“I fail to see though how a Jungmann, a mew gull, and a fiat fit with the story of the RAF “

I quite agree that this should be an opportunity for sensible review of the collection – clearly the Jungmann and Mew Gull should find better homes.
But as for the relevance of the FIAT, I think the RAF pilots fighting them over the Mediterranean, North Africa, East Africa and even SE England in 1940 would disagree with you! I’d move it to a themed Desert War display with Beaufort, Kittyhawk and BF109 though – as the contribution of the Regia Aeronautica to the Battle Of Britain was definitely minimal by comparison.

Well I know nothing about hydraulics but am suitably amazed that those airbrakes worked first time and the system didn’t explode somewhere!
A very well done to everyone concerned!

Finally got around to seeing Dunkirk last night – I was blown away by the flying sequences! It’s certainly interesting how much has come on since 1968.

That’s a nice take on it – I feel much the same about the current train of Spitfire rebuilds such as P9374 and N3200, or Hurricanes such as P2902 that contain comparatively low proportions of wreck-recovered material. They’re not of all that much interest as heaps of wreckage corroding into dust in museums, and we’re not really losing much original material by rebuilding them simply because there wasn’t much left to begin with. Compare the loss of some lumpy corroded aluminium with the pleasure and interest gained by seeing an airworthy Spitfire I, Hurricane or Mosquito, and to me there’s little contest. As Bruce said, the complete static examples in museums suffer not one jot.

Just another one to throw in- what about 1 Squadron RCAF with codes YO? It appears they converted from Hurricanes in Sept ’41.

This is the Mosquito I believe…
http://www.mossie.org/NZ2336.htm

*goes and touches nearest bit of wood*

I’ve been to two OW shows plus Legends and enjoyed them all. I agree that Shuttleworth leads the field for me in terms of varied bookings and a pleasant atmosphere – long may it continue! There are still many aircraft they could and should book that I’d give my left arm to see there – the HAC Fury, DH9, Vega Gull and Biggin Hill BF109e spring to mind, or looking further ahead, the Percival Q6 or one of the various Proctor rebuilds.

Legends suffered a bit from not having a really top-draw foreign visitor this year – obviously Berlin Express and Frenesi looked superb, and I’d hardly wish to denigrate the staggering achievement of flying the former all the way from Texas – but they didn’t have the star draw for me that, say, the Breitling Constellation or Chino P-26 had, to quote some recent examples. Then there was the unfortunate canopy accident to BE which reduced us Saturday attendees to one pass and the Sunday lot to a static only – although that’s nobody’s fault, and the show didn’t seem to suffer much. In fact, five Hurricanes, three baby Spits plus Blenheim will stick in the mind for years to come!

I think we’ve been staggeringly lucky with the accidents. Sea Vixen is probably out for good barring some do-gooder with fistfuls of cash, but with a couple of engine failure incidents that could have easily been write-offs and fatalities, (Shuttleworth Gladiator and Miss Velma) no lives have been lost and relatively minimal damage sustained.

I’m intending to give Scampton a go – very intrigued to see how this will turn out in the wake of the sad loss of Waddington.
At £50 a head I simply can’t justify RIAT – although I’d cough up if they booked someone with a MiG-21 for the flying display, just one last time…