Come the crunch with the Falklands conflict Harrier GR.3s, Sea Harriers, and Nimrods had to be hastily modified to carry Sidewinder.

I take your point about British versus Sidewinder missiles for older RAF and FAA aircraft but the Sea Harrier only ever used Sidewinder; although admittedly the FAA raided RAF ‘war’ stocks for the latest AIM-9L variant. The Harrier GR3 never carried air-to-air missiles, British or otherwise, until the Falklands conflict and then the aircraft were intended as attrition replacements for lost Sea Harriers (losses that thankfully never happened in the numbers feared).

Prior to that I suppose the best answer I can think of is that Britain still had an aircraft industry made up of competing manufacturers who were possibly prepared to part-fund development of missiles in the hope of export sales (boosted by the selection of the missile for the RAF).

Also a government that appreciated the value of indigenous missile development skills would possibly be a deciding factor.

Hamilton Standard propeller on what looks like a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine.

Not sure it is double standards – has the RAFM indicated that they do not wish to put the Axis aircraft in authentic markings?

As far as I know the Stuka in the Battle-of-Britain Hall has been displayed in inaccurate markings for about twenty years, not to mention the fact that the tank-busting cannon have been removed (and I think fake dive-brakes added).

The current plans for the Battle-of-Britain Beacon project seem to have two night-fighters, the Bf110 and Ju88, on display; aircraft fitted with radar equipment that simply didn’t exist in 1940.

As has been pointed out, it would be virtually impossible to get the correct aircraft to display but, that being the case, why then dedicate this new project to such a limited period of RAF history.

I don’t think there is any large aircraft at all painted in the silver and yellow scheme…

I have no argument really; it is just my personal preference.

With regard to large aircraft in training colours (or silver) aren’t two of Hastings preserved in the UK in training schemes (radar trainers for the V-force)? Also the Hastings at Duxford is now silver…

…but I preferred that in the white scheme too. 😀

…at the beginning of this thread I posted the link to the airframe’s history… :rolleyes:

Beg pardon m’lud; I withdraw the question. 😮

I hope they don’t paint it silver…..silver Wellingtons look awful…..in my humble opinion, of course!

I expect Ridley Scott managed to fill this ‘period’ film with plenty of tracer and high-explosive as he usually does! :rolleyes:

There is a similar accusation in the Battle-of-Britain edition of the ‘Lost Voices’ series of books. In that case the person quoted states that parachutes were re-packed by Irish labourers and blames the sabotage on some of them with ‘IRA sympathies’. I’m not sure that re-packing parachutes would have been entrusted to ‘labourers’ whatever their background.

I also seem to remember a case from the Battle-of-Malta where an RAF pilot fell to his death after his parachute was tampered with. I cannot remember details only that some ‘pin had been bent so it was impossible to pull’.

The ‘story’ of a 452nd crew in a 388th aircraft you mean?

Possibly just an example of ‘maximum effort’; apparently it was fairly common practice for units with spare aircraft to lend them (even for a single mission) to units with a spare crew. I imagine in late May 1944 most units were pretty busy!