Another source of good info is the flying mags like Pilot, Flyer and Today’s Pilot. A look in the calendar of events will always throw up a reference to air displays, usually with a contact number. Then you have an idea of what to look for in whatever source of NOTAMS you use.

Not too sure it was the Uk Government that got it right about free admission to museums. I seem to recall it was an European missive to do with not charging for the nation’s heritage. Which doesn’t explain why Duxford still charges. Do they charge at the Manchester IWM?

Thanks Spiteful21, I would certainly like to see the others. Any idea when the photos of the P-47 were taken and does it still survive?

Those of us of a certain age all have TSR-2 stories but the cancellation brought the careers of several of my chums, who worked at Strand Road in Preston, to an abrupt halt. When the blow fell, all the jigs, tools and drawings were scrapped virtually overnight leaving them literally jobless.
dhFan makes a good point about the electronics. Speaking to a chap at Duxford, who’d worked on the “flier”, he said that the 11 computers on it had the power of a decent current lap-top. Put 40 years of development into the systems and we’d still be watching the TSR-2 Mark 4 (?) at the airshows this year.
SteveO mentions the ungainly undercarriage and this was designed for dispersal “off airfields”, on grass strips in extremis. The thinking being that first strike attacks would take out the major airfields.
As several posters have said, getting politicians involved in procurement is bad news but not to get the TSR-2, then the F-111 and to end up with re-engined Phantoms must have stretched the loyalty of the RAF top brass quite a lot.

My recollection was that on the Sunday of the 60th anniversary show, there were 16 (4 boxes of 4) in the “Duxford Big Wing” which came from behind the crowd and 4 of the BBMF Spitfires displaying in front of the crowd. One of the BBMF Spitfires (or it’s pilot) were unwell on the Sunday, otherwise it would have been 21 airbourne.

Tri-Pacers certainly were used in the Mau-Mau emergency in Kenya. However I think it was the Kenya Police that had them as “sky-shouters” to try and persuade the Kikuyu rebels to pack it in. I’ll have to dig out my old Kenya stuff for chapter and verse.