I doubt any bombers wore a PR colour scheme.

If as it appears, it’s going to be rebuilt with the bomber nose, as far as I can tell it will be one of only two short nacelle bomber versions in existence, KB336 in Canada being the other one.

The prototype could be described as a bomber variant but after the in-depth restoration they fitted two-stage Merlins anyway.

Related but not identical to that point is that I’ve never seen a software upgrade or update yet that’s an improvement on what it’s replacing.

Whatever changes have to be implemented for, say, security reasons, or just because somebody thinks it’s getting a bit old, the result is always worse for the user.

Yes, he did. I haven’t seen him since which came as bit of a shock when I realised it.

His Aeroplane columns stopped a few years ago now so I guess the last time I heard him, and of him, was when he did a few joint Legends commentaries.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a friend but it was always a pleasure to see and talk to him.

Look up Sqd Ldr Martindale, I think from Boscombe Down but I’m not certain. He, and a Spitfire, had a very high speed dive which resulted in the entire reduction gear and prop being torn off. Amazingly, I seem to recall he landed the battered remains.

The other one to look up is Flt Lt Ted Powles who I believe is recorded as having the highest verified speed in a Spitfire from a very high altitude over Hong Kong.

Apart from confirming Powles’ name this is all from memory so don’t believe a word until you’ve checked!

Rob funded PlaneTalk for quite a few years but I think there was less going on there after a while.

The visit to the documents building organised by Becca was great, and the talk by Lee Proudfoot who came in specially on his day off. It was a good turnout.

I haven’t noticed any posts from Becca for years, I’ve no idea if she still works at Duxford.

I’ve got some pictures from Newark in May 2003 but I don’t think that was organised, it’s less than an hour from me. I’ve also got some virtually identical to the one at the Red Lion but I obviously hadn’t set the date on the camera as it was apparently 11 o’clock at night on the 31st of December – edit – 2001 which is also pretty unlikely.

They’re on all of the last half a dozen topics, and still there, just not this one. The Hunter, and all the topics where Christer’s is the last post.

Ignore Oracal, he’s just an unpleasant person who appears to think he knows everything.

I’ve never used an ‘ignore’ button on a forum but if there was one here he’d be the first ever.