And for those close to London, there is the stage show. And the car really does “fly” (ably assisted by a huge hydraulic arm).

Did they operate out of Fairoaks in the 1980s? I remember seeing one or two flying around the vicinity of Farnborough around that time.

And the BBC man thought the Ansons were DC-3s and the Dragon Rapides were “courier aircraft”. On the other hand, they had Max Hastings in the box too and he’s always worth listening to.

Maybe the demands of professional rugby mean that “temporary” teams like the British and Irish Lions (to give them their proper title) just don’t have the time and space to gel together compared to the more carefree atmosphere of the past.

I can’t bear these programmes. They appeal to the most base, voyeuristic elements of human nature. They are cheap to make. They require no imaginative or dramatic input for writers. They are technically unchallenging to the production team. The people taking part in them are, on the whole, dull, unintelligent, inarticulate and just plain boring.

And there are far too many such programmes on TV now.

In many ways, they are the modern equivalent of the carnival freak show. Indeed, I find them similar to watching “The Chimps Tea Party” at the zoo – only if it was a chimps tea party, the RSPCA would complain.

Being Irish, I have an interest in the Irish involvement in WW2.

Ireland’s “neutrality” was different from the neutrality of (say) Norway, The Netherlands etc. Ireland’s choice to keep out of the war was not due to any pro-Nazism bit more an Anti – British stance. As most people know, there had been negative feelings towards Britain in Ireland for hundreds of years and Ireland had only fairly recently established independence from its old master. Certainly, the party in office in 1939, Fianna Fail, hailed from the Republican/anti-British tradition and felt they had to maintain that stance for the consumption of their supporters.
However, one must also be aware of the “dual aspect” of the Irish relationship with Britain to understand how the Irish felt during the war.
Despite the apparent emnity towards Britain, there was a recognition that Britain (and later the US) represented the forces of freedon and democracy and good but that Germany and her allies represented something extremely bad.

Also, one must also never forget that the Irish had a long and proud tradition of serving WITH the forces of the crown and many families still had members serving with the RAF, RN and British Army – even after independence had been granted to Ireland in 1921/22.

I have read that over 150,000 Irish personnel (NOT including Northern Irish) served in the British armed forces during the war. Many of these died and/or were highly decorated for their service. I would hazard a guess that the number of Irishmen who actually fought for the Germans would not exceed a dozen. Some Irishmen also joined the US armed forces (including an uncle of mine) so the the total number of Irish fighting against the Axis forces totally overwhelms the numbers who MAY have fought with them.

Unfortunately, history has not been too kind to these people who took up arms agains facism and dictatorships. The British never went out of their way to thank the Irish for their contribuition to the war. In a way, why should they? They had people from many nationalities fighting with them so the Irish were just another bunch of “helpers”. What is worse is that, in Ireland, their efforts in World War 2 have either been ignored or swept under the carpet – mainly because it didn’t fit in with the version of Irish history successive Irish governments wanted to relate – namely the struggle for independence from Britain.. The situation is beginning to change now with some official recognition of the efforts made by Irishmen in the defence of democracy and hopefully, some formal recognition will be made before the last of those Irish who fought in World War 2 are finally gone.

I always understood that the full details of Upkeep and its related mechanism were finally declassified in 1973. It was that year that Revell released their 1/72 Dambusters Lancaster model. I well remember the ads in Aviation News and Aircraft Illustrated.

Interesting comment JDK. I have heard that they were difficult to fly. In fact, Bill Gunston (does he not post anywhere?) says that quite a few of De Havilland’s designs were pretty marginal – the DH88 being another example.