For me it has to be the Fury, although Hurricane P2902, Gladiator N5903, Canberra XH134 and Comet G-ACSS are definitely contenders.

Great pictures as ever. Can’t help wishing that Firefly would get pushed further up the “things to do” list. Just imagine it powering down the flightline in Pacific colours!

Britmodeller, mostly!
I’d certainly have to start taking Flypast again: I gave it up to save my student pennies, because I started to get all my news via here much more immediately and quickly. I now chiefly buy the odd issue with a particularly interesting article.
I think the nicest thing here is the sheer range of people posting: in this one thread you have posts from people active in the restoration and preservation scene, interested amateurs like me, and a Battle of Britain veteran of immense and fascinating experience.
It does occasionally get nasty, sure, and certain people seem to join with the sole intention of making it so (I’m sure everyone can remember a recent example!). However, the mods do a tireless job in keeping things civil, and despite much debate, banter and disagreement there is still much genuine exchange of knowledge and help here.
Long may it continue!
Phil

“Reserves?”
“None, they’re all up”.
“…That’s…what I’ve just told the Prime Minister”.

To me, the relative lengths of military/civil service aren’t so important as the quite different stories the two airframes tell. The Lyneham machine perfectly represents the military role of the Comet as the RAF’s first jet transport, and has an interesting story to tell about the slow decline of the British Empire, and the legacy of having to fly UK armed forces rapidly out to trouble spots.

G-APAS, on the other hand, is the last surviving complete Comet I and therefore I believe the oldest jet airliner surviving. To me its story is more about the astonishing technological leap Britain made in the immediate post-war period; the brief, world-leading career of the Comets in the early 1950s, and the terrible cost Britain paid for leading the way into unknown technological territory.
Doesn’t South Kensington have remnant sections of G-ALYP from the Mediterranean crash? I can’t help thinking that if they could display G-APAS somewhere, fully re-painted up and polished like the early BOAC aircraft, it would be a much more appropriate home than Cosford.

Oh well, we can dream…

Awesome, I had no idea the Canadian Hind was capable of running. Thanks for posting!

Very sad, RIP. 🙁

I’m surprised nobody has commented on the half-finished Wellington in the first shot… :rolleyes: