External tank identification

[BrettMRC]

I'm hoping the great and the good of PH can help me ID some external tanks?

They have been at the family yard for a minimum of 40 years, we did have 8 or 10 to start with, but over the years they have been used for various things. My father has recently died and I'm trying to rationalise the content of the yard and raise some funds for mum

There are two left, and I need to try and ID, and with luck get an indication of value - if any.

[Eric Mc]

Where's the yard?
How would your father have obtained such items?

[Riley Blue]

Often not difficult to obtain, when I was a lad I had a Meteor nose cone as a 'den' in the garden of our MQ. They were still in service at the time.

[wolfracesonic]

Not sure what aircraft carried them but they were rated for a 12-15 kiloton yield. Get them on eBay, you should get some interest, fuses look intact.

[ndtman]

Are they big enough to make one of these?

[BrettMRC]

I'm pretty certain my grandfather was the one who got them, and given how he was pretty straight laced I am certain it was all legal and above board.

My gut feeling is that they might be from a Hunter?

[anonymous-user]

I think you may be correct....

[Benni]

Maybe put a pic in the Secret Santa Thread, they lik`em big and hard over there,

might get a decent offer.

[Equus]

Riley Blue said:

Often not difficult to obtain, when I was a lad I had a Meteor nose cone as a 'den' in the garden of our MQ. They were still in service at the time.

To be fair, the most unusual thing about that is that they usually hit the ground nose first. Apart from that, bits of Meteor raining on peoples' gardens was quite normal in the 50's, I think?

[Steve_D]

That Hunter tank has two lines of rivets at both ends which I am not seeing in the OPs tanks.

Steve

[Riley Blue]

Equus said:

Riley Blue said:

Often not difficult to obtain, when I was a lad I had a Meteor nose cone as a 'den' in the garden of our MQ. They were still in service at the time.

To be fair, the most unusual thing about that is that they usually hit the ground nose first. Apart from that, bits of Meteor raining on peoples' gardens was quite normal in the 50's, I think?

As we were at Lyneham I suspect it was liberated from 33 MU rather than arriving by the delivery method you mention.

[BrettMRC]

I suppose I could just wander over to Yeovilton and ask them if they need any spares!



Spent the evening looking at 50's and 60's jets...still none the wiser as for some reason the drop tanks are not exciting enough to be worth detailed photographs!

[Eric Mc]

Have you had a look at Harrier tanks?

[BrettMRC]

Eric Mc said:

Have you had a look at Harrier tanks?

The profile certainly looks correct! When the awful weather stops I'll pop over to the base and look at the gate guardian as IIRC that one has it's tanks on the floor in front of it....

[aeropilot]

BrettMRC said:

Eric Mc said:

Have you had a look at Harrier tanks?

The profile certainly looks correct! When the awful weather stops I'll pop over to the base and look at the gate guardian as IIRC that one has it's tanks on the floor in front of it....

Worth a look, but I would find it unlikely they are Harrier if they have been in the yard for over 40 years, as the GR.3 Harrier was still very much front line service, having only been in service for less than 10 years, and MOD would have been unlikely to be surplus Harrier stuff.
Hunter as said seems logical, but if they don't match Hunter I can't think of anything that went out of service in late 60's/early 70's era that they could be from?
Could he have acquired them from surplus US sales when they were running down some of the US bases around that time?
F-100, F-101 etc?

[Eric Mc]

When were the GR3s retired - 1986/87?

[BrettMRC]

Random thoughts...

I've never actually so much as touched them (years of being told as a child "don't touch those" is now fully ingrained! ) but I have a feeling they are fibreglass. (Research so far shows that most are ally?)

Thanks for all the pointers so far

[Eric Mc]

Here's a picture of a Harrier GR3 carrying the largest tanks they could - often referred to as Hindenburger Tanks (for obvious reasons).

[DavieBNL]

Javelin occassionally flew with u/w fuel tanks but looking at photos they look very similar to the Hunter ones so may have just been mod'ed from them.

[aeropilot]

DavieBNL said:

Javelin occassionally flew with u/w fuel tanks but looking at photos they look very similar to the Hunter ones so may have just been mod'ed from them.

Javelin was my first thought, but then I talked myself out of it as I thought they only flew with the under belly shaped aux tanks, but a Google has shown they did fly with the aux tanks fitted to the under wing hard points......

So could be 'flat iron' aux tanks then.......would be right era for being surplus as the Jav went out of service in the late 60's.

Could also be DH Sea Vixen or Supermarine Swift or Scimitar as well?