In those colours, shouldn’t we be calling the Wildcat a Martlet? (looks in vain for smirking smiley)

I confess that I just cannot take that designed-by-committee undercarriage seriously, it looks like a wounded moorhen when it’s down, but you have to respect the guys who actually made it work in perhaps the toughest environment to land an aircraft.

Adrian

The closest any of us have got to that is a bag of fragments with dodgy history on a stall at Shoreham!!

Damn right – though Bob T’s note of caution is salient too. It’s a lot more impressive than my shoebox from Whitstable beach! That, in part, explains why I’m so particularly interested in this aircraft. Once the cricket season is over, it’ll be time to visit Cosford. It might have stopped smelling of dead sea life by then!

Adrian

One word, Andy – FETCH!

If people think we’ve got naysayers here, they should read the comments on the Wail article… Deary me!

Adrian

Having had a quick look on Google maps, I reckon Steve has got it.

Adrian

Come on guys, let’s get this done!

Adrian

They were born into a world that still had the workhouse (abolished 1928), and four years after D-Day they got free medical treatment for all (1948).

That’s betrayal?

Adrian

Speaking as someone with an interest in history, who reads old newspapers (one day I’ll scan some of the aviation articles in the 1930s ones on my desk at the mo), all I can say to the evils of the 21st century is plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. It’s not just newspapers – moans about “It used to be better then”, “Young people today”, etc all turn up in Roman and Greek works, many written hundreds of years BC. There never was a golden age!

Here’s a nice example – unrest, rioting, vandalism, you name it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luton_Town_Hall#Destruction_in_the_Peace_Day_Riots

Adrian