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back to article Colossus veteran flies a drone over Bletchley Park

An operator of Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, returned to her wartime workplace to fly a drone this week. Joanna Chorley, 89, returned to Block H at Bletchley Park to operate the drone quadcopter. The drone’s on-board camera provided an aerial view of the home of Colossus and the rest of Bletchley Park. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Displays and flightradar24

    [...] Spitfire and Hurricane planes flew over the South of England [...]"

    I was surprised that the flypast over London did not show the Dakota and Hurricane on flightradar24.com Unfortunately I was too late to check the Biggin Hill one with its several aircraft.

    As they are presumably private planes then should their tracks show on that web site like gliders and small aircraft do?

    0 0 Reply
    1. Peter2 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Displays and flightradar24

      I don't think that aircraft without the equipment fitted originally have to have it.

      And WW2 fighters barely have IFF, let alone modern trackers. ATC just deals with it in the time honoured manner AFAIK.

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    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Robert Simmons
      Reply Icon

      Re: Displays and flightradar24

      In the UK/Europe only aircraft with an ADS-B transponder will appear on Flightradar24, this is because FR24 don't have any ground based radar stations (purely ADS-B receivers). ADS-B operates without needing traditional radar, and uses GPS to indicate to those listening the aircraft's position.

      Most VFR aircraft don't have GPS fitted as standard, because of the relative age of many of the aircraft and due to the cost of fitting a 'glass cockpit'. Many pilots instead just use aero versions of hand-held receivers (think a Garmin/TomTom you'd have in your car) attached to the windscreen.

      You tend to only see mid-size corporate jets and above on FR24, since they often come with GPS and IFR rated cockpits as standard... or travel in controlled airspace (or IFR conditions) frequently enough to justify the cost of fitting an ADS-B capable transponder. One of the added benefits for these aircraft is that they can pick up the ADS-B broadcasts made by other aircraft and map their relative positions onto a navigation display (for traffic avoidance/TCAS usage).

      From ATC's point of view they are still primarily using radar Mode A, C and S returns to maintain separation, at least in the UK, because ADS-B isn't compulsory (yet).

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Displays and flightradar24

        "You tend to only see mid-size corporate jets and above on FR24, [...]"

        Interesting. Looking round Luton Airport and Duxford - I had assumed it was more widespread than that. I see lots of gliders circling - and in transit small planes like Cessnas tootling along at 60-90kts at only a couple of thousand feet.

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      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Displays and flightradar24

        "aero versions of hand-held receivers (think a Garmin/TomTom you'd have in your car) attached to the windscreen."

        Yes, they do. I noticed the tell-tall rubber sucker stuck to the glass of a parked Hurricane on the news report :-)

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      3. Vic
        Reply Icon

        Re: Displays and flightradar24

        You tend to only see mid-size corporate jets and above on FR24

        And gliders. Flarm is becoming very popular in gliders, and that's ADS-B.

        Vic.

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  2. Peter Simpson 1
    Thumb Up

    89 and flyng a drone

    Good on her!

    // not there yet, but well on my way

    6 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: 89 and flyng a drone

      I quite agree. This is one of the classier things I've read about lately.

      2 0 Reply
  3. ElectricFox
    Megaphone

    Rinky-dink musical accompaniment may grate on some

    Finally, a name to apply to that irritating, overused-by-marketing genre.

    Loved the rest of the story, however!

    3 0 Reply
    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Rinky-dink musical accompaniment may grate on some

      IIRC the term rinky-dink dates back to at least the 1940's USA and generally means small, cheap, cheesy with slight variations in meaning across it's lifetime. I'm sure I've seen Hollywood musicals refer to "that rinky-dink little tune" in the scripts.

      1 0 Reply
    2. Bunbury
      Reply Icon

      Re: Rinky-dink musical accompaniment may grate on some

      Dat moosic ain't rinky-dink! Dat moosic's ricky-tick!

      Rinky dink origin is circa 1900; meaning cheap and not very nice - sometimes suggesting something sordid. Ricky-tick is from a similar era, meaning lightweight and repetitive music - perhaps the weaker exponents of ragtime.

      3 0 Reply
      1. ElectricFox
        Reply Icon
        Headmaster

        Re: Rinky-dink musical accompaniment may grate on some

        Thanks for that guys! I always feel my education is enhanced with every visit to this site. Even if it's completely unrelated to my profession.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    next time...

    Fly a drone over southern England...and send the armed fighters to GCHQ.

    1 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'Colossus veteran flies a drone over Belchley Park'...or,

    'Crone with a Drone!'

    (my lack of respect astonishes even me!)

    3 0 Reply
  6. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Never having been there...

    ...yet(!!), it's almost sad to see the tacky signs of housing development so close to what should be a national monument. Almost as bad as an actual visit to the Great Pyramid in Egypt and finding it's down the bottom of some dirty street on the edge of a slum-like part of the city, hence the reason most photos look the same. It's the only way to get it all in and NOT see the filth of the city behind them,

    2 0 Reply
  7. davenewman

    What about the rest of Bletchley Park

    The bits of video in the edit all seem to be above the National Museum of Computing, and not the rest of the Bletchley Park site.

    Did the Bletchley Park business people refuse permission for the drone to fly over the rest of the old buildings and the hall, as part of their attempt to take over the computing museum?

    1 0 Reply
  8. JJKing

    And she was thinking about what applications it could be applied to. Oh I wish I had just a fingernail worth of her ability. What an amazing person.

    0 0 Reply

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