There’s more and more airfields banning non-pilot visitors, to help prevent this kind of brazen theft.

Which kind of defeats the object – I’m certainly not tarring with any particular brush but it does occur that some of those frequenting airfields in the course of their correct business could well be those doing the deed. And if not at first-hand then more than possibly as a source of good gen. Where else would one find reliable TBO/SMOH detail etc?

I think these are all/most of SRF’s Jungmann fleet:

G-BECT/E.3B-338
G-BECU/E.3B-384
G-BECV/E.3B-390
G-BECW/E.3B-423
G-BECX/E.3B-419
G-BECY/E.3B-459
G-BEDA/E.3B-504

Not misunderstood at all: it’s just missing a qualifying statement. On 1st April 1918, many hundreds of personnel were undergoing flight tuition already, with many hundreds more about to start. At this time it was mainly the Training Squadrons and/or TDS’s doing elementary right through to advanced flight training, but other schools were training instructors, scout and artillery gunnery and so on.

So I was just trying to point out that ‘first RAF course’ didn’t mean anything without applying some sort of criteria. Thus I’d suggest it was the first CFS course held after the RAF was formed?

Two more Japanese citizens who learned to fly with the Royal Air Force in WWII were Takijiro Onishi and M. Sakamoto. They were on the first flying course held after the RAF formed in April 1918.

First CFS course I suspect: many (many!) other flying courses were available both pre-and post-April 1918 within the RFC/RAF.

Although the records do not detail his actions…[/url]

A remarkable man who should be well-known I would have thought?

Plenty on record at TNA, as well as details of his actions in The Sky Their Battlefield, etc..

Good thread here:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/204768-private-o-hara/#comment-2013572

It’s a new one on me: have you tried a direct query to the PAF? I use the relevant embassy as a starting point to get a contact. Sadly a lot of the PAF guys I used to converse with have passed on.

EDIT: one thought occurred – I cannot recall any evidence of Chinese resupply of rebels (seems very unlikely): I think this would be easier to check up. Hard to see that happening, so the whole scenario sounds apocryphal. But if it did happen, then that aspect would likely be in the public domain – newspaper reports etc.

Another suggestion: have you tried a CIA Freedom of information request? Often a good way of finding information – strange though it might seem. Or try a search on CIA-FOIA website.

PS – “SabreDog”? Sabre yes, Dog occasionally, Sabrejet also, but I can’t recall “SabreDog” in contemporary use. Crews had local terms often, but F-86 would likely be the most regular term.

Is it not where the Ariel wire enter the fuselage ?

Nope: Not sure myself but this is a close-up of MH434’s:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]246826[/ATTACH]

RH one Meteor?