…and the Tim Manna example is going through the final stages of it’s restoration to flying condition somewhere in the midlands, possibly to fly next year if all goes well.

Tom 😉

Well spotted mate, Tom Blair is the new owner, bought the a/c last year and it looks good up where it belongs again, never used as much bubble wrap in me life when I packed all the bits up from this old girl ready to go into the container.

Tom 😉

BTW, forgot to say that I couldn’t find any reference to a Ju 88 being fitted with a dreaded 88mm but didn’t use all my references so it could be true.

Tom 😉

Off the top of me ‘ed I’m thinking of the 75mm PAK 40 conversion fitted to the Henschel Hs129, though there weren’t many operational it was a hell of a big gun fitted to quite a small a/c, they reckon the recoil was fantastic. I seem to recall the Mitchell’s big gun being 75mm but I’m not completely sure.

Tom 😉

You’ve got two choices Steve as there’s two which will possibly fly. Jerry Cooper’s MKII will be soonest to fly but that won’t be for a year or so yet so I hear, they’ve still got lots to do even though it looks very complete. Kermit’s MKV will be a long time and might not fly at the end of it, the airframe is being restored to flying condition but the engine is the major problem as there hasn’t been a running Sabre in decades and with only two engines I think he’s worried that one might get ruined in getting one in running condition as they are such rare beasts. Have a look at my Webshots site for some pics of the old girl:

http://community.webshots.com/user/kartmann109

The last parts will be sprayed tomorrow and then it’s the task of putting them all together and waiting for new parts to come back to us.

Tom 😉

It’s the sky band just foward of the tailplane which is the giveaway to the date as it was specified post-BofB I think so we’re definitely talking about a spit brought down during a sweep. The yellow roundel border isn’t much help as this was used all throughout the BofB and later. It could be a MKV, albeit an early example, and yes MKV’s were more likely to be fitted with the pointed spinner with the Rotol prop but there are examples in photos with the blunt type so it maybe that these had ‘dings’ and were fitted with this type in the field. I am sure that it’s a MKIIA though and I don’t think that we’ve exhausted the references yet, once I get my hands on my library tonight I’ll restart the research 🙂 unless a certain Mr McMillan beats me to it.

Tom 😉

Trouble is you can’t see the other side as it seem like a classic case of the pilot or radiator being hit and with the rad on the stbd wing it’s not visible. Also, Paul, was Kayll’s a/c a VA or a VBas it’s definitely an ‘A’ winged spit, not a cannon in sight and no visible damage to the areas where the cannons would be situated which rules out the possibility of them being torn out in the forced landing. It’s more than likely that the pilot dead-sticked the a/c though it is a wooden bladed Rotol so the blades would fracture rather than bend. Upon looking at it again it seems that the guns haven’t been fired so he might have been victim to a classic ‘hit-and-run’ by a ‘hun-in-the-sun’ 😉 Dunno if the pennant under the ‘pit is because it’s a high ranking pilot’s a/c, I can remember seeing a pic of another 54 machine with another pennant and the lad who was lost in it wasn’t an officer so it might be true, might not though, we’ll find out though.

Tom 😉

(I love a challenge like this 🙂

After some flicking through Spitfire the History and getting to the late P77–‘s I’m none the wiser but I’ve looked at the pic a bit more and it seems to have been taken in may june looking at the state of that wheat growing in the field and knowing a little bit about said crop from my farming days arrrrrrrrrrrr.

Tom 😉