Hi,

Maybe there were two ‘A’s in the squadron and this was how they told them apart.

Alex

Hi,

One from AVROVULCAN about illegal youtube.

Alex

Hi,

I’ve read a similar report in Malta the Hurricane Years by Chris Shores. The engineering officer, Wg Cdr Louks states that they used Blenheim engines, altered the pitch angle of their propellors and blended 87 and 100 octane fuel, which raised the boost by 2lb/in. The first trial took the Gladiator, N5529, to 10,000ft in 5 mins. This aircraft has also been known as the Bleriator.

He also carried out similar adjustments with the Hurricanes to increase their performance.

Reading further into the Malta Gladiators Louks and his team worked wonders to keep these aircraft in the air. On one occassion they took two wrecks and ended up with one flyable aircraft.

I think at that time the rule was you kept the aircraft in the air no matter what and you did all you could to keep them there.

Alex

Hi Tim,

On page 31 of Gloster Gladiator, Warpaint No 37 there is a photo of Gladiator N2308/JQ-M of 2 AACU.

The same photo appears on page 22 of Squadron Signals Gladiator in Action and is slightly better quality.

Alex

Hi,

Second car I owned was a ‘T’ reg (late 70’s) Talbot Sunbeam. It had a 1.6 sport engine with a 1.3 diff. Cherry red with a black vinyl roof, black interior. Front spoiler with flared wings. 0-60 in just over 5 seconds. A couple of slabs in the boot to keep the back end on the ground. Used to leave XR2’s, 3’s and 4’s standing.

Alex

Hi Jerry,

On a similar theme.

In April 1945 Mosquito Mk XVIII Tsetse PZ467 was shipped to the US Naval base at Petuxant River Naval Station in Maryland. It was used for evaluation tests against the B25 with the 75mm gun.

After testing it was stored and eventually sold to a civy pilot. After changing hands a few more times it suffered a landing acident and was eventually scrapped. The two Merlin engines were sold to a guy in Miami for his speedboat. It is posible they are still being used today.

Alex

Hi,

As I understand it they were all destroyed during the Suez Crisis by RN strike aircraft. There are a couple of photos of them taken during a strike/recce of an Egyptian airfield, possibly Almaza.

I carried out some research into Egyptian Lanxasters, Halifaxes and Stirlings a couple of years ago. I’ll dig out my notes later tonight.

Alex