sketched the view over a cup tea.

 It is Margate Meltdown tomorrow, and after last year’s problems with the hells angels - over taking photographs - I will probably have another go at doing some sort of post about this exhibition.

We went on as we do, here is the link to today’s photos https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5882372495503370913?banner=pwa    

Manston Airshow This Sunday 11am to 5pm

There have been various airshows at Manston over the years, this link takes you a series of linked pages of pictures of the last one I went to http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/manston/index.htm

Aerial Display Event 2011 at RAF Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Trust

On Manston Airfield “Event 2011” (Weather Permitting)

Aerial displays; Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Boeing Stearman, Messerschmitt 108, The Spirit of Kent Spitfire, Authentic air raid sound effects! Essex Police Helicopter, Kent Air Ambulance

Static Displays; MoD Fire Appliances, Kent Fire & Rescue Service, Fire Museum Appliances, Afghan Heroes Charity Motorcycle Riders, A variety of stalls and stands, Air Cadet Band, TS Jamaica Cadets, Kent Fleet Air Arm Association, Royal British Legion Riders, RAF Careers, Bomb Disposal and Armourers, Kent Special Constabulary, Kent Air Ambulance Stand, SECAM Ambulance Service, St John Ambulance, RNLI, Kent Fire Service Safety Stand, Licensed Bars, Refreshment stands, Children’s Rides, Children’s Toys, Ceramics, Face Painting, Temporary Tattoos, Toilets, Bouncy Castle, Children’s Clothes, and much, much more - fun for all the family.

Arrangements may be subject to change without warning!

Parking: Cars £5, Coaches (by arrangement only) £40

Booking: 01843 821940 Monday to Friday between 9.30 & 1.30.

By kind permission of Kent International Airport, Manston

Spitfire Hurricane Memorial Museum and Manston History Museum and West Bay

Having had a difficult weekend thus far it was our intention to take the children to Birchington and enjoy the gardens at Quex Park.

The idea being to go to West Bay near Birchington, get lunch at the café there and eat it watching the sea and then go on to Quex.

As soon as we arrived at West Bay it started to rain, so we ate inside the café, why the café there?

This one offers a mixture of reasonably good food that comes quickly, children’s food that children understand and eat, a bright airy non claustrophobic atmosphere, they allow dogs, there is a large fairly comfortable shelter adjacent where one can have a smoke without feeling like a third class citizen and excellent value for money.

I had sausage and chips, one child had a children’s portion of same, one child had a cheese and tomato sandwich with no butter as ordered, my wife had a Mars bar and some of our chips, two bottled Cokes both children had branded bottled drinks that they evidently understood, both children ate all of their food and were awarded branded ice creams of their choice, total cost £16.

Well you can see what I mean from the pictures at http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id3.htm

Having decided that gardens were not on due to the rain we went on to do the museums at Manston, first The Spitfire Hurricane Memorial Museum this has free entry, toilets, baby change facilities and a cafeteria.

This museum takes about an hour to do, which is about how long we were there, the children weren’t bored, however they did buy a raffle ticket each, prizes included a flying lesson and a helicopter trip to a gourmet meal, so there may be some difficulties if they win.

The pictures of the museum are pretty self explanatory see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id4.htm

Then on to The Manston History Museum, entrance £1 adults and 50p for children over 5, this is a fairly large museum and takes about one and a half to two hours to do, once again we were there for about that time and the children didn’t get bored, they particularly liked the part that is set out as an air raid, with sound effects and lighting that my photographs don’t show properly.

Once again the photographs are fairly self explanatory see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id5.htm

Manston History Museum visit.

With pretty much all of Thanet’s museums closed or under threat of closure it is becoming increasingly difficult to know where to take my children for an hour or so of history.

Yesterday I thought we would give the Manston History Museum a go, it is off season and they had no special event on so my expectations were not very high and I doubted it would amuse them for more than half an hour.

How wrong can one be entry is only £1 for adults and 50p for children and two hours wasn’t really enough time for it.

I took a few photographs, to give you some idea of the range of the collection click on the links to view them.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts10/id22.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts10/id21.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts10/id20.htm

I would say the fact that we didn’t have time to visit the Spitfire and Hurricane memorial museum which has free entrance and is on the other side of the car park says it all really.