Interesting, thanks for posting that! Was the P47 ever excavated?

That really is a ‘hidden’ gem of a collection! Worth going for the He111 alone!

Thanks Bomberboy, it was a longshot, I know.

Is it possible that repeated strikes from bullets/cannon shells could inflict damage to the hydraulics in such a way as to ‘blow’ one or both mainwheels down. In such a scenario, it would appear to the attacking fighter that the crew were surrending..whereas inside the bomber crew were doing nothing of the sort!

I’ve spoken to Chris about this, and the guy who recalled seeing the Arrow is absolutely convinced about what it was, and was an avid ‘spotter’ at the time. If the cheeky young scamp didn’t see an Arrow on the day in question…what could it have been!? What other aircraft could meet the description he vividly recalled (see below)? Any ideas?

“..a white, high delta wing aircraft with a black nose and no national markings or registration. He described the aircraft in detail including the large fin, long extended nose undercarriage leg, small pilots canopy, rectangular section air intakes etc. He had seen Avro Arrow aircraft in magazines and news papers and knew exactly what he was looking at. He is adamant that what he saw was an Arrow….”

Interesting point David about Manston being high profile and therefore unsuitable for a discrete arrival..maybe that wasn’t the planned destination, and the Arrow had to divert there for whatever reason?

This is awesome, good luck to them! Makes you hope against hope that there are still WW2 era aircraft in remote areas in similar condition awaiting discovery! I was going to give the Chinese Stirling as an example but then remembered it’s kept in a hangar somewhere so that doesn’t count….

My dad took me to Church Fenton airshow circa 1981, and bought me a Novo (ex-Frog) Hawker Hunter and a diecast EE Lightning. Hooked for life!