Would anyone have photo’s or know where to look for them,of Argosies carrying loads and dropping them etc?

Will this one do, that I took at Benson on 19th September 1970 during the BofB Day air display?

Apologies for zombifying this thread, but does anyone happen to have any photos of WH876 in the scheme she last carried/was scrapped in? I’ve come by some bits of the aircraft and would like to know what she looked like before they were torn out of her. One of these is a panel with the serial painted on it – I imagine from the rear fuselage (it has bits of stringer on the back). This is white, while on the Martin Baker scheme this area was grey, so I presume she had a repaint between bang seat testing and the end.

Not sure if WH876 was repainted after this, but here she is in 1981 during ejection-seat trials with A&AEE at Boscombe Down.

She appeared at IAT 80 and ’83 at Greenham Common in this scheme and finally at IAT Fairford in July 1985 where I last photographed her above.

The Epsom scanner you use Dave, is is a dedicated slide scanner?

I think he would get a little hoarse if he used that, James?;)

Albert ross mentions that it’s a shame the pics arn’t in colour, to me they are better in B&W and a lot more atmospheric and detailed than any colour pictures of the era.

In this case, that’s probably true as we know the Lanc is white, but in all other cases, colour photos are essential as the definitive reference source.
I have seen too many errors where artists have produced colour profiles and wrongly guessed the colours from b/w photos.

Superb photos David. What a shame they are not in colour, but I do understand that in 1962 not only was colour film expensive, but in Singapore you would have had the problem of the humidity that tends to produce fungus spores in the colour film processing chemicals.
However, please permit me to add some colour. As already established, WU-15 became G-ASXX and flew all the way to Biggin Hill in time for the 1965 Air Fair there and here she is on arrival on 15th May 1965 with another shot still there in May 1966. She was camouflaged in 1968 and was transferred (flew?) to Southend with the Historic Aircraft Preservation Society who gave her the fictitious code ‘HA-P’. When that museum collapsed, she went to the Reflectair collection at Blackpool and then on to East Kirby, where she is splendidly restored today as “Just Jane”.

Superb David! Thoroughly enjoyed viewing these and very good quality. Didn’t take long to load. Did you take anything in colour?
Thanks for sharing.

Great stuff Moggy – when’s your autobiography coming out? There was talk of getting NX611 airworthy, but I thought it needed far too much work for that, possibly a very expensive re-sparring? Has anyone heard any more?

If the identity of the aircraft is known, then I reckon it should be restored to reflect its original heritage. Purely my opinion of course, and believe me, I am the first in line to applaud any classic aircraft being brought in from the cold, housed in a warm hanger and restored to any condition, static, airworthy or otherwise!

Be interesting to see what folks think?

I quite agree. I’m very surprised Shuttleworth do this so prolifically. Currently their Gladiator, Tutor and Tiger Moth all have the incorrect serials just for the sake of portraying something colourful. I have no objections to the colour schemes chosen, but think they should keep their original serials. If people keep avoiding the correct serial, there is a fear that future generations will forget the history of that particular machine and think the serial painted on it is the correct one.
I am very pleased that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight have got it right, for whatever markings their aircraft adopt, the correct serials have remained on their Spirtfires, Hurricanes and the Lancaster throughout. They haven’t even been tempted to put a ‘period’ serial on their Dakota which flies correctly as ZA947.