19 OTU according to A-B serials. The unit started to re-equip with Wellingtons in Aug 1944 so maybe it went into storage for a while? Or else some of its history is missing.

Yes – 19 OTU did operate Wellingtons from 1944

Ken – I have some Sutton harnesses, but also another wartime harness made by a company called Mech Co. I’ll post some pics when I dig it out.

Back to the subject of the thread……………

If you look really closely on google maps, Damascus Mezze airfield has some very interesting shapes in a dump like square enclosure on the southern perimeter of the base. It’s more a case of looking for the shadows rather than the objects themselves. There are maybe 5 or 6 objects there that could, if you squint hard enough (and pray even harder), be roughly the right size and shape to be single seat, straight winged, piston engined aircraft. There is a similar enclosure in the far south western corner of the airfield, which possibly has another 2 of these objects sitting in it.

It’s probably just my imagination and they’re completely innocuous objects like some old oil drums and planks leaning up against a brick outhouse!

While I was searching ‘in the desert north of damascus’ as per the comments in an earlier reply, I accidently crossed the border on google maps into Lebanon. Rayak air base in Lebanon also has some interesting aircraft to be seen:

Apart from the usual Russian stuff, there is a Hunter on the pan – would this be one of the aircraft that has recently been brought back into service to shoot at terrorists?

On a dispersal to the north of the runway, there is also a single piston engined aircraft that looks like it could be something interesting…….. any ideas?

As soon as I can grow a beard, I’m heading out there for a poke around!:D

Any idea what the penalty is for a westerner snooping around military airfields in this part of the world?

Might be a bit hairy Alan, but surely worth it.

I suggest you bring JDK with you. He has expressed admiration for those who travel to remote destinations to view old aircraft, and may be able to distract the guards with one of his famous monologues. Just don’t antagonise them James 😀

Given all the hullabaloo about cad & the fact I live in the land of wacko environazis it’s a bit odd that the place I use to get my cad plating done is smack in the middle of a residential neighbourhood…

When I fire up the blasting cabinet I open the door next to it, lift the vacuum outside & then put a hose from the vacuum exhaust port around the corner into an adjacent shrubbery…… which is where my neighbours retarded cat sits 🙂

I bet its IQ used to be a lot higher :p

It’s getting hard to find places that do cad plating in the UK as well. How about zinc chromate dust? Surely not healthy to breathe that in either. I was told it’s more dangerous in aerosol form… Anyone from the industry care to comment?

If you are reffering to a North yorkshire collector who has a grip with one of these weights ,It is incorectly labeled .
The Swordfish didnt have this grip weight!

I’ll tactfully point this out to him 😀

Here’s another of mine – this is Japanese – it’s from a Ki-51 Sonia. Very similar casting – perhaps even the same – as the Ju-87.

I tell you what almost brought a tear to my eye – a recording broadcast over the PA of James Nicholson describing the action in which he won his VC, all the while Spitfires and Hurricanes flying overhead – very well put together.

I’d like to find a copy of that monologue – I think it’s going on my iPod.

I couldn’t get to the show this year but living a mile away I got to see quite a bit. But the highlight for me was, not the Typhoon, not the VC10 (which i don’t remember seeing at Biggin before), but when the 4 Spits and 4 Hurricanes flew directly over my house. Twice, On BOTH days. Why does something like that bring tears to my eyes?

Tony