These are generally known as Eagle Oil Bowser Trailers – I’m not sure of the powerplant but there are still a few around including one at East Fortune and two at Elvington.

I may be able to help a little – though it would help either to see a photo of the tractor in question or at least confirmation of its exact type. Indeed is it a genuine ex-RAF/RCAF airfield tractor?

The only two ordinary (rather than the half-tracked ‘Roadless’ version) Fordsons in UK museums that I am aware of are the one at Duxford (in RAF colours and markings but only loaned to the IWM by a private owner so maybe it has since been removed) and another at East Kirkby (painted gloss green when I saw it c1997). I do have photos of these but not immediately to hand.

In my experience, WW2 photos of RAF Fordsons (and for that matter most other RAF vehicles) are not easy to find – nor published information either. Your best bet is tio keep a good look out in any books on WW2 RAF topics and you should find the occasional decent picture of aircraft and vehicle together. Usually the image has been published because of the aircraft not the vehicle.

Good luck anyway – the tractor would be an interesting and rare exhibit.

I could not get into Damian’s site to see what it says about these a/c, but the Woking a/c is Hunter T.7 XL623 – I believe this is the last T.7 built. Not sure who currently owns it but it was first put there by an adjacent leisure/entertainment centre. Hunter WT555 is a very historic a/c being the 1st production F.1 – it was displayed at RAFM Cosford some years ago but as it was owned by the MoD it eventually went for auction. I was involved in efforts to buy it for Brooklands Museum but unfortunately our reasonable budget was not enough to prevent it being sold to a wealthier private individual. It is periodically displayed on the warehouse roof but never for long due to planning laws and possibly complaints from the local police that it distracts passing motorists!

Good question – I can’t recall hearing anything much since, so I guess its not been recovered yet. Surely we’d have heard about it if it was now being restored?

The Crewe Merlins story sounds very unlikely to me! If not, why has nobody ever checked it out?

Interesting photo! I wish I knew the answer, but wonder if any of them may have been either 1) an unidentified Typhoon cockpit section (owned by a preservation group) that appeared v briefly at Brooklands in the early 1980s on the site of what became today’s museum – or 2) a similar cockpit section (with other lesser parts) loaned to Brooklands Museum by Peter Smith of the Friends of Biggin Hill in the 1990s?

Intriguing to read MDF’s suggestion that the fatigue test airframe broke in half – can he or anyone else provide confirmation of this? The Brooklands Museum nose section came from Farnboro’ some years ago but there was virtually no information available then about its origins and history….

In my humble opinion, F G Miles was rarely if ever behind the times and in fact the site chosen for this major new London Airport 60 years ago was at a certain Thames Estuary location called Cliffe – which was still being proposed for a new London Airport very recently!