Brave men, every single one of them.

But let’s remember the reality, not the fiction.

Gibson wasn’t the wonderfully nice guy portrayed by Richard Todd.

Agree totally, very brave, all of them. However, as well as Gibson not being a nice guy (pun not intended), our club found Ken Brown to be, well, less than charitable is perhaps the nicest way to put it.

Geoff Rice lived locally and worked with a friends dad when we were in school. I never met him but my friend always spoke highly of him.

Anyway, three anniversaies for me to remember. Dams raid, Memphis Belle and me and Mrs. Sgt, Austins wedding. I have no excuse to forget our anniversary and she knows it.

I had a friend who was a tool maker on the TSR 2 project. When it was cancelled everything connected to production had to be destroyed. Not everything could be found and accounted for so he spent the best part of a year recreating tools and jigs so that they could be officially destroyed. He made it, it was taken away immediately and destroyed! All this was done to save money on the project rather than waste it!! I will never understand government accountants.

Alright then, I’ll ask – How do you milk a mouse?:D

No worries bubbles, It’s difficult to know what to believe but he seemed a reliable source. He said the charge for a display was £8000 so again our sources differ. He also said that they would have to start paying landing fees as it was now a civilian aircraft and the MOD was in effect subsidising it. This was likely to be at around £1000 a time, so yet more money to find. Anyone else heard this?

As for your other point -I was under the impression that the displays carried out by the Vulcan are subsidised from the fund so that smaller venues are able to have the aircraft i.e spreading the educational element not just attending the venues that can afford it!

You are correct David. I attended a lecture given by David Stone, chief engineer, last November (there’s a thread on it if anyone wants to do a search). He said the cost of doing a display was close to £29000 but they charge £8000, still quite a fee for a small show to find.

Hi David

RR 715 Airspeed Oxford

PR 715 Hawker Tempest Mark 2 ?? not 100% certain but this serial would fall in the range issued to the Tempest, just not sure if it was issued. I will try to check it out later when I can get to my references (unless someone can say for sure).

dangerousdave – those are the horrid details that I remember but didn’t like to write. Police were asking toy and model shops about boys that had nicked airfix paint and batteries – they knew what they were going to do, they planned it.