RE: Picture of the day

Good to see her back on her feet.Don’t suppose there is any chance they are secretly rebuilding her to fly again?? 😉 🙂
Ah well,we can all dream…

RE: Hendon

I don’t know about the Beaufighter,but last time I was at Hendon about 3 years ago,the Beaufort was almost completely devoid of any interior fittings.You could see down to the rear fuselage via the the nose panels!No instrument panel,no controls,no seats,no nothin!I hope that atleast some interior stuff has been fitted since,otherwise it could almost be a fibre-glass model!
As a side note,am I right in thinking the Beaufort was restored in the US?

RE: Shoot down totals

Personally Nielly,I think you may be flogging a dead horse old chum.It is very difficult to know for sure any sort of tally for a particular type or individual person/crew.We end up going back to old chestnut of destroyed/probable/damaged claims.The point about these claims is that they are,for the most part atleast,just claims,rather than substantiated kills.Who is to say that an aircraft supposedly damaged doesn’t go on to crash,or be declared a write-off on return to base.
On the other end of the scale,an aircraft thought to be destroyed may return to base in repairable condition.These are just two of the many problems you have in substantiating victory claims.It would take years of research to find out anything like what you are hoping to establish,and even then there would probably be no way of substantiated a claim in all cases.
I much prefer to look at things in a much broader sense.For instance,we all know that the Hurricane scored the majority of kills in the summer of 1940.So long as we bear in mind the Spitfires,Defiants etc,do we really need to know the EXACT figure?
We also have to bear in mind that the total kills of a particular type doesn’t always reflect it’s effectiveness or technological significance.The Hawker Tempest scored relatively few kills,but that’s not to say it was ineffective,or that it’s pilots were lacking in ability.I simply don’t see the point in trying to evaluate an aircraft’s contribution by establishing some sort of league table.I’m not convinced that it says much.
No offence nielly,I just think it is superfluous.Aeroplane Monthly recently published a statistical analysis of BattleOfBritan kills,losses etc,using theoretical mathematical calculations and the like.The point about this is that it is purely theoretical,and has no REAL meaning or factual clout.It struck me as something of a joke,not to mention a waste of some poor researcher’s time!

RE: Just trying out

So far as I know Philo,the Noratlas’ only display was at the 50’s Festival of Flying at Coventry,which did’nt give many people a chance to see her.I think it is a real shame that she is not booked more often here in the UK as she is a very characteristic machine which would surely would give her lots of ‘What on earth is that?’ appeal at shows.Let’s not forget that she is also powered by Bristol (albeit Snecma-built) Hercules engines.
Fingers crossed that she’ll be seen more often in future over here 🙂

RE: Must see on TV

Discovery Wings sounded good,although currently I’m not getting it!
I’m on ITVDigital,and currently they are showing plain old Discovery Channel where Wings should be.Anyone know what’s going on??The customer service people weren’t all that helpful,simply telling me that Discovery channel was being broadcast instead of Wings at the moment-Oh thankyou,how very helpful(!)

RE: Which Spitfire is it ??

I don’t mean to sound like a scratched record,but I think it is a great shame that ANY UK warbird should end up going abroad,let alone a D-Day veteran Spitfire.I think either ML407 or’417 would be a great loss to us here in the UK.I’m only just getting over the news of SeaHurricane AE977’s departure 🙁
TFC’s B25 would also be a loss if it went abroad (and let’s face it,it probably will).She is,to my mind atleast,a fitting tribute to the Dutch and Norwiegens who flew RAF Mitchells in WW2,and let’s not forget that she is also the oldest airworthy B25 anywhere.

RE: BBMF other types ?

As I’ve heard it,there are plans afoot to fit an H2S blister in the near future.I think it would be good to see this fitted,rather than just that peculiar dustbin lid-type disc shape under the fuselage.
As for the rudders,it might be nice to have rounded examples fitted,but then again the square bottomed examples do give better authority and lighter handling.
What I’d also like to see is the fitting of exhaust flame dampers onto the cowlings to fully recreate the period effect.It doesn’t seem right to see the exhaust stubbs.

RE: Purple Plain

Apologies for my lack of ‘what’s on the box’ postings,but I’ve been rather busy recently and haven’t had much time to look at the forum.
I can tell you that the Mossies used in Purple Plain were B/TT.35’s,and what’s more,they were still in RAF sevice.All the flying sequences were shot in a matter of days,with the ground crews working overtime to modify and then ‘de-modify’ the aircraft within a short space of time so as not to affect normal operations.The plexiglass noses were given a coat of a washable paint and wooden Browning muzzles were literally stuck on to imitate an FB.VI.
I saw the film quite a while ago,but missed this recent screening.