I always thought it was the point at which the pitch was set??? Nothing to back this up mind just something I was told once!!

As a bit of a Ruskin afficianado i can tell you that the Connie was purchased merely as a taxiable airframe for use on ground shots but that a large R/C connie was built for flying scenes and quite rightly a Bristol Freighter was due to be used and i believe producers were also looking at DC4/DC6 options too as well as mutterings of using the Fuselage of the Gatwick based Hermes for film work too! As for the future .well by episode 9 the Berlin airlift was all but ready to be wound up so that would have tightened Ruskins purse strings somewhat and no doubt he would have been in Cade’s debt again as he seemed to have the various contacts and dodgy cargoes that brought the hard earned cash in. Its interesting to compare the books storylines with the series as in the book Cade, (The Spiv) hot foots it to Israel to escape Customs snoopers and the Special branch investigating his less than honest dealings including gun running and jewish illegals! But no mention is made of Mrs Cade and his home in Surbiton.i believe the storylines were written but that W.Greatorex was less than pleased with the way his Storylines were interpreteed onto the screen, thus leading to disagreements and eventual complete breakdowns of contracts.Such a shame as i feel it would have been great viewing.I also read somewhere that the flying scenes completely hammered the original budget and with furher airframes due to be acquired it was put originally on hold and then by 1983 completely dropped.

The Connie model was never made, plans were drawn and parts cut but it was stopped when the series was cancelled. A Bristol freighter was going to be made as well along with DC4/6. Multiple’s of these were planned as with the DC3’s before them.
Such a shame that it was cancelled as it would have been great fun 🙂

As has been said P8’s were fitted to many different A/C and other applications so not most likely “Spitfire”. Nice piece in its own right and not everything HAS to come from a Spitfire!!!

It looks like the runway on Lundy is permanent:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=lundy&hl=en&ll=51.171056,-4.669189&spn=0.005752,0.016512&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=11.359053,33.815918&t=h&hnear=Lundy&z=17

Richard

It is, thats what they were aiming for:rolleyes:

Great prog, full of enthusiasm for aviation, model or otherwise. As has been said James is a great enthusiast and it shows. Hangar was PPS at Booker and which wing do you mean as there were several? Orange one on the wall was from a Stampe.
Much better than some of the C**P on telly 🙂