Does it have to take off to be a crash?

Not in my experience: good way of massaging stats however.

The German ones tended to go thud.

Too soon?:confused:

Misconception: Canadian F-104s had a higher attrition rate.

Sea Otter cockpit section in Australia

In the latest Flypast June issue it mentions a Boeing Washington WF444 fuselage found on the Dugway Proving Ranges in Utah, not sure what condition it would be in though would make a great addition to the collection.

And why not a AOP9 in the WZ/XK serial range as these are ex RAF would complete a nice range of Auster types

Several years back wasn’t images of a Whitley lying in the Baltic Sea?

Weren’t there a number of Washington fuselages with NMIMT/NMT in Socorro? A few wrecks did make it out of there, so one never knows…

Any chance that your revised book could include individual aircraft histories? I think Shacklady tackled it in his earlier work, but not in great depth.

I’ve recently bought a few 400-page motorsport books, which generally retail around the £100 mark, and I think it’d be great if you could ‘do’ the Meteor to a similar extent. However I do know how a lot of aviation publishers work, so I shall keep my fingers crossed 🙂

Also I wondered if you’d unravelled the real story behind the genesis of the T.7: most authorities have it that the Gloster demonstrator was returned to the UK after its crash in foreign hands and that this machine was the start of it all. However there’s a nice paperwork trail at TNA which gives a very different picture.

I still have the docs somewhere if you need anything.

Either way, best of luck and I look forward to it!

I shall miss the old girl. Sad to hear.

Cracking job: obviously a great deal of research gone into these, and some really evocative photos in there too.

Sounds feasible. Worked on F.8 and T.7 and don’t recall any lead, just lots of wood and fabric around the intakes. Aside from their aerodynamic philosophy, there is a great deal to separate the Meteor from other jets of just a few years later, such as the F-86.

Off-topic, I recall a great deal of lead in the nose of the ‘Bournemouth’ Swift when it was being restored.

TVAL’s recreations are works of art: their RAFM Albatros is stunning.

I hope we see this one in the UK this year.