I visited the Dornier at Cosford yesterday during my lunch break and was surprised at the condition – to my untrained eye, it actually looked really good. To my untrained nose it stank very much like some of my old sea fishing tackle!

By coincidence, last night there was a piece on the BBC Midlands news about it. One of the restoration guys from the RAFM was talking about the remarkable condition of the aircraft and briefly showed one of the data plates on screen. It was only a brief glimpse but I swear you vould make out W.nr 1160 (or a number very close to that) on the plate so perhaps they really do know the ID of the aircraft now.

I have one question though: I couldn’t see the outer left wing anywhere in the tent and haven’t seen it on any of the photos / videos knocking around. Was this not recovered?

Can’t help but think that the Defiant replica and the effort that went into it deserves a better fate than just ‘going into store’.

Taffy’s account of the flight makes fascinating reading. Has Taffy ever visited Duxford and been reunited with XM135?

I took a long lunch and paid a visit on Tuesday as I only work one junction and ten minutes away on the Motorway. The numbers of visitors that were there on a grey Tuesday lunchtime in November was really impressive – at least two coach loads of school kids plus lots of anoraks. I guess it’s not normally that busy and that most (like me) were there specifically for the MBCC open week but impressive all the same.

I would love to see the Hampden completed at some point but progress always seems very slow to the untrained eye. Maybe this is deceptive because it’s all dismantled and one day they’ll suddenly bolt a few big bits together and everybody will be amazed.

As I drove into the Museum at around 11.45 am, I noticed a large group of anoraks with cameras lined up at the side of the road just before the railway bridge. They were obviously waiting to take pictures of someone or something – anybody know what?

I have vague memories of an Avenger being part of the fleet at some point or am I just thinking of Tony Haig Thomas’ example in an earlier colour scheme?

It would be nice if this Scimitar came back to the UK one day but for now let’s just hope the new owner has a roof to put over it’s head. Does anyone know if this is the case – will it finally be going indoors? If so, it’s been a good couple of months for the preservation of rare Supermarine jets (is there any other kind?).

Could you make them Cheese and Onion “baked” ones please… 😀

Make sure they are Tayto’s. In Northern Ireland, nothing less than Tayto crisps will do :).