I always quite liked the Chance Vought Cutlass, considering it first flew in 1948, it seemed pretty advanced for it’s time. The Seahawk I find a graceful looking a/c, Comet, Hunter, Douglas Skyray, Vulcan, F-14, Bucc, all curvy things, then the angular ones, Lightning, Jag, Thud.
I’ll go for the Victor however as I always thought it combined curves with menace.

DragonflyDH90.
Well you asked so here’s a random selection from the case I keep in my potable DVD player bag.

The Third Man
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.
Lawrence of Arabia (full length version)
Regeneration
The Bicycle Thieves
The last Samurai
Il Postino
Malena
Last orders
The Blues Brothers (original)
Get Carter (original)
Das Wunder von Bearn
Almost Salinas
The italian Job (original)
The World’s Fastest Indian.
Walk The Line.

Strangely and despite what I’ve been accused of, not a documentary among them.
I first went to the pictures when I was five. Throughout my teenage years I went to see a film twice sometimes three times a week.
Some good, some bad, some awful.
It worries me that that many of you seem to need to be told what’s good and what you need to see instead of making your own minds up.

My long standing cinematic ambition is to see the original ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’ at the pictures again. Sadly it’s long lost.

Andy

Nice selection, I have to say that ‘Walk the Line’ is one of my favourites, fantastic film, Hollywood CAN do it sometimes.
What would we do if the dog had been called Mohammed, now that would be interesting.
Fatwah, Fatwah. Fatwah.

Sorry to bring this up again, but if RR299 was not in ‘633’ why did it always carry the spurious squadron codes of EH-T.
Also, what were the three mossies used in the ‘Mosquito Squadron’ film being used for up to 1969, I was working at Butlins, Minehead then and to think of Mossies still being flown from Exeter makes me realise I missed an opportunity to see them at the end, so called cool hippy dude at the time or what, the sound of those merlins was something else, better than a joint from Spenno’s rooftop garden methinks.

Interestingly enough, the only so called ‘hot’ aircraft that I’ve ever been knowingly in contact with is the B-29 crash on Shelf Stones, Derbyshire, as you all know this a/c allegedly monitored the fall out from Nagasaki and was used over here to test Soviet experiments.
We took our local scouts on a visit to the site, and others, a few years ago, and of course, scouts being as they are, a few bits, quite large, were brought back to the scout hut here.
I have always been blessed with good health, but since that time things have deteriorated, I’ve been in hospital twice, nearly three times and have not been a happy, healthy bunny ever since, and thats not just me, my brother and son, who were also involved in the trip, have had serious illnesses, coincidence or what?

Did the film company purchase these a/c from the RAF for the ‘633 Squadron’ film or were they hired.
I’ve just looked on IMDB and noticed that the film ‘Mosquito Squadron’ was made 5 years after ‘633 Squadron’, I always thought that they were made about the same time and used the same a/c and some of the footage.
So were these a/c stored or used by the RAF in flying condition after the first film or owned and stored by the film company with a view to a further film.
I remember going to see ‘633 Squadron’ when it came out, when I was a kid, even back in the early 60’s we were aviation enthusiasts and having seen Mossies flying only once, we thought it was pretty awesome at the time.
As for ‘Mosquito Squadron’, I only ever saw that on the telly years afterwards, on it’s release I was a so called ‘profound’ student going to see and analyse heavy films by D H Lawrence and such like, screens full of Mossies were not ‘politically correct’ in those days, how many of those youths have got it out of their system I wonder.

Was RR299 ever part of the THUM flight, I distinctly remember seeing 3 Mosquitoes of this flight doing a BoB airshow flypast in the late 50’s at either Syerston or Cottesmore, I was sure we had a photo of this but I can’t find it, can anyone confirm.
Presumably all three of these THUM a/c featured in the ‘633 Squadron’ film.
Were all surviving flyable Mossies based at Woodvale at the time in order to keep the THUM flight going and if so, how many would that have been, I’ve tried Google but can’t get any specific answers, so it’s over to Bruce.

So, what Centauras engines are now currently rotting away on unloved airframes, not suggesting that it is unloved, but what about the Beverley, they are never going to be fired up are they, as well as the Ambassador at DX, I can’t think of any other extant Centauras powered a/c and I’ve just gone through me 1952 copy of the Observers Book of Aircraft, sorry, missed out Firebrand, but does not that suggest that there are only 6 Centauri in museums, what happened to the engines from the Southend and Hendon Beverlies, surely they weren’t flogged off to the scrapman.

Arrrrgghh…. nothing ever goes entirely to plan in aviation.

Sadly the 109 will now not be joining us… cos they’ve flogged it…

Any idea where it’s going, abroad perhaps?