Memory lanes

This morning, conversation turned to family matters and a place called Brize Norton. From where, after twists and turns too complicated to record here, we got to a similar place called Lyneham, once the home to RAF Lyneham, the twin of RAF Brize Norton, and home to a fleet of Hercules transports known to those in the know as 'Fat Alberts'. See references 1 and 2.

I offer two puzzles.

First, what is the plural form of the noun 'Hercules'? The best google can offer is herculeses, which while possibly correct, sounds rather clumsy. But I can't presently think of any other noun with the singular form ending in 'es' for comparison.

Second, give me the name of any town in the United Kingdom, which, when correctly spelled, contains no fewer than four doubles, other, that is than the very important town near Lyneham, Royal Wootton Bassett. Very important, in part, because it once included a grocer's shop owned and run by one of BH's paternal relatives, with a wall-named picture of the shop making it to heritage booklets about the place.

And one observation. Reference 2 contains a reference to reference 1, a reference in the form of a date rather than a proper link, like those below. Armed with just the date, I found it easier to track reference 1 down in my MS Word archive copy of the blog than in the blog itself. Word even picks out all the dates in the navigation panel which pops up on the left when the copy is opened, whereas neither blogger nor the search that comes with it is very good at dates.

Lastly, I offer a rather better picture of the aircraft in question than that at reference 2. Albeit an aircraft of the RCAF rather than the RAF proper. One supposes that what looks like a washing line strung between the tail and the cockpit is actually some kind of radio aerial. Electronical counter measure? A cheese cutter which, with pilot trickery, can be used to slice up inbound missiles?

PS: for the curious, the odd form of reference 2 is the result of forgetting to title the post when first posting. In this event, blogger uses the first line of the post itself to give the thing its reference, a reference which it declines to subsequently change.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/thames-valley.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/for-anyone-curious-following-post-of.html.