RIAT 94 or 95, We were sat by the car, finishing off the remnants of our picnic lunch in the evening, watching aircraft depart into the sunset. The traffic was stuck in the usual jam behind us. The commentator announces that just for the people in the jam he was going to play “always look on the bright side of life” from Monty Pythons Life of Brian. Unfortunately he has finger trouble with the CD player & selects a George Formby type tune that starts with the line “I’m a W*nker….” that blares across the airfield briefly to be followed by an enbarrassed silence. Nearly choked on my beer.

Try Portsmouth Marine Salvage, Farlington, Portsmouth for more recent stuff. They had a large number of Speys there for some time (mid 90’s). Also Avons & a few Olympus. Not sure what is there now. One of the early EE Lightnings types (P1B ?) was there for a while.

“Mandatory insurance should not be required for State aircraft and certain other types of aircraft”.

Instead of trying to get it defined as “certain” other aircraft, could the BBMF be approached as a form of sponsoring authority making it a “state” aircraft.

sorry if that sounds a bit daft, just trying to think around the problem.

Doesn’t the FAAM have a US marked F4 ? OK, so the F4 served with the FAA & not the F14, but ……

Talking of AV-8As, are the any preserved in the US ?

I remember stories of an Alitalia DC9 being lost over the Mediterranean to a missile, alledgedly US. Is there any substance to that one ?