If I’m allowed to plug a privately published (by David Lawrence in 2020 and 2023) heavyweight tome in two volumes on all things P.56 Provost as it may be of interest to some.

With that tall fin, high wing and wing root marks, I would say a Tornado is the basis for a cleverly observed Christmas owl cartoon.  Certainly not Harrier, although are both designs a little late for Napier?   Certainly not TSR-2 either, which is another high wing, big engine intakes, that crossed my mind.

To find if this forum still has a sense of humour???

Those words “a wet and windy August day” sum up my first flight too.  Aer Lingus Fokker Friendship, EI-AKG, Liverpool to Dublin in mid August 1961.  Seemed to spend more time moving vertically than horizontally. due to an Atlantic storm creating turbulent head-winds.

It was my 4th flight that I remember more of.  The following year, a day-trip to LAP’s Queens Building balconies with my ex-RAF father for passing the 11+ exam.   On the way home with Starways on DC-4 G-APEZ he knew one of the crew, so I flew the whole way back to Liverpool hanging onto the back of the pilot’s seats – including for the landing!  Once parked I made my back out of the cockpit and the passengers (mostly ‘suit and tie’ business men) applauded me and congratulated me on a “Jolly Good landing, sonny”.  What excitement the current generation of youngsters miss out on in this age of ‘secure and sterile’ cockpits.  The pilots filled out a folded card ‘Starways Junior Flight Log’ to record the flight, which I still have.

Here I am now, 60 years on, some 580 flights later with passengers flights on aircraft as diverse as Ford Trimotor, DH Dragon, Short Sandringham, T-6 Texan, Mil-8, An-2, Broussard, Twin Pioneer, VC-10, Trident and of course Concorde.

What I do notice about this thread is that ‘aircraft watchers’ (I’ve grown beyond being a spotter or enthusiast) are an aging breed – even the most recent first flight noted here is 50 years ago!

Took longer to sign in (why is it “spammers” can get in and I can’t?), than to do a little ‘research’ on a photo manipulation programme into the registration.  Positively, absolutely, clearly a 3, making SL563.  The shape of the bottom curve of both 5 and 3 looks not to be quite normal (a little elongated?) perhaps. 

As to ‘Babs’ it was a ’40s abbreviation for Dorothy, so girl friend or sister perhaps?  The aircraft registration may have changed, but the original question remains valid.  Added on edit: Sorry, typing without thinking the comment through fully.   Thanks “dhfan” in the following post.

As to my opening question.  The answer is likely that at age 17 they know exactly what they are doing, at 70 I’m still fumbling around!

Fair enough by 09:50 UK time Monday morning the pages of garbage had all gone, a much swifter response this time so someone deserves thanks.  Problem does seem to lie in the registration process, yet if I attempt to register (as distinct from log-in), I’m immediately requested to enter my subscription reference.  Key do need to solve the issue – even if only to save someone on the staff a task each morning!

I’m not too sure just why AB910/G-AISU is discounted so easily as the first Spitfire “warbird” put back into WWII camouflaged scheme by its owners for display and publicity purposes.  It had been purchased on the civil market (not as military surplus) by an aircraft manufacturer, true, but it had no military role and was civilian registered.  Discounted for not being really privately owned.  But Vickers-Armstrong was a private company (as distinct from directly military) and owning it was certainly not for commercial purposes to promote development or sales of Spitfires, nor for test flying developmental work, as was G-ALGT.  How many of today’s airworthy ‘warbird’ Spitfires are owned directly by a private individual, rather than a trading company?

It was most certainly on the air display circuit in RAF WWII camouflage when displayed to the public on 21st May 1956 at a SSAFA Air Display at Speke Airport (Liverpool) painted as AB910/QJ:J flown by Jeffrey Quill and arrived from Chilbolton as G-AISU. 

At the time the final RAF aircraft were still being operated up the road at RAF Woodvale by the THum Flight (Temperature and Humidity Flight) under contract to Short Bros using civilian pilots.  They were PR.19s in PR blue (although PS915 was silver overall) in full service colours and military serials and maintained by RAF MUs.  The final aircraft when retired in June 1957 went on to form the basis of Battle of Britain Flight.

Sorry ‘Propstrike’, but in my books G-AISU/AB910:QJ-J qualifies as the first ‘warbird’ schemed Spitfire deliberately painted as such after having been, as you do point out, initially in civilian style schemes after de-mob and displayed as a ‘warbird’  (likely before the term was coined) in a representative WWII period scheme to the public.  Not just the first, but the first by a considerable margin.

There I’ve put my head over the parapet, and made my case.

Added several days later on ‘edit’:

The reference to AB910 being coded ‘QJ:J’ appears to be erroneous.  A photo at the 21/5/56 event show the  port side at least did not have any code applied.  “Trumper” in the next post might be interested in that on the same day Jeffery Quill also flew a display routine in the Shuttleworth’s Deperdussin Monoplane, which could well qualify him to be considered as a display pilot.  The Deperdussin  was transported by road from and back to Old Warden.