Just a couple of thoughts:- the analagy of grandads axe – five new handles and three new heads etc that seems to be applied to some of the Spitfires that have been around and active since first being built may be true – i.e. many if not all parts may have been replaced over the years, but is the fact that they were not all replaced at the same time not relevant? I don’t know why but feel that there is a transfer of originality, if such a thing is possible, between the parts that go to make up the whole, when they have co-existed for some time.
A possible comparison is the locomotive ‘Flying Scotsman’ – It is widely known that just about every part of that locomotive has been replaced since it left Doncaster works in 1923, some parts many times over, but it is still accepted by all (apart from a rabid minority) that what exists now is THE Flying Scotsman.
A further thought; surely there is a precedent for what constitutes a rebuild, in the work carried out by, and on behalf of the various services that operated Spitfires, to rebuild crash damaged machines. What was their minimum criteria for a rebuild before they put the remains in the skip and said “too difficult, get a new one”.

On Emirates flight back from Dubai on Thurs the only movie I could find that interested me was ‘The Longest Day’ 😮

Charles investiture as Prince of Wales was at Caernarvon – a long way from the Severn Bridge.

“Nemisis” by Max Hastings – story of the war in the far East.

This was my last but one book, quite enjoyed. I had a copy of ‘Quartered Safe Out Here’ by George McDonald-Fraser, which had been in my case for a while and after Hastings quoted it a few times I finally got around to reading it – a most interesting personal account of the last few months of WWII in Burma, (the Cumbrian dialogue sections were quite hard work though!)
Now reading Stephen Ambrose ‘Eisenhower and his Boys’ – which has immediately annoyed me by stating that the only theatre that the British Army was engaged in after 1940 was North Africa! :confused:

Have a look here – (other warbird sales outlets are available)

Monty Python:

Where’d you get the coconuts?
We found them.
Found them? In Mercia? The coconut’s tropical!
What do you mean?
Well, this is a temperate zone.
The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
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Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
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I don’t wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
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How you English say, ‘I one more time, mac, unclog my nose in your direction’, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about advancing behavior?! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey-bottom biters.

So many to chose from – ‘Kellys Heroes’:

Oddball: Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Moriarty: Crap!
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Oddball: It’s a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers.
Big Joe: Hey look, you just keep them Tigers busy and we’ll take care of the rest.
Oddball: The only way I got to keep them Tigers busy is to LET THEM SHOOT HOLES IN ME!
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Oddball: We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. While our armies are advancing so fast and everyone’s knocking themselves out to be heroes, we are holding ourselves in reserve in case the Krauts mount a counteroffensive which threatens Paris… or maybe even New York. Then we can move in and stop them.