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Nat McClinchy,
This story is taken from an interview with Nat McCalinchy, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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At the NE corner of Maydown airfield, which is filled in now I believe. DuPont filled it in. That was the official aircraft Dump, and wrecked aircraft or written-off aircraft even from Eglinton were dumped there. And it was full of Swordfish frames, Seafires, Wildcats and so on. When we were kids going to Muff we used top go down through Maydown airfield, we used to go into Muff on the smuggling run for tea and sugar and things. We couldn’t avoid this dump. We always cycled over to this dump. And it was inside the fuselages, it was just a mine of info.I’ve never seen as many Swordfish airframes, other aircraft, all lying in a dump there.
Later on … Eglinton had a smaller dump in a NW section of the airfield. And Eastwoods of Belfast who were big scrap merchants, they must have bought the contract, because I remember them coming down and scrapping a lot of them, cutting them up. Engines and all. Today, one of those engines today is worth half a million maybe. And they were breaking them up and cutting them off and carting them off for scrap. And the fuselages as well. I remember at Eglinton, almost a squadron of Barracuda, the Barracuda was being phased out at this time, and they were bring in American Avengers again to fill the Gap until the Gannet aircraft was ready for production. And these aircraft were flying only a few days before it. And as soon as they came up for what is now known as Sea dispersal, they were towed up by tractor and then lifted. The undercarriage was folded up and they were left on their belly, on their fuselage. And each of us come down, and they were left there for 3-4 weeks.
Terrible men, about 4, with acetalene welders, they cut them up. Scrapped them. The same happened at Maydown. But there’s some were buried at Maydown, leftovers. But the main fuselages and all were carted off by Eastwoods.
We used to play in them, get inside the cockpits and that. I remember a friend of mine, Alan Kelly, who died recently in Australia, we founded — or he did — the first model-flying club at Eglinton. We used to be mad about model airplanes. And Alan went to Australia to live. And while we were kids, we used to go across the border together. And I remember Alan climbing into the fuselage of a Wildcat. It had no outer wings, but the stubs were there, and the engine, and it was sitting unsteadily on top of these old Swordfish airframe fuselages. But all of a sudden they started moving, and it slid all the way down. Almost to the bottom of the pile. And when Alan jumped out at the bottom he was white as a sheet. And we were scared to death. If someone had been standing in front of that, they were dead. It would have been quite a weight, with the engine in it. And I remember it sliding al the way down to the bottom, over the fuselages of the old Swordfishes.

[interview 6 = Bill Edwards, Eagle Squadron = 20 mins, secs]

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