The Mossie was still there in 1984 when I visited, but by that time the Lnacaster had been painted into Bomber Command colours.

Slightly bitter feeling in that I know at least one UK Museum claimed it turned down the offer of a Shackleton when they were withdrawn in order to keep one flying.

There were lots of evaluated aircraft in RAF markings(Bf109, Fw190, he111, Ju88 etc) and hacks, especially in North Africa (Cr42, Storch, Ju87, he111, Ju52 + others) but there were few operational use in RAF service.

The He115s and the CANT have been mentioned, and some Storches were used in North Africa. Some former Yugoslavian Dornier 22s were used in Egypt

Post-war, there were a lot of German transport aircraft used in Germany and Austria

CR32?

I wasn’t aware (and there’s no reason whiyI should be) that the IIIF was also designated the Firefly I. !

It wasn’t – as 25deg mentions, the Firefly was a single seat fighter developed by Fairey as a private venture using the same Curtiss engine as the Fox. This was refused testing by the Air Ministry, ostensibly because it had a wooden airframe, but with a suspicion that some bitterness existed at the US engine in the Fox.

Fairey redesigned the aircraft as the Firefly II around a Kestrel engine, and produced an aircraft that was remarkably similar to the Hawker Fury (if anything, even more aesthetically pleasing). This was trialled at the AAEE, and compared with the Hornet/Fury. It was faster, but not as manouverably. And it still had a wooden airframe.

By the time Lobelle had redesigned it with a metal airframe as the IIM, the Fury had been given a production contract

Firefly IIMs were produced for the Belgian Air Force, IIRC 25 in the Uk and about 50 in Belgium.

A gurther re-design to produce a Naval fighter produced the IIIM – again, no production contract, but, with floats fitted, was used by the High Speed Flight Schnieder Trophy team as a trainer.

The original is something of a favourite of mine!

The IIIF was the result of progressive development of the original WW1 Fairey III. The Fairey Seal/Gordon were probably the untimate exprerssion of this line.

There is actually quite a lot of documentation in PRO regarding this – mainly what was discarded or rejected (e.g. Thunder). No decision had been made regarding the TSR2, however the name favoured was indeed ‘Eagle’

F-111K would have been ‘Merlin’ (Because the Merlin swings it’s wings back before it attacks!!)

P-1154 would probably have been Harrier

Of course it could be that it IS authentic, and done deliberately……

I have lodged in my memory banks a very clear sighting of a silver and daygo HS125 at Broughton circa 1964 or 65, clocked on a school factory trip when I was about 12 or 13.

First Domine T1s were certainly silver/dayglo