Duxford Friday May 11th:

Another quick check this morning found Spitfire Tr.9 G-ILDA/SM520 departing (To Belgium). I like the matching bone-domes:

Duxford Tuesday May 8th:

Poor weather again (although the TFC P-40B had an outing), so a return to the archive.
It may surprise many people that Snafu is the sixth P-47 to be seen at Duxford in recent times. Here’s a run down of the other five.

First was P-47D G-BLZW (ex Peruvian Air Force and N47DE), imported to the UK in 1979 in airworthy condition by Doug Arnold. It passed to Stephen Grey, arriving at Duxford 18-9-85. Three months later it was crated to Chino, and now resides in the Palm Springs Air Museum as N47RP ‘Squirt VIII’. These photos from Tony Clarke, soon after arrival circa 9-85:

The next airframe was P-47D 44-90438, ex Yugoslavian Air Force and recovered by Doug Arnold. It arrived Bitteswell 1985, and passed through Duxford in 1986. Now flying in the USA as N647D ‘Wicked Wabbit’. First picture by Tony Clarke May 1986, second by Dave Jones at Columbus 28-9-07:

Another ex Yugoslavian P-47D was 45-49295, recovered to Bitteswell in 1985. Swapped with the RAF Museum for Spitfire TE356, it went to the RAFM store at Cardington in June 1986. In another deal, it was restored to static display condition by TFC at Duxford 1994-1995 as KL216 in RAF colours. It went to Cosford 6-6-95 and then Hendon 20-5-03. First picture by Tony Clarke 9-94, second at Hendon 24-9-04:

When TFC acquired ex Peruvian Air Force P-47D N47DD in 1986, it had been rebuilt after an accident 9-2-80. The damaged fuselage was taken over by IWM and rebuilt as ‘226413’ for inclusion in the American Air Museum. First two pictures by Tony Clarke show part of the remains 12-5-88 and on rebuild 11-93. Last picture taken AAM 3-4-11:

And lastly, the beautiful and much missed ‘No Guts No Glory’. Firstly by TC again shortly after arrival as ‘223719’ in April 1986:

With the repaint not complete, here she is at La Ferte Alais in May 1986:

Transfer to the UK register was in 1999 as G-THUN. Here at Fairford 17-7-04:

A short lived change of marks in 1999:

Always a Legends highlight:

Legends 2006 was her final appearance before shipment to the USA.
Last flight (?) 9-7-06:

Waiting to go 16-7-06:

Duxford Monday May 7th:

An early sortie from Spitfire Tr.9 G-ILDA/SM520 in very poor light, and the departure of P-51D Ferocious Frankie to East Kirkby were the only events this morning before the rain started again:

Thanks to David Legg for the Miss Pick Up background. If this rain continues, I’ll finally get those Catalina water landing shots I’ve always wanted….

One more:

Duxford Saturday May 5th:

A very grey day, but all eyes were on Sally B today, with her first flight of the season. A two hour test and training sortie that took her to Cambridge and back:

Great to see her in action again. A display programme for 2012 is at:

http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&docId=16

Don’t forget the 2012 appeal, Sally B needs your help more than ever, details at:

http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.php?_a=viewDoc&docId=6

Duxford Friday May 4th:

I think we’ve seen enough of Duxford’s tractors for a while.

OK, maybe one more:

Plane Sailing’s Catalina emerged from Hangar 2 today with a ‘Miss Pick Up’ decal re-applied on the starboard nose:

Here she is in close-up:

Artist’s credit:

Duxford Wednesday May 2nd:

Since the TFC tractors have proved popular, I thought I would feature them in action this morning:

The TFC P-40B was out for some engine runs:

I failed to achieve Bob’s success in getting both Spitfires in shot, so here they are separately:

The only other activity today was from Classic Wings:

What are the white patches visible on the upper wing trailing area on the B29??

Just pads to mop up the oil from the B-25….