Thanks all for the info on ‘601, hopefully it has a bright future. Likewise XL612, can’t have too many Rasberry Ripple Hunters if you ask me.

Just a slight correction Anon, the Berlin Airlift was Operation Plainfare. Operation Manna was the dropping of supplies to the Dutch by allied bombers in the closing stages of the war.

As others have said, it would be a great shame to lose either of these. You have to wonder if/when another opportunity to preserve a C-54/DC4 would crop up in the UK.

By coincidence (?), warbirdsnews.com ran a feature on this aircraft just a few days ago.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/aviation-museum-news/lost-sparrow.html

Edit: As pointed out by SNAFU, the example at Volandia is made up of Lebanese parts and the original presumably remains in the desert.

Regarding Halifax props, there were vibration problems with the earlier three blade props on Merlin Halifaxes. The solution was to fit four blade props, and these were widespread by 1944. This mod was introduced at around the time Merlin Halifaxes were being withdrawn from frontline ops with Bomber Command, so you tend to only see the four prop jobs on aircraft at Training/Conversion Units or in pictures of the build up to D-Day where Merlin Halifaxes were used extensively as glider tugs.

Incidentally, there was a shortage of four blade props when the mod was first introduced, so there were some that flew with a mixture of three and four blade props (four bladers inboard, three bladers outboard, or the other way around).

Here’s a clip of this aircraft taxiing at Omaka in 2003, it seems to have had a repaint since then.

There was another form of ventral defence on the Lancaster, and there were some field mods on some Halifaxes on a few of the Canadian squadrons. In the case of the Lancaster, they could be fitted with a single .303 Vickers K in the aperture of the old turret mounting, but the gun was manually operated and just stuck out the bottom of the fuselage. They were often deemed unnecessary and removed, and the arrival of H2S meant the removal of all of them.

On some Halifaxes in Canadian squadrons there was a “field mod” where an H2S-like blister was fitted under the fuselage and a belt-fed Browning .303 ( Edit : Actually a .50 ) was fitted. Once again the arrival of H2S saw them removed.

As others have said, many thanks to Golden Apple and all the other individuals and organisations who’ve been involved with G-SABR over the years.

I have to say I’m amazed that we’ve had the pleasure of having the F86 over here so long, she’s always seemed ripe for taking back across the pond.

Best wishes to the new owner.