Can anyone tell me which of the BBMF’s spitfires were involved in the flypast today. only saw it on the news, but i thought i saw invasion stripes. does this mean the mk9 was out on a rare public appearance? or has there been a change of colourscheme? assumed it would have been in flypast if there were, but i haven’t been able to get hold of this months issue, i’m on the easter break and its been delivered to my university address. damn!
may have been mistaken about invasion stripes altogether
Jay
By: SADSACK - 18th April 2002 at 15:08
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Thats a pity, the previous scheme looked really good.
By: L4_Pilot - 17th April 2002 at 22:02
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Read the message properly…. The SEAC roundels have been replaced by RAF standard roundels….
By: SADSACK - 17th April 2002 at 20:35
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Its an SEAC scheme, why the stripes?
By: neal h - 17th April 2002 at 19:26
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
You were right Jay, you did see stripes.
Spitfire XIX PM631 has been repainted with Invasion stripes and has had its seac roundels replaced with regular type. During winter it had its camera ports restored and the supercharger for the pressurised cockpit refitted.
see picture on p.76 of this months Aircraft Illustrated.
Neal:7
By: Bluebird Mike - 15th April 2002 at 17:24
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Well said, Moggy-it’s cloud cuckoo land to think that the Lanc ever could or would be modified so heavily. It wouldn’t be a case of ‘just’ doing anything.
By: Moggy C - 15th April 2002 at 16:27
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Naw, nice thought, but…
Take the bay doors off her and you have a standard Lancaster with no bay doors, a mid-upper turret, no rotating mechanism for the bomb.
It would be a travesty
Moggy
By: SADSACK - 15th April 2002 at 14:30
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
I was too young to remember that scheme but remember the PM-M2 days clearly.
Surely they could just remove the doors, that wouldnt cost anything, but would they need to work out any adjustments due to the weight difference? And surely there are enought replica bombs around?
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th April 2002 at 17:22
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
That’s odd, I don’t remember the AJ-G codes. Must be age dulling my memory. 🙂
I remember SR-D, because she wore those codes when I was at ATC camp at Coningsby in 1985. Spent a couple of days passing spanners to the BBMF techies while they changed an engine, and was rewarded with a deafening sit deep in the fuselage of the thing while they ran it up. Great week, that was. Live Aid was on that Saturday if I remember rightly… 😉
By: Bluebird Mike - 12th April 2002 at 17:17
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
She’s already worn the AJ-G codes! Though without the underside mods, of course. The cost would be MASSIVE-this is the aircraft that still hasn’t got any form of power operation for it’s turrets, or the much talked about H2S blister yet! They used to talk about a fibreglass bomb load, too. Oh well…
Codes ‘474 has worn since being a display aircraft are-
KM-B
AJ-G
SR-D
PM-M2
WS-J
QR-M
Doesn’t seem like many put like that, does it?!
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th April 2002 at 07:58
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Would be nice to see her as ED932 / AJ-G, Wg Cdr Gibson’s aircraft on the dams raid. I wonder how big (and costly) an operation it would be to remove the bomb bay doors for a couple of seasons and replace them with a replica of the underside of a Dams Lncaster…?
By: SADSACK - 11th April 2002 at 17:58
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
I think the BBMF policy only cmae in recently didnt it? Still they could have parked ‘350 up with the Lizzie.
As for the lanc i’d like to see her in some of those Australian schemes, with the outrageous noseart.
By: Bluebird Mike - 11th April 2002 at 17:47
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
It would be nice to see ‘474 painted up as a less ‘famous’ Lanc for a change, they always seem to go for quite well known, high scoring Lancs. Having said that, I think this is one of the best coats of paint she’s ever worn.
One I’d LOVE to see, though I don’t know if they’d ever do it as the real one still exists, would be to fly her as a Hendon’s ‘Sugar’-famous, distinctive, a good tribute to the exisiting plane etc; any one else have a scheme they’d like to see the Lanc carry?
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th April 2002 at 16:40
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
BBMF formation policy I’m afraid. They won’t fly in formation with non-BBMF aircraft unless in extremely exceptional circumstances.
By: SADSACK - 11th April 2002 at 15:06
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
Yeah but they took the ASR scheme off ‘350 too early. She only had them for 2 seasons, one of which she was grounded. And why they never flew her with the Coastal command Lizzie (same codes) I dont know. A chance never to be repeated.
By: Jay - 10th April 2002 at 23:08
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
cool. problem solved
i love the bbmf colourscheme changes. think it kinda keeps it all interesting. it gets boring with some fleets seeing the same old schemes year after year. unless of course its a particular aircraft in its original scheme, but its rare to see a warbird which actually saw service, with the notable exceptions (off the top of my head spits MH434 EP120 AR501 all have original schemes long term) rejuvinates the schene every so often. well done BBMF. allows us to see some more unusual schemes on classics- loved the air-sea resuce markings on P7 a while back…
thankyou all…one less question that was gonna bug me for a while.
Nice one BBMF
Love Jay
By: L4_Pilot - 10th April 2002 at 08:20
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
PM631 was overhauled over the Winter period and repainted.
I believe it is still PR Blue but now with invasion stripes.
Philip
By: Glenn - 10th April 2002 at 06:43
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
I am positive I saw invasion stripes last nigth while watching it.
Regards, Glenn.
By: SADSACK - 9th April 2002 at 21:45
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
One was certainly PS915, in its Jungle colours – I love that scheme! Which airframes have been painted this winter?
By: Ashley - 9th April 2002 at 20:39
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
That’s funny…I thought one of the Spitfires was the MkIX too…
But on the subject of flypasts people…has anyone heard which aircraft might be featuring in the Queen’s Jubilee Flypast in June? I know it’s supposed to be showcasing the modern RAF, but will it include former RAF types too?
By: Flightline UK - 9th April 2002 at 19:20
RE: Queen mother funeral flypast
It was the pair of Spitfire PR19s.
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April 9, 2002 at 6:49 pm