“Melv” is likely not the late Melvyn Hiscock. As I recall, his username was his full name.

Edit: Did a google search. It definitely was his full name so not that Melvyn.

I’m not sure about that. It had already been realised that Duncan Sandys was talking through his… hat, otherwise TSR2 would never have been authorised.

According to Sandys plans, the Lightning was supposed to have been the RAF’s last manned fighter or bomber aircraft and even that was only because the prototypes had already flown.

Reconnaissance would be PR, not FR.

According to Wiki, Castle Bromwich built 15 Mk.Vs as PR Type F.

Personally, I’ve never heard of them…

That could explain the Spitfire(s) I saw last June. We were on holiday, virtually on the beach, towards the western end of the Isle of Wight. On two consecutive mid-week days a Spitfire flew over mid-morning, heading at a guess somewhere in the general direction of The Needles.

It wouldn’t surprise me.

If they’d been able to build the hangar they actually wanted, rather than the melted B&Q they ended up with, they would probably have had room for both aeroplanes and corporate/management days.

You could well be right, but the OP asked for the first. The Harts etc. were twenty years later than the Avro 504.

I suspect the OP was expecting something considerably more recent than only ten years after the Wright Brother’s first flight.

There may be others, I know very little about aircraft of that era, but the 504 came immediately to mind.

There was a mention of a “report post” button some time ago but I’ve never found one.

P.S I wasn’t blaming you Dave, I noticed the gap, so a two part link, presumably designed to catch people out.

Avro 504 for military and civilian as one suggestion.