Near the Möhne dam on the 16–17th of May 1943 would be a good start 🙂

Following that:

– Hughes Hercules first and only flight
– nuclear/hydrogen bomb testing (Tsar bomba a would be both magnificent and terrifying)
– The Schnieder cup air races.

I know of a few Harriers sat around doing nothing. 😀

Very sad to hear, as much as I love the Spitfire , we have more than our fair share in the UK and to deprive a museum from such an exhibit is callous and as short-sighted as you get with those in authority that are clueless to heritage.:(

My heart goes out to the volunteers.

Don’t feel too bad for them, they’ve got all the soon to be airworthy Mossies in their area of the world. Trade? 😀

Plus refuelling aircraft don’t spend 24/7 up in the air. The carrier & escorts on the other hand I doubt ever sit idle in the open, and in many cases i.e. us navy F-18s (over Saudi in the gulf war) will still uses air refuelling assets.

The tankers do spend a fair amount of time loitering, and remember, they’re heavily loaded the whole time, until they head home.

On the other hand, the carrier would be cruising conservatively (relatively) much of the time.

Fantastic effort 🙂

Obviously not the real thing, but fantastic for a replica. *should* be much cheaper to run too.

Did the Mil-24 leave Duxford or go into storage ? A photograph was taken earlier this year of it semi dismantled.

Still there, in storage next to the Firefly (same hangar as the HE111 IIRC)