Also not far from me i have the following airfields although what sort of condition most are in i dont know:
Cardington – Hangers still stand and the officers mess but nothing else now.
Cranfield – Still operational.
Gransden Lodge – Now used for gliding.
Henlow (still an RAF base)
Little Staughton – I have no idea here.
Luton – Now Luton airport i believe.
Old Warden – History is well known on the forum.
Poddington – Now Santa Pod Drag Strip.
Tempsford – I believe only the barn survives.
Thurleigh – Not sure here.
Twinwoods farm – Famous for where Glen Miller last took off from. Not sure whats left.
Panshanger – Still used.
Thats all within the same county as me.

Unless they’ve physically dragged it 10 miles or so towards Luton, Panshanger’s in Hertfordshire. It was on my doorstep for years but very little exciting appeared there then. Now a lot of the aircraft were historic but they weren’t at the time. I was a bit taken aback when a North Star appeared there in the late 60s.

Having moved the doorstep to Derbyshire, nothing around. It’s the wrong shape for aviating.

I believe the Defiant was actually quite a good airframe, built like the proverbial brick outbuilding. As has been said, the concept was flawed and once the baddies discovered there was no forward facing armament, they stood no chance. I’ve wondered in the past what sort of results would have been achieved with a Griffon on the front and a pair or four 20mm cannon in the wings. Not really feasible as neither the Griffon or the cannon were service ready at the time but an interesting thought.

The Saro Lerwick needs to be on any shortlist.

Good timing, I picked up Al Deere’s autobiography in a charity shop yesterday.

I was going to mention it sounds like one of the the many patent devices to use unleaded petrol in older cars but I was effectively beaten to it. Advertising banned now I believe as lots of negative proof and no positive.

Snake oil.

Probably not, because we couldn’t afford it on our own.

However, the cast iron contract was drawn up as we expected the French to try to wriggle out of it. It seriously backfired a few years later when we tried to cancel it, and found we couldn’t.

Beat me too it, I was going to say that Harris Mann might be a trifle peeved at being described as Italian as he was born in London.

Here: http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk/HarrisMann.htm is the Allegro he designed.

Didn’t look much like it be the time the BL bean counters had finished.

But not a floatplane. The ones on the wingtips don’t count.

Just to throw a red herring in.

It strikes me that the Avro York should really have been the Yorkshire…

Add to previous comments, in no particular order.

Hereford, county town of Herefordshire – in the same way as Lancaster.

Beaufort. Celebrated maritime scientist, explorer whatever who devised the wind scale still in use today. The Beaufort I believe was devised for anti-shipping use so it makes complete sense, before considering alliteration or any other reasons.