It was last seen heading out to sea at about Mach 1.4 – assuming it didn’t lose almost all of its speed when it ran out of fuel, there might not have been much left following impact.

Fuselage was a dural shell bolted to light alloy formers. The wing, which was a one-piece mahogany unit with metal reinforcement was held in the fuselage by two cast blocks. The tail was of Birch. Span was 97.5in

There is a picture which has been reproduced in several publications which is said to be a wind tunnel model of the Miles M52 – this is incorrect, it is the full size Vickers rocket in unpainted state.

How about: Chimera or Hurricane, I don’t know, something new, Lightning II is so boring. It you need to add a II you are not being creative. What about Mustang II then?

Hurricane? New? Read up on your Battle of Britain chum.

On the other hand, Chimera (or Chimaera) – according to Chambers’ Dictionary ‘any idle or wild fancy’. Sounds perfect.

If we are going to have an historical name, how about ‘Vengeance II’ – the original had the mother of all messy procurements, orders made and orders cancelled, spec changed and changed back again, cost overran, time overran, when it was developed it was state of the art, when it finally arrived the world had moved on… (that said, when it did appear it was actually a rather good aircraft – so the naysayers should be happy and the supporters too).

Thanks for the clarifications all. This makes me wonder if the early encounters with He111s over the North Sea were with one of the E models or similar, as the pilots definitely seemed to think that by March 1940 they were facing a new model – the E had the older nose/cockpit layout and was visibly different from the H. It could also be that they were noticing performance increase. In any case I appear to have misunderstood, when they are referring to the ‘new He111K’ they mean it the same if they were saying ‘the new Bf109’ or ‘the new Spitfire’. The ‘MkV’ or ‘5’ thing is almost certainly an imposition of a British style designation perhaps to prevent aircrews from having to think too much – interesting that the other website referred to uses this designation too.

Depends what you mean by ‘worth’.

It is not always true that anything is for sale for a price. Look at the last remaining Swift F.4 and one of only 3 (I think) complete Swifts remaining. It is rotting outside an army surplus traders with the owner apparently refusing to sell. What is it worth to the owner? To enthusiasts? To the nation?

Then you have the historical angle. Is the Fleet Air Arm museum’s highly original Corsair KD431 worth more than a flying example, which has probably had lots of mods to make it airworthy and conform to modern regulations? What is it ‘worth’ to see these aircraft in the air? Or should as many as possible be preserved as intact as possible for future generations who might be able to learn more than we can from a paint sample or a dent. What is ‘Swamp Ghost’ worth sitting where it crashed? What is it worth tarted up and flying?

I don’t know where to begin. Does everything have to have a monetary value? Has our sad society advanced so far into the capitalist mire that we can only understand the worth of something when it has a £ in front of it?

There is a danger in knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Looking very nice chamas. Can I have a ride in it when you’re finished?

There are warp issues alright, but in my experience the main components all touch where they should given careful encouragement and lots of tape. The Intakes are a poor fit however and worth replacing – Heritage Aviation do a resin correction set which is available from Katana collectables on eBay and well worth inversting in. Can’t comment on the slipper tanks, haven’t got to those yet. It’s no Airfix Lightning but it’s certainly no dog and experienced modellers should be able to get some very good results. Don’t expect Tamigawa, go in with your eyes open and you should be OK. Some reviews had overstated the problems in my view.

Dear RPSlimited,
Where are you based?

It must be somewhere quite high up because they obviously think they can see us coming a mile off.

My Dad spent his first few years in Bedford because my Grandparents had been evacuated there from Harwich, which being a naval port was thought to be likely to be a significant target for bombing. However, so the stories go at any rate, Harwich was hardly ever bombed because it was very difficult to hit from the air, being a narrow isthmus. Bedford, however, was on the route back from London and was apparently frequently hit by bombers that couldn’t find the target dropping their ordnance on the way home.

Don’t know how true this is but the bit about Harwich makes sense to me.