But the popular, cheery Sergeant Air Gunner from the Bronx whose idea it was goes west that very morning.

wouldn’t he be going East to bomb Germany instead?

Indeed, they should never have allowed NX611 to slip through their fingers. Moggy

An odd comment, as NX611 was gifted to HAPS by the French following a direct request from that organisation as the aircraft were reaching the end of their Aeronavale service- along with the kind offer to fly it to either Australia or New Zealand where HAPS would assume formal ownership. In the event HAPS chose Australia where an overhaul took place before the flight back to GB

I fail to see therefore how the Australians allowed NX611 to slip through their fingers – unless you are suggesting that they could have impounded an aircraft that was legally transiting though Australia

Might be a good starting point to obtain “Lancaster Survivors” published by MMP which lists all the survivors, their history and current status.

http://mmpbooks.biz/shop2/product.php?productid=17570&cat=&page=1

Options seem limited but you could always make Kermit an offer he couldn’t refuse……

What Jeepman said, a couple of years back while the tank battle was going on they had a piper cub overhead in its spotting role, an excellent combination.

and Hairyplane last year acting for the other side……

For me the Victory Show at Cosby represents the way forward for “integrated” military and aerial shows. The two elements sit seamlessly together with the rough grass runway literally just “over the hedge” and there being some aerial involvement in the set piece demonstration battles. It has an atmosphere that you cannot obtain at somewhere like Duxford where the separation between the public areas and airside is readily apparent.

Before anybody starts banging on about safety, the arrangements at Cosby with “dead zones” etc during the display must have clearly been agreed by the CAA.

The presence of properly attired (and correctly aged) RAF air-crew and ground-crew re-enactors with the correct support vehicles at events like the East Kirkby night taxi does nothing but enhance the atmosphere

So it seems as if we sold surplus Sea Kings to the RAN – presumably for spares recovery – and now we’re buying at least one of those back plus others.

Wouldn’t it have been sensible to keep them in the first place?