RAF Abingdon – Morton Air Services DH Heron

Help solve a mystery???

This thread is also running on Pprune where it has received some interesting responses. But the mystery still remains.
I have had Off forum discussions and the conclusion is that the Heron pleasure flight MAY not have been at the 50th event at Abingdon (although I was there) but COULD have been at the Batle of Britain Show at Abingdon in Septemebr 1967. For reasons I won’t elaborate on now , it could ONLY have been ONE or the OTHER !!!

Can anyone please help…..???

The reason for starting the original thread is to find the Reg of the Heron as I am collecting images of significant a/c for me personally eg First flight, fisrt fixed wing solo, first helicopter solo etc etc.

Yours in anticipation

Bravo533

As a serving airman (Sergeant Radar Fitter) I was there, and I too would love to be able to revisit that wonderful day (the day the Queen arrived) through the medium of video. Unfortunately I had the simplest of cameras, and here are a couple of the dozen or so photographs I took.
As is so often said nowadays by old geezers like myself, that was when we had a real Air Force!

Nice photos, but wasn’t K9942’s ficticious colour scheme just awful?!

Nice to see two of my favourite transports there. The Beverly and the Argosy. Ah the wonderful Whistling Wheelbarrow, I’d love to see one flying again.

That’s a superb photo and you can see the only Heron there, XM295 in the static, top right. Now looking at that photo, I recall that there were NO fixed-wing aircraft movements from the airfield during that show, apart from the historic aircraft which operated from the grass. There were lots of Wessex and Sioux helicopters that flew from there during the show, but no large aircraft, as everything operated from Brize Norton, I believe, and flew past in a pageant.
Certainly wouldn’t have thought they could allow any civilian pleasure flights during this important RAF occasion.

Here’s the picture I mentioned, isnt that a beautiful sight!

Scramble Show Reports has Jersey Airlines G-ANSZ at Benson BoB 1966.
They’d have let ghastly grockles on, as they sold it straight afterwards.

ex-Queen’s Flight Heron C.3 XM295 was there. Became No.2 Saunders ST-27, scrapped 1988.

RAF Silver Jubilee 1968

As a serving airman (Sergeant Radar Fitter) I was there, and I too would love to be able to revisit that wonderful day (the day the Queen arrived) through the medium of video. Unfortunately I had the simplest of cameras, and here are a couple of the dozen or so photographs I took.
As is so often said nowadays by old geezers like myself, that was when we had a real Air Force!

If I could get transported back for one day in time, that is the event I would want to go to, wins by a nose over Coronation review at Odiham.
Ive got a lovely arial pic of the event in colour somewhere, will dig it out.
Oh, and a free mince pie for every type spotted below!
Hope you get your Heron info BTW.

Yes Certainly was…June 14/15 1968. Very impressive static and flying display with huge formation flypasts. Think it was televised?? wonder if BBC has anything its archive???

Cor thats not a show to get muddled up neither, isnt that the one that showed all surviving RAF types outside for the last time?