olly-s

Depends what you define as “lost”. If you take the trouble to read the link (provided by Scotavia) to the official statements, they claim it was indeed tracked (see extract below). The statement also mentions that a Royal Naval vessel responded to a request to assist with the salvage of the wreckage.

… “From the moment of the first radar observation to the eventual disappearance of their aircraft off the Cherbourg peninsula one and a half hours later, the Hercules was continuously tracked by British radars. Information about its height, course and probable future track was provided to all air traffic control authorities concerned or likely to be concerned, including the Continental radar system. There is no truth in the suggestion that it was at any stage before its final disappearance lost to radar surveillance or that any of the traffic control authorities concerned were without information about its course and height.” …

… “It may be worth adding that vessels of the Royal Navy and a Whirlwind helicopter of the R.A.F. took part in search operations and at sea, later, a naval vessel responded to the request of the American authorities for assistance in salvaging the wreckage.” …

SimonBrown in your thread title you refer to “… Hercules 63-6679”. Wasn’t the C-130 involved actually 63-7789?

According to W&R 25th edition there exists a Lancaster cockpit section replica which, at that time, was on loan to Scampton. It was on loan from a Jeremy Hall. The reconstruction was reportedly created for the TV drama Night Flight. Is this the item being referenced?

Safe storage and Duxford don’t always go together. I am thinking of what happened to the fin and rudder of the Hermes.

I now gather that BCCL is the publisher of that newspaper. The newspaper should not have credited themselves as the image source, but I have no issue with the owner of the DC-3 using those images which I provided as part of the project’s publicity campaign.

Scotavia

The Dragonfly you mention was WG661. It moved by road to Baginton still in full RN colours. Shortly after it went to Woburn where it was to have been installed as a plaything. I assume it was eventually scrapped. I do have a b&w image I took of it at Coventry (Baginton) but presently that material is in storage or I would share it here. Here is a link to images of it when it was at Blackpool then another at CVT:

http://www.edendale.co.uk/GO/BPL.2.html

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/registration/WG661

Tim

It looks as if the modeller has depicted an aircraft fitted with tufts to give an indication of airflow over the airframe during trials. If it is a genuine “scheme” then the lighter coloured areas would have enabled better evidencing of the movement of the tufts.