Wasn’t it in the Coventry area?

Luckily for me and plenty of other aircraft engineers flying aircraft rot as quickly if not more than static ones! The RAF viewed the Gustav as a museum piece – the entirely logical place for it was the RAF museum .
There are Buchon’s flying in Europe flying with DB engines – are you really suggesting flying a priceless aircraft which you cannot replace in the form of ‘Black 6’ when there are aircraft in the form of the Buchon which are readily available .

– Of course flying aircraft rot the same way as static ones, but the point is they HAVE to be given more TLC when they fly, you must know that!- until quite recently there were no Buchons in (England-where i live!) of course i would prefer Black 6 to be flying-the team that looked after her wanted her to fly until spares became a problem- i just agree with them! and, whilst rare, its not the only Gustav in the world-and the RAF have no plans to ground their equally priceless Lancaster as far as i’m aware

Its a shame that a perfecrtly airworthy Aircraft was grounded to join a museum that already had an Aircraft of the same type!- I thought it sounded wonderful!- and i would rather they risk flying aircraft (which, after all is what they are designed to do) than have them sit lifeless in a museum possibly rotting from the inside out!

Whilst Black 6 was destined to be placed in the RAFM, the small matter of her coming to rest upside-down in a field by the M11 had some contribution to her current status.

It was restored to flying condition after AVM Allison’s unfortunate finger trouble with the Radiatoir flap switch though!

I’m Fascinated by the engineering too- Its great to see an Aircraft built up from a pile of bits- by people who’ve most likely never worked on that aircraft before, and who probably haven’t got all the drawings- when a restoration eventually flies (flys??) i worry about it crashing!- and i agree about Hendon- they might as well be models

No.

I’m still up for volunteering – if anyone will let me anywhere near their aeroplane

– ME TOO!- but all i can offer is my exceptional Tea making skills!:)

Fascinating stuff!- i suppose an alternative title could be RED stars and stripes?- perhaps not!