Isn’t it off the plane that flys backwards in “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines”

If you made the plastic Airfix DH88 and painted it up as G-ACSS, Grosvenor House as currently in Shuttleworth

The nose would be an miniature exact replica of the one at Shuttleworth in not only size but material :diablo:

Good Catch Adrian

What is interesting is we should be wary of B-24 40-2351

As there were two….

40-2351 allocated to RAF as AM912

and then another constructed for USAAF to replace the original one..

So this causes us to expand our query to later than Summer 1941

Can anyone tell the mark of Spitfire??

Paul

Summer 1941 – Wright Field Ohio

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9cJkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EYUNAAAAIBAJ&pg=521,1564604&dq=wright+field+spitfire&hl=en

Does not explain why the B-24 is there though! unless…. There has been a mix up of original 20 from 38 B-24 match up serials to UK ones……

Full serials

Sorry, only just had time to look sone of this up…

55-3686 North American F-100D-25-NA Super Sabre (20th FBW/55th FBS) Crashed at Sible Hedingham, England 02-12-1957 shortly after takeoff from Wethersfield. Pilot Lt William S Swofford of Oakland, California killed

NOT 12-02-1957!!!

This may be confusion with

“55-3675 (20th FBW/55th FBS) Crashed into field whilst on approach to Wethersfield AB, England Dec 3, 1957. Pilot killed”

There was definately a crash at Puds Hills near Sible Hedingham Essex on 2nd December 1957 killing Swofford – Reported as ‘yesterday on 3rd Dec’ I believe this is a mis-type for DD-MM-YYYY MM-DD-YYYY.

This is reported here:
http://www.foxearth.org.uk/1956-1957SuffolkFreePress.html

“December 4th 1957
The pilot of an American Super Sabre was killed on Monday when his plane crashed near Sible Hedingham shortly after take off from Wethersfield, rescue workers struggled for an hour to extricate the pilot. “

Monday was the 2th December in 1957…..

The Times also reports a crash at Sible Hedingham on 30th December 1957!

Need someone with Scambles North American Military Accidents to check dates: (DD-MM-YYYY): 02-12-1957, 12-02-1957, 03-12-1957 and 30-12-1957!

55-3677 North American F-100D-25-NA Super Sabre (20th TFW/55th TFS) Crashed near Silver End, England 07-08-1958 following engine failure. Pilot ejected safely

Sorry can’t ID pilot…

56-3991 North American F-100F-15-NA Super Sabre (20th TFW/55th TFS) crashed 15-01-1963 at Gosfield, England; both crew ejected but one did not survive.

Colonel Wendell J Kelly (Deputy Commander of 20th TFW) aged 43 killed
Co-Pilot Lt Paul Briggs ejected and slightly injured on landing

Generally speaking (ie not Wellesley particularly) I was under the impression that code letters were allocated in serial order (not always in consecutive order), however it can soon loose order when a squadron’s aircraft is moved to another unit or is lost through an accident?

I did not think this, they are more likely but not necessarily to be have been allocated codes in delivery order… e.g.

Flights A – A-> M
Flights B N -> Z

remembering because the aircraft was built S8800 S8801 S8802 order ectc they may not be delivered in that order to the sqn -( assuming Sqn re-equipped straight from the Factory).. As some aircraft would need to take longer in test flight stage

Tom,
I hope you don’t mind my pushing in with another 81st FBW F-84 casualty. Does anyone have any gen on this?
Doug

Yes..

9th June 1955 Pilot JOHN L CASWELL JR. F-84F 52-6522 WEST RAMAGATE, UK 81 RAN OFF RUNWAY