It depends what you’re looking for, as others have said. Probably the best all-rounder for realism and fun factor would be the Il2 Sturmovik series, it’s realistic enough to be challenging and you can do all sorts of things with it. Air combat, carrier take-offs and landings, strafing, bombing etc etc. There’s also a HUGE range of aircraft to fly, although ofcourse they’re all WWII types, and a huge array of ground objects and maps/scenery. There’s also an extensive list of realism settings, so you can set the difficulty level yourself (although there’s also a default ‘Easy/Medium/Difficult’ button if you don’t want to trawl through all the settings).

Microsoft Flight Sim is great, but it’s a bit ‘heavy’ on technical detail and you have alot to do before you can fly, eg engine start sequnces, fuel load etc, which you might find off-putting. With Il2 you load the game and fly, it’s dead easy.

Hi Tom,

You might be interested to know that Haynes have just published a manual on the 109, along the same lines as the Spit, Lanc and Tiger Moth manuals they’ve done in the past. Should have plenty of the kind of detail you’re after.

Many moons ago there was a chap on the forum by the name of ‘keithmac’, ex-RAF groundcrew. Amongst his many postings were a couple to Javelin squadrons in different parts of the world. You could try a PM in case he still browses, or maybe someone here is still in touch with him?

I have to echo what’s already been said about good weather, the return of the TFC fleet, and the Red Bull collection- P38, B25, and F4U. It’s a great shame that they’ve never displayed in the UK, Legends or elsewhere.

Stretching things a bit further, it would be great to see the three Bf109G’s, the two Duxford Buchons, and three Fw190’s (the third ‘190 being Jerry Yeagan’s example that’s currently being worked on at Bremgarten). Maybe FlugWerke could re-activate the two they’ve got stored somewhere (D-FWWC & D-FWJS), five 190’s would be something! We can but dream…

This would be a wonderful thing to see at OW, just a shame the Avro Rota isn’t there anymore to go alongside it!

Roughly how much sponsorship is still required??

This replica looks very much like the work of the Pur Sang Historic Aero group. They already have thier own replica flying powered by a Kinner radial, which has been discussed on the forum before:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=89369

EDIT: If you click on the link, there’s a further YouTube link on that page which shows the Fighter Factory replica under construction, so it’s definately the work of the same group.

As for 504N’s Roger, there’s one complete example at the Danish Aviation Museum at Stauning, and there’s a chap in the States who’s hoping to build one or two replica N’s powered by Rotec radials.

http://www.rotecradialengines.com/customers/JohnGaetner.htm

The Hudson also had a couple of fixed Brownings in the nose. I’m guessing turretless examples were unarmed, so the removal of the nose guns and mounts etc would go some way to balancing things out?