DGH,
In the original thread, I asked if consideration was ever given to bringing Mr McHenry back to the uk for preservation here. Can you tell us if that was ever considered?

Sorry VX just realised I never answered this! 😮

It was always the plan to bring her back to the UK right upto the day when the decision was made to leave her stateside. Unfortunately though without the spar replacement it was never really on.

Unfortuately there isn’t much. There is only 2 books I can think of which are :

Chipmunk : The First Forty Years – by Bill Fisher

This can still be obtained from Bill Fisher via his website http://www.fandh-aircraft.co.uk/index.htm

and…..

Chipmunk : The First Fifty Years – by Bill Fisher, Rod Brown and Tony Rothermel

This is like hens teeth, if anybody has a copy for sale I’d love to hear from you! 🙂

Hopefully I will get time to put some more info on my website http://www.dhcchipmunk.com before to long.

A good site which has some stuff which will come in handy if you dig deep enough is http://www.sierralima.co.uk/aircraft.htm

Hello VX,

Just to answer you’re original question.

It is highley unlikely that AACF will get a Shackelton back into the air in the UK, the main obstacle is cash. If somebody was to come along and offer us somewhere around £2m then it could be on – but that is unlikely. The main technical problem is the wing spar that will need replacing due to them being passed there fatique life, it can be done, but hence the need for cash. In America the FAA allow the aircraft to operate on on an experimental category as long as you keep a close eye on the spars and dont fly over populated area’s etc. The DA for the Shackelton is now held by Air Atlantique, spares are also not a large issue as we have mountains of them – but of course there is always those little bits that you can never find!

I’ll try to remember to take a photo of the panel of G-JAYI when I go into the office on Friday. I’m not sure her panel is original but it might help. 🙂

This is an enlargment of aircraft 11 that I’ve done – hope you dont mind?

Seems to be the remains of a large 2 and 4 sticking out either side of the cross. XM214 was modified like this for her appearance at the 1969 Paris airshow as item number 469.

I cant see the same on your hi-res shot so are we talking about the same aircraft? If that is a picture of aircraft 6 then I would put forward XM215 as she was on strength with 226 OCU at the time. 🙂

Ok, I figure that the one I first thought was XM139 is in actual fact a second aircraft with a St Georges flag over its serial – the other is F1A XM214. I’m sure this was to do with the fact that both aircraft went to the Paris airshow that year and had the flags put over there tail serials so as not to cause confusion with there Paris Air Show number’s which were carried in similar sized numbers on the front of the aircraft. Can anybody confirm this?

Also I wonder is it a coincedence that there are 17 aircraft in the line up at the very time (Sept 70) that the unit was busy practicing there 16 ship formation flypast for there annual BoB airshow? They used to have 16 up plus a spare ship.

The story of that years BoB display and the blocking of the runway leading to 16 Lightnings needing to find somewere else to go on a Sunday and the subsequent loss of a T4 (XM990) on there return in front of the crowd (crew ejected safetly) is another story!

Um, Lightnings my favourites! 😎

There is a right mix there a quick look tells me there’s an F1 (XM139) and F1A (XM171) an F3 (XR718) plus a selection of T4’s (XM9xx) and T5’s (XS4xx).

Lovely shot – made my day. 🙂

Obviously I’m being incredibly thick here, but why is it that a Shackleton can’t fly in the UK? when a Lanc, and B17 can; its nothing like a Lightning, or a Harrier, etc.

When Pelican (insert correct no.) was being flown from SA to the UK to appear at an airshow, why didn’t someone tell them they were wasting their time?

Basically Stuart the wingspars are past there fatique life. If they could be replaced then she could fly – but thats a VERY expensive propersition.