The very rare ex Ethiopian Firefly trainer (at least) went to France where SFAIK it remains dismantled in storage. I don’t believe that batch of survivors was ever in the U.S. so would not be the Firefly mentioned by the O.P.

There is an interesting piece here describing an interview in 2010 with the WWII pilot of this example in which it mentions that the airframe also had nose art in the form of a “blue clad Varga girl”. There is painting done in the 2000s which depicts that too.

http://20thcenturyaviationmagazine.com/john-stemple-page/tuskegee-airman-george-hardy-recalls-military-career/

Is that correct? Is the NW based P-51’s scheme now finished – does it perhaps depict an earlier stage in this examples WWII scheme? I am sure they would have used excellent sources – just interested to know.

Beautiful action shoots of the Vampire. I see the Scandinavian Mig 15 is scheduled to appear in the UK again this year – anyone know if it will be based out of North Weald again for the season?

The Science Museum example made its last flight to the UK. It is a huge shame that it is now entombed and inaccessible at Wroughton where no-one can now appreciate it.

By luck I have just seen Hunter XL577 get airborne from Kemble and head South.

I assume it is either on a ferry permit or has been deregistered from the UK register.

Anyone on here know the answer or the destination?

The CAA show it as having been de-registered in February to Jordan.

Interesting article Daniel. Brings back memories of one visiting an Air Tattoo over here many years back.

The mention of reusing the same few engines to ferry all the aircraft mirrors a similar approach taken when many Prentices were bought from the RAF and ferried to their resting place – many airframes but only a handful of usable engines!