According to Air Britain’s Lancaster File, PA386 was exhibited in Hyde Park during Battle of Britain Week, which is where this photo was probably taken (they reproduce a similar one). However, they quote the date as 1949, which seems odd as they also list her as SOC in October 1948.

One of the dates must be a typo?

…and has he been checked for radio-activity after haunting a cockpit for so long?

Gnome,

In suggesting that the film makers should have stuck to original footage, I was thinking of crews climbing onboard, aircraft starting up, taxying, etc.

I don’t know if the actual Dresden bombing was filmed in it’s entirety, but I recall David Irving writing that there is a recording of the Master Bomber’s communications with the Marker Force and Main Force. Whether this is for the first wave or both, I’m unsure.

Most of the airborne stuff is cgi. I can only recall a bit of real aerial footage being used and it was the same old stuff you’ve seen a hundred times – a Stirling silhouetted above a burning ‘Dresden’, for example!

But by then, I’d switched off mentally. Naff cgi, a bizarre plot and a bit too much of the old:

“Take that you *******s! My sister was killed in the Blitz”

“Shut up, Jimmy. This is war!”

but the depiction of the raid is very good. It’s well worth watching

We must have watched two different films with the same title, mantog!

I caught the last hour or so, which included the briefing (“two hundred and forty Lawncarsters in the first wave” wtf?), then the cgi Lancs, mixed in with original wartime colour footage (from Night Bombers I think), and a bit of what looked like Just Jane at East Kirkby.

In my opinion, the film makers should have stuck to original footage for the raid scenes. The cgi stuff was simply dreadful and totally unconvincing. Not to mention the naff internal shots of the bomb-aimer’s compartment with equipment that would have looked more at place in a Great Western signal box.

Granted, the depiction of a fire storm at ground level was pretty well done, but those Lancs – ugh!

And that’s what worries me about the remake – I haven’t yet seen an aeroplane done in cgi which is convincing (but honourable mention for the already referred to Japanese bloke’s efforts). The film makers are really going to have to work hard to convince me, and I sincerely doubt they will be able to.

I find the original is best viewed with a bottle of red to hand. Relish the scenes of real Lancs, whether on the ground or airborne, bask in the wonderful period feel to the whole thing and by the time the special effects come in the final half hour or so, you’re too p*ssed to care!

Could the fuse box cover not be original to the fuse box body?

The Stores Ref. she mentions is 5C/883, which confirms that it’s a standard Type F fuse box, quite a common item in late war/post war aeroplanes. The crown might be the “female” version, indicating it dates from the reign of Liz II, so it might be worth double checking as a further date reference, but the lid might have been swapped in service anyway, so it wouldn’t be much of a clue.

Fancy a Museum the size of Cosford not having a handy list of Stores Refs of the wartime era to refer to….they really need a set of my Illustrated Guides….ooops, no advertising allowed on this site, is there? :diablo:

The main instrument panel of G-ALUN survives in safe hands(!)

It was at Cockpitfest a few years ago.

Photo 2 looks like the back plate of an electrically operated gauge – possibly one of the R.P.M. Indicators.

Item 5 may be part of a boost gauge.

I don’t think No. 3 shows the back of the gyro on the bomb sighting head – I’ve got half a dozen and none look like that. That said, I can’t offer any alternative just now.

A suppressor is used to prevent radio interference from other parts of an aircraft’s electrical system. They were dotted around the airframe, as near as possible to the apparatus in question. Having looked at your bit by opening the photo rather than squinting at the small one, I’m not so sure that’s what it is. I would have expected to see screened cable and there’s no sign of it here.