Thanks for the correction – a bit early in the morning for all the neurons to be firing.

When someone asks about “beautiful” aircraft, I think one has to ditch all other factors which may influence your opinion apart from aesthetics. Therefore, history, war record, capabilities, fond memories, impressiveness, noise etc etc all have to be discounted.

Beautiful means looks only. With that in mind, impressive aircraft like the B-36, extreme aircraft like the Extra and successful aircraft like the Neptune should really fall out of the equation.

On the other hand, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so what looks good to you may look hideous to me. The important thing is that it is looks that count for the pupose of determining “beauty”..

Aestehically, I think the most beautiful aircraft built is the pre war DH98 Albatross airliner.

Sorry, but I have not yet mastered the skill of posting pictures.

I’m pretty sure it is a re-engined Buchon (which was a “G” with a Merlin, to all intents and purposes).

Is it still flying?

The AA?

Is their “Saint” motif based on the drawings used on the cover of the Leslie Charteris books – and of course the Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy TV series?

Will ITV be banned from showing re-runs of those series?

I hope this “rumour” is just that – a rumour.

Regarding aircraft which inadvertantly ended up in the Irish Free State – most of them tended to be written off in the incident which caused them to come down in the first place so they were unusable by the Irish Army Air Corps. Secondly, Ireland didn’t have the resources to operate a lot of the larger aircraft that might have been repairable to flying condition. Thirdly, although officially neutral, unlike (say) Spain or Portugal, Ireland was (and still is) a democracy so had little sympathy with Hitler or Mussolini so there would have been no way they could have obtained any technical support to keep any German aircraft flying. In the end, I’m pretty sure large Allied aircraft were either transported by road to Northern Ireland or flown directly back to the UK. A small number, a few Hurricanes, a Battle and a Walrus (the example now in the FAA Museum) were operated by the Air Corps. The Hurricanes were actually bought from Britain when the war ended.
The Walrus was, for a while, owned by Aer Lingus, although to what use they could have put such an aircraft is beyond me.

As far as personnel were concerned, Germans who ended up in Eire were interned for the duration of the war. Allied airmen were usually interned for a short period and then repatriated to the UK – usually via Holyhead or by train to Belfast. The system was so casual that the airmen were usally given their train or boat tickets, a lift into Dublin city centre, and then were allowed to make their own way home.

The “blobby” Nimrods were NEVER effective. In fact, they were never used operationally – they never managed to get the radar system to work properly. On the other hand, the original Maritime Reccie version has provided sterling service to the RAF since 1970. Lets hope the Tay refit programme doesn’t go the way of the AEW fiasco – it could very well the way things are going.

It was being delivered to Blackbushe for I think (Doug Arnold?). The year was 1977. I’m sure it would have ended up being used for film purposes.