Ok…….I don’t know the reason for the Hunter, it was done before I was a member……..the Dove however I did the work on myself with a couple of other members. The reason for the change in colour scheme for this aircraft is simple……..it was sponsored, by Dunlop! The airframe G-ALCU, as you rightly pointed out, was in diar need of a repaint and Dunlop, as you will know, had a DH Dove, registered G-ALVD back in the 50’s. Having had relations with Dunlop before, MAM was to repaint our Dove, into the markings of G-ALVD because Dunlop agreed to sponsor the repaint and kindly donated the funds to do it, an oppertunity not to be turned down by us.
A huge presentation was held after the completion of the Dove with Dunlop and the company managed to find some of the original crew who flew the original G-ALVD, who were overwhelmed by the Dove’s appearance. Overall, a complete success on the museums behalf and very good PR for us as we made the papers with the event.
The Dove’s spec. plaque states that the registration of the aircaft is not authentic, but does tell you what the aircraft is actually registered as.
As for the Saudi Lightning, I don’t know why the flag is not being painted on, but I do know that for whatever reason it is, it must be a valid reason for it not to be done 😉
I think I would make an exception for the Dove as at least the scheme is authentic, if not on that actual machine. The Saudi flag issue has been one of my bones of contention for a few years now. The official MAM response is “that it’s a religious symbol and they don’t want to upset the Saudis by painted it on”. Poppycock! If I wanted to paint a Saudi flag on anything I owned I would go ahead and do it! Does the IWM have to have ‘special permission’ for its Strikemaster to wear the flag on the tail – no! Do Saudi World Cup supporters have to have special permission to wave one at a match – no! The museum says “it has written to the Saudi Embassy for permission to paint it on, but they didn’t reply”. Why, because they are not interested?
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