The Historic Flight winch, known as ‘The Babe’ winch, is a rare Wild Winch (originally used for barrage balloons) and Hullavington was the home of the RAF’s last Balloon unit. This winch is a Wild Mark 4, originally modified by 4 MU Ruislip and acquired from GSA Halton courtesy of 10 Regiment, Aldershot.
Examining an original RAF Manual for the Wild Winch it is clear to see that fairly major modifications had to be made to the winch to fit it for its new role as a glider winch. As a glider winch its cable would be pulled out across the airfield to the glider launch point, the glider attached, slack taken out of the cable and the glider launched by reeling in the cable at high speed. When used as a balloon winch the cable would be reeled out slowly as the balloon rose under its own buoyancy, and remain attached all the time the balloon was aloft.
A balloon might have to be lowered quickly in an emergency (ie attack by enemy aircraft, gale etc) but this would be very slow compared to launching a glider. Major items removed as redundant had been the cable drum (holding 7,000 feet of cable (considerably thicker than glider cable), the dashboard and warning lights, and the 6 cylinder petrol engine (?Ford) now replaced with a Leyland Diesel unit.
Glider operations required the addition of a single smaller cable drum. It was still possible from the original remains of its structure to see where all the original equipment has been sited. The winch was originally mounted on a 6-wheeler lorry chassis (most likely a Ford) but it appears that has been cut off at both ends of the winch and the whole assembly re-mounted on a 4-wheeled trailer chassis. We have been able to identify the trailer on which the winch is now mounted as being that of a contemporary trailer used for transporting gas cylinders used for inflating Barrage Balloons.