StoneRoad2013's photos with the keyword: Parnall Aircraft

Result of one of the air raids (27th February / 7th March 1941). CAS tells an anecdote that one of the larger machines, weighing "tons" was ripped off the base plinth and dumped into a bomb crater. Image was with my late father's papers

Bomb damage to one of the machine shops. Another anecdote from CAS was that during one raid, a bomb skittered along the floor and came to rest up against one of the lathes. There was a worry that it might have had a time delay* on the fuse, and the UXB people were very busy. (* It didn't, it had been dropped from too low an altitude and that's why it was a "dud").

My father is one of the reasons why Parnall were able to manufacture these. . To enable the turret to turn and elevate/depress the guns (which gives a very good field of fire for the gunner) the body of the turret "hangs" in a frame. The turning is accomplished with the aid of ball-bearings, held in a "race". These races need to be attached to the support frame, but the nuts and bolts that do the holding must not obstruct the movements. The problem was that when you make a bolt, the tool cutting the thread must leave the surface of the shaft just before it reaches the head. In the case of the bolts holding the ball-races, there wasn't quite enough thread. The difficulty was more acute because these turrets are actually quite small and lightly built. What CAS did was to modify the thread on the bolt, by hand, so it went far enough up the shaft for the nut to get a proper grip and stay out of the way of the turret's motion. This was needed because the turret design had been altered - to use thinner and lighter materials - which meant the original design & size of nuts and bolts now didn't fit properly. Image from my late father's papers

The casualty lists from the two main air raids on the Yate factory of Parnall Aircraft. There was a lot of damage to the machine shops. Shortly after the March raid most of the work was transferred to "Magnol Products" a nearby shadow factory, most of which was in a mine for protection. My grandfather, father and one uncle worked at Magnol, although later in WW2 my father and uncle were employed by Newmans, who were next door to Parnall's establishment in Yate.