If the stories currently circulating are to be believed, the TPM/VTTS one will be third, not second, in line to join the UK Airshow scene

The last update on their website was that they had commissioned a set of wing ribs, but didn’t appear to have raised enough funding to pay for them. They have since removed the fundraising totalizer from their website, so it’s hard to tell whether they are any closer to having a viable project.

Lee Lauderback (of Stallion 51 in Florida) almost certainly has the highest number of hours on P-51s of anyone, at around 9,000.

Like a cross between a laptop computer and a modern mobile ‘phone. You can’t phone anyone on it, or type properly (as it doesn’t have a keyboard). The only bit of technology that it’s obviously superior to, in my view, is the Kindle. Still, people buy them, so they must be useful somehow…

You can phone people with it (we do, on a regular basis), and I use mine to write 3,000-word articles on. We also use ours to watch TV, access the Internet, download books and magazines to, and many other tasks. It has pretty much replaced paper magazines and books, and I use it in place of my regular PC for almost every task except photo processing.

Spitfire Snobbery

You can buy a good Sea Fury, for example, for much less than the price of either a Spitfire or a Hurricane.

Likewise you can pick up a Skyraider foir a fraction (about half) of the price of a P-51 Mustang

G-HURI has been for sale (and remained unsold) before. It is an older restoration, getting on for 30 years ago now, and more than a decade since its last major work and renewal of its fabric.

Tom Tom? Standalone GPS units are SO last decade! 🙂

In-cockpit video and audio were running throughout the flight, and were recovered from the crash site, so the NTSB had a pretty clear idea of exactly what went on in the cockpit.

Norman was Robs Lamplough’s engineer back in the day, on the P-51, Buchon and Yak rebuilds. A very fine chap.