I would love to see a B-24 in the skies over the UK – that would be fantastic

I recall seeing (Diamond Lil?) in the UK circa 1988? I guess that doesn’t count as being ‘recent’, though it’s still fresh in my mind. Prior to that, we had a couple of ex-IAF examples also, so my vote would be to see ‘Doc’ rather than ‘yet another’ B-24 (latter said with tongue a bit in cheek!)

I’m sure I’ll get lambasted for posting these (possibly a bit mundane in the circumstances – your Spitfire is awesome by the way), but in case of interest, here are a few photos I took of your C-119 back in the days when it was briefly restored to airworthiness at Manston:

Circa 1986, if memory serves. The aircraft had sat there a good few years (as 3C-ABA), with a writ plastered on the crew door.

It’s going to become a racer. So, that’s the end of that airframe as a P51.

..but ditto if it were going to be “restored”: it would emerge as another replica.

The car world has already picked up on the value of unrestored, period artefacts, and aside from Flak Bait and a few other notable airframes, the aviation world has yet to follow suit in any great numbers.

Thanks Oxcart. That’s very interesting, I don’t understand enough about aerodynamics to understand the difference it makes – a shorter moment arm means less inertia to overcome in changing pitch – but I guess there is a leverage principle at work with regard to the action of the elevators? Was this oversensitivity in pitch a feature of the original?

errr… Shall I tell him or you?

111 I think: he led the squadron’s aerobatic team that year.

Why is it ‘upside-down’; the clouds, the light?

Lighting.

Indeed, I posted this with Zugersee in the title. Strange.
The camerafilm was indeed from a B17 that came down in the IJsselmeer (former Zuiderzee).

Cees

I thought it was a Swiss ditching?