Should be a nice place once it’s properly developed.

By the way, the C.205 is a full size replica… possibly the one that was at Farnborough this year?

airart

Here’s the crest from the John Player & Son cards, directly from the original album… the latter cost ‘One Penny’ ! From my private archives.

Richard J. Caruana

Four Tornadoes from No.111 Squadron arrived yesterday afternoon at Malta for a flypast that will be performed during the Remembrance Ceremony tomorrow, 9 November. The ceremony will, as usual, take place on the War Memorial in Floriana that commemorates the dead from the two World Wars. It is planned that the four Tornadoes will also fly over the Military Cemetery at Bighi where most of the RAF pilots killed during the defence of Malta during WWII are buried.

Will post some pics if I manage to get any decent shots.

RJC

Google gives you the opportunity to design and run your own website without any costs and it’s so easy to do yourself that no web design experience is needed. You’ll need to register a Gmail address, but that’s also free.

Just go to http://pages.google.com and you’ll be design your page in no time at all; it’s just like working in a page-layout application.

Have a quick look at mine. I had it up and running in less than an evening, and can add or change anything at any time at all:

http://rjcaviationart.googlepages.com/home

Hello JDK,

See below: Prototype rudder at left, rudder as fitted when the Battle was at Hendon at centre, and production rudder frame at right. Note that the production rudder had a higher trim tab, count three frames from the bottom and not two. Cowling panels had the wrong shape. I’ll try to find comparative views.

RJC

Just had confirmation from my friends in Italy that the C.205 at Farnborough is in fact a replica.

It is one of two built in fibreglass, together with a C.202, from the original factory drawings at a cost of 40,000 Euro each.

Quite a good price if you want one in your front garden!!

Lovely aeroplane! But it’s not an original.

This C.205 bears serial MM.9546 and is preserved at the Italian Air Force Museum of Vigna di Valle (Rome). This was one of a number of ex-C.202s transformed into C.205s by Macchi for export to Egypt. In fact it originally was a C.202 Serie X built by Breda and it’s modification into C.205 was completed on 3 December 1949. It never went to Egypt as this particular batch of C.205s fell victim to an Israeli raid on the Aermacchi factory, in an effort to dissuade the company from delivering them… which seems to have worked!

Two other C.205s exist in Italy, another ex-C.202 (MM.91818) similarly converted by Macchi in March 1949 and intended for Egypt. It was restored to flying condition by Aermacchi in 1980 (registered I-MCVE) until it was severely damaged in an accident. It was later restored to static condition and is now at the National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan.

The only original C.205 that survives is MM.92166 which, however, is fitted with a fixed tailwheel and tail cone from a C.202. Built in June 1943 it was taken on charge by the Regia Aeronautica the following month. Served with the 378a Squadriglia (51º Stormo) in Sardegna (marked 378-2) and on 22 July it shot down a P-40 and shared another P-40 victory. It later shot down a B-26 Maurader. Following Italy’s capitulation it served with the Co-Belligerent Air Force and later with the newly-formed Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force). Also formed part of the planned delivery to Egypt and spent many years at the Milan museum. It was acquired by Aermacchi towards the end of the 1980s and is presently preserved at Venegono Superiore (Varese).