very good point

nasty aircraft by all accounts – but useful later as a glider tug?

Hi, All,
When The Gentlemen From Hereford arrived at El Adem for one of their regular desert training exercises (in the early 1950’s) they produced, on one occasion, these dull pink Landrovers. The Crabfats said (obviosuly out of the hearing of said Gentlemen!!) “Oooh, Ducky. Do like the colour – do your handbags match?”!!!!
But seriously, one of these dull pink Landrovers “disappeared” when driven only a few hundred metres into the ‘bundoo’! The bog-standard ‘sand-painted’ RAF Landrovers were visible for miles!!!!!!!!!! They (The Hooligans) even brought Landrovers (and some Boffins) in 3 different shades of this dull pink so that the Boffins, and us Airmen who had to accompany The Hooligans on their nefarious exploits, could decide which shade was most effective, under what lighting conditions, and against what background? (Who would have been a National Service Airman Meteorologist at El Adem? My mates were in the NAAFI back at the ranch whilst I was playing Silly B*****s somewhere between Tobruk and Kufra with The Gentlemen!!!!!)
Who discovered this pink?
Why did Air Forces not use it on the upper surface(s) of parked a/c?
HTH
Resmoroh

wasn’t the pink discovered by accident when crashed aircraft were hard too see when paint had pealed back leaving primer which had dulled from red to pink ? maybe talking out of my hat but I seem to recall reading it somewhere?

– but dont downplay the nationals too much, they have supported us and many other museums just not necessarily in an overt way.

🙂

tt

I don’t mean to downplay anybody at all – following on from some comments above I was trying to ask if it was a policy to hold onto kit and not loan, trade etc with the IWM, for whatever reason (awaiting funding, discovery of that Stirling in Chinese markings to put together with their pieces etc etc)

again, sorry if I seem to downplay them at all – not the intention I assure you, just a question following along the thread.

why on earth…

not have kept the jaguars in service and fly them to the end of life or as near as out there rather than knacker the harrier fleet that will (you heard it here first) be waiting for the F-35 a while longer than the current in service date.

so is it civil service policy or what….

Don’t forget how the Imperial War Museum refused to donate their Halifax cockpit section to Elvington in order to make their epic recreation more authentic. Wouldn’t that have been a good example of co-operation, wouldn’t it have been better as part of an impressive, complete airframe rather than sitting truncated in a museum where the public are probably more interested in the more recognisable Lanc cockpit next to it.
Considering what Elvington have achieved against all odds, ( plus unknowingly, 2 delightful fingers up to the IWM ), anything is possible, as long as bits don’t have to be obtained from government related sources. I accept that budgets are tight, but some of the stuff stashed away would be so much of an attraction to smaller museums, they would be seen and would help the museums incomes.
An example was a recent thread showing a look round Henlows hidden stores, what the hell was Dowdings or was it Harrises original desk doing stashed away gathering dust on a shelf, I bet TT’s museum at Sywell would give their eye teeth for that one, get these things out on show, is it so much of a problem to allow Sywell to cart that one away and let it go on show, where it deserves to be. There are so many good museums around nowadays, whether they have the capacity to take everything on board is a good question, but I would think that there is a lot of room to spread things about rather than keep them hidden from public view, possibly forever.
If there is a sincere organisation willing to reconstruct a Stirling as Elvington did with the Halifax, everything in existance should be released to them, otherwise, it’s going to remain on a shelf unseen and unloved. Pointless.

There are countless treasures stashed away in palaces, offices etc – but is this RAF or IW museum (for example) policy? If, say, I had a T-rex bone of value, would I store it way or let the natural history museum at it for study and display? Is it policy with “state” museums or committee management structure or what?

I have a piece of Stirling Mr Hacker, jolly good, lets let have 12 jaguar have it, no no says sir humphry?

generally, do private collections trade, understand and wheel and deal more than IWM etc?

Hoho!

Well Mrs Moggy ordered me to be up and packed at 0730 Monday morning with some smart kit and some more casual.

We took the aged Toyota to Ely Station and caught a train to Kings Cross. This narrowed the choice to Brussels or Paris and it turned into the latter.

A great time, met there the next evening by nine chums, not one of whom had breathed a word about it. Slap up dinner in La Cupole, a ceremonial procession of flunkies marching to the table and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ with a cake with just one candle (roman)

Fabulous!

And in answer to the impertinent question – I fear this was the big Six-Oh 🙁

But thank you all for your good wishes!

Moggy

what a fine lady she must be to arrange all of that, at my 40th my Mrs got me a “wonder woman” box set of DVD’s…… the mind boggles but maybe in 17 odd years time she’ll take me off somewhere. belated happy birthday from me

ummm

“While there are a very large number of people – including signatories to this petition – who believe the Monday after Remembrance Sunday is the best option, there are others – including the Royal British Legion (new window) – who do not support that proposal, because they are concerned that a public holiday then would not be in keeping with the solemnity and special status of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations.”

I agree – loading up a car to go to Alton Towers isn’t in keeping with the occasion. To me, the 2 mins silence has more effect than a day off (on which more and more people in retail and service especially) would work.

I signed this with you, but seeing this, I’m forced to agree with the feelings of the Legion.