The aircraft that sit outside at NAM are generally in pretty good condition compared to some that I have seen. Some clearly are in better “nick” than others as they have recently been repainted but the answer “Piston Power” is not just painting or even just cleaning the aircraft up; the answer is another hangar. Valuable aircraft, such as the NAM’s Lightning, Vulcan, Shackleton and (one of my favourites) Hastings are far too valuable to be left outside to the vagaries of the UK climate, birds, light fingered brigade and vandalism. NAM is one of my favourite museums too and its quite close to where I live so I support it when I can. If all those people who gave all that money to get that Vulcan flying again had only just put a little bit………Well, I know it doesn’t work like that but the Vulcan at NAM deserves as much recognition as the TVOC airframe in my view and the former is in a more original condition too if we are in pedantic mode. As regards getting RAF painters and finishers to do the job in their spare time out of sheer public spiritness, not a chance the RAF Painter and Finisher Trade has gone the same way as the RAF Carpenter Trade (which was obsolete when I joined) and contractors do it all now.

Mark12. I didn’t get it (which is shameful for a serving member of the RAF) but I presume there was an instance during WW2 when an Fw 190 force landed at RAF Pembrey (Wales I think?) and was captured intact? Am I on the right track?

Nice Photo Robbo. The pie eater chap picking his nose hopefully doesn’t frequent this forum! (No its not me, I went on Sunday!) Are you sure that arrowed person is holding a camera? It looks like part of a Saturn V rocket to me. It was a fantastic show and I can only agree with those who have posted positive comments on this site. The weather helped (as ever) of course but I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that I was in the 21st Century and in a recession to boot. I guess everyone has their favourites but I really enjoyed the 3-ship B25s and the Fw 190 of course. The WWI group of “flying venetian blinds” were great and the Sea Furies awesome. Bernard doesn’t get any easier on my ears (because I’m getting grumpier I suppose) and he tends to waffle when he should be preparing us for the next event; the Lancaster’s arrival was a classic example. Of course, it was the only heavy bomber we had in WW2. This bit isn’t really Bernard’s fault but he tended to give that impression that it was so. If a Halifax and Stirling were parked out on the line (even better if flyable!) then this would redress the balance somewhat. It could happen of course, stranger things have! I have done a little bit of Air Show commentating myself, many years ago, but I always took the view that you should inform, educate and, if time, entertain the public. We know its a BBMF Lancaster but a very quick brief on why it has different Sqn codes on either side of the fuselage would be interesting as would the mention that this particular Lanc was built right at the end of WW2. I would like to be a little better educated and informed about what I’m seeing – nothing too complex but not all esoteric waffle. That said, his English is tres bon compared to my French and the hardware that flew over from France to display for us at Legends was “formidable!”

“I completely agree with your observation. The days of the great & varied airshows of the 70’s, 80’s & early 90’s (the years I can remember), are long since gone. Even the IAT (sorry, RIAT) isn’t what it used to be to my mind. But then again, 20 years ago the RAF (& other air forces) had so many different types or aircraft on their inventory. This variety just doesn’t exist any more, hence the ‘Vanilla’ line-up at airshows”.

I’m very much in agreement too with the above statement. The World has changed dramatically (perhaps the fall of the Berlin Wall helped) over the past 25 years and we are seeing the reflection of this in airshows today. I joined the RAF in 1986 (I know, get some in!) when we had over 90,000 personnel in light blue. Today we have around 40,000 and are coming towards the end of a massive recruitment drive to try and achieve “manning balance” of 41,000. My first tour was at RAF Finningley which had 7 different aircraft types (if you count the 2 different marks of Jet Provost in use then) just on that one station. Today the number of types RAF-wide has diminished dramatically. Not only that, as some others have pointed out, we are still pretty stretched operationally but the biggest problem is money. As taxpayers, I believe that we should all see our military aircraft display to us as often as we can but, unless we can convince the purse holders to spend much, much more on defence then it seems unlikely. Some people bemoan the fact that the RAF still doesn’t operate the Vulcan a la BBMF; several ex-Vulcan engineers I work with tell me that the RAF couldn’t wait to get rid of these 1950s technology manpower hungry behemoths! (OK so why do we still suffer with the VC10?) That said, I too was very disappointed that the Vulcan could not display at Waddington but others have said plenty about that already and I’m sure there’s more to come.

hey ted, just out of interest are you anything to do with the toddington steam railway not far from broadway?

Could be! I’m a co-owner of one of the GWR locomotives based there. We seem to get the BBMF flying over us down there quite a lot too!

Top Gear Sunday 21st 8pm…..

Apparently a race from London to Edinburgh between XK120 (May), Vincent Black Shadow (Hammond) and Tornado ( the train) with coal shoveller Clarkson…

60163 Class A1 60163 is not a train, its a locomotive and a brand new one to boot. A train is made up of a locomotive and coaches/carriages. This distinction is really important and the media really hacks me off when they use the description of a locomotive as a train on the TV, newspapers etc. It’s important to me because I’m a steam locomotive enthusiast as well as a heritage aviation enthusiast and, well, you know how it is with enthusiasts. And, before you ask, yes I have had quite a good day today which was topped off by seeing a lancaster fly past my window about 20 mins ago. (It happens a lot round here as does seeing “Tornado” passing through my local railway station so, to reflect briefly, I’m quite lucky really so I’d better stop whinging right now!)

The CATCS (Air Traffic Control School) was at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire and still is. (As is the defence Helicopter School).