Foreign Lightning

Whose colours is this Lightning in, then (Midland Air Museum, Baginton)?

“The Mark VIII, however, was by far the better aeroplane and . . . was allocated to the overseas commands while Fighter Command soldiered on with the Mark IX in the temperate conditions at home.” Jeffrey Quill’s conclusion on page 204 of the said book. As Archer says, it’s a vital source and provides detailed information about the differences between the two!

The Putnam Avro book mentions that the Finnish Air Force received 3 Ansons.

Hermes G-AGUB/VX234

G-AGUB before its first flight, from the Handley Page Putnams book, page 460. As VX234 it was used for a number of scientific research programmes with an assortment of sensors, later, after having its engines replaced, allotted to RRE in 1958 for SLR trials. It became the longest-living Hermes of all, being scrapped at Pershore in 1969.
It’s all in the book!

There is a brief mention of the Orion on page 152 of Bill Gunston’s “The Development of Piston Aero engines”. This was to be an 18-cylinder monster of 67,929 cc (4,142 cu in) providing 4,000 hp initially. It never ran, however.

Compact flash readers (that plug into computer USB sockets) are fairly cheap (I have 2 of them!)

According to the Putnam Shorts book (page 375), the Shorts u/c design was eventually replaced by an improved duplex leg evolved by Turners. Incidentally, the increased incidence was first tried out on the “little bomber” S.31 on 22 November 1938,, after having its main u/c lengthened.