The Kalafrana scrap yard was a real treasure trove; remember seeing parts of Sea Hornets there in the 60s, sorry no pics though.

Don’t know about the Mosta one; seen another scrap yard at Msida with noses of Firefly drones (engine and cowlings cut off the fuselage complete still in the red and cream paint) and wings of Sea Hawks. Have some pics somewhere, will try to dig them out.

Mosquito remains at Malta Aviation Museum, rescued from a scrap yard in Kalafrana where they also suffered a fire.

Interesting in the shots is the background ‘cave’ one of the many that were being dug during WWII at Ta’ Qali airfield with the intention of using them as pens, very similar to those in Pantelleria. However the stone was found to be too clayey and the project had to be abandoned, in fact a central support was left so that the roof does not collapse. I believe it’s the last remaining one there on that side of the airfield, as the others were blown up and cleared to make way for the national stadium that is right next door.

A couple of old ones, XT270 (B&W) is from May 1967 at Luqa, XN981 is on the ‘Ark’ berthed in Grand Harbour; both Malta of course.

Monospar S.T. 10

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1934/1934%20-%200703.html

Don’t think the removal of the wingtips had anything to do with storage. See attached, all Spits have the wingtips on inside the hangar, and there’s lots of space to manoeuvre.

Variety of finishes is rather interesting. The fact that they’re still in camo means that they are still on their way to Gib, once they left there, top surfaces were roughly painted in a temporary blue colour; pics available if interested.

RJC

I have tried converting some of my older books into PDFs and onto CD; however there again the market is rather small and difficult to control. Once a copy is sold it could be turned into hundreds costing pennies. With new media coming out, such as iPad and similar there might be a way out by charging for downloading onto such media; some magazines are already doing it.

Richard J. Caruana

Markings on that Ju 87 are Italian, Co-Belligerent post September 1943. Aircraft in the background is a Co-Belligerent Fiat BR.20.

These Ju 87s were in service with the Regia Aeronautica at the time of the Italian Armistice, and I don’t believe it’s an ex-Luftwaffe captured machine. Look at the number ahead of the roundel and it seems to indicate the original ‘in-service’ identity number ex-Regia Aeronautica. Definitely not a German style code, neither British or USAF.

Pity not the slightest mention of Park’s contribution to the success of the Battle for Malta. He slowly but surely changed the situation from one of defence to offence. Great man, great strategist.

RJC