Use my picture all you want Archer. My photo shows it as it is starting to climb!
I’ll see if I’ve got any more of this flyby.
Is it VC10 photos in general you are looking for?

Interesting to read about the Jetstreams as I caught one in grubby primer at Sywell around the same time, G-AXUO.

To be honest I think the recovery of the pilot, although full of noble intentions, is unlikely. How far and in which direction would/could he have gone? If you only draw a box 1 mile in each direction you’re talking of searching 4 square miles – for what – a few scraps of cloth, metal buttons or buckles and a few bones. If you allow he got as far as two miles it’s an area of 16 square miles! And anything is probably buried well under the sand.

Thanks Waghorn41. Do you know if they flew initially in RAF markings with Singapore serials?

Most of my research is boxed up but I’ll have a look asap, probably got some relevant correspondence from the SAF. Back in the early 1980’s I was planning a book but life got in the way. If I remember correctly they were in full SAF markings pending transit to Singapore, just being used as trainers here so the pilots would be familiar with their own air force’s variant. I’m sure the original SAF roundel was plain, like the RAF, and not the current ‘swirly’ one. A dig through my boxes of books, photos etc should reveal the answer.

It was 140 Squadron of the Singapore Air Defence Command that had 524 in 1977 – TM’s book again, colour plate but with ‘new’ roundel.

I’ll accept this is real. The cockpit shots are what convince me, not the instruments but the deeper detail, rivets, structure etc which a modeller would struggle to reproduce. With my, albeit limited, experience of working on aircraft this feels right and genuine. Unless of course it’s a 1:1 scale model 😀

The character is clearly representing a Chinese. Any idea of the history of the panel; which airframe and squadron?

Well it’s a very long time since I worked on Hunters but photos 5 and 6 definitely remind me of the rails we used to have, in fact when I saw that plate with 41H on I immediately though of Hunter.

RIP Florence