With BLB himself heading for sunny Coventry for the day, he's left a request for the B-team to keep stoking the fires. So it was while searching my archives for something completely different, I came across these pictures of what is almost certainly the world's fastest Leyland Boxer, one with a deadly serious job.
Click through to find out more.
At a small former RAF airfield "somewhere in England" lives Martin-Baker, a British company which at the time of writing has directly saved 7278 lives thanks to its range of aircraft ejector seats. Although its first ejector seat was tested before the end the Second War, development has never stopped. New developments mean plenty of testing, and for flight testing, Martin-Baker has this pair of Gloster Meteors.
The Meteors are fine for testing seats at flying speeds, but many ejections are required at speeds during take off and landing that are too low for them, and in any case, running costs of a vintage jet are not exactly low. This is where the Leyland Boxer comes in, carrying out low speed (by aircraft standards) test firings. 14.00x20 rear tyres and a disconnected governer means that the former Martin-Baker delivery truck can now touch 100mph ground speed, although air speed is more critical, which exlains the pitot tube for the ASI mounted to the cab roof.
Finally, not your usual Boxer control - the big red button that makes it all happen!
facinating!