The tale of Taff Holden piloting the Lightning features in a book called ‘Drama in the Air’ by John Beattie (No, not THAT John Beattie!) published in 1989 by Robson Books Ltd. It gets 10 pages out of 223 and describes the incident fairly well..

ISBN Number is 0-86051-564-8

I used to visit the aircraft park on Foulness Island in the late 1970s courtesy of a mate who worked there. He had all kinds of bits and pieces from aircraft that had passed through the P&EE, and some from XR219. Most bizarre thing was visiting the local village pub at either Courtsend or Churchend. It was like stepping back into the 1940s! Most of the TSR2 had gone by then, but an amazing collection of airframes nonetheless. I cant quite remember what was there unless I dig out my old spotters books, but do recall lots of Buccaneers, Sea Vixen, Lynx, and a Canberra?

Happy days:rolleyes:

andyxh558 – I do not want it restored but I suppose it is too late!

Hmmm. Is it your aircraft to decide on whether it’s restored or not?

Not wishing to offend anybody here and I realise that some contributors to this thread may feel quite emotional about aircraft accidents. In a professional capacity, I have been involved with hundreds of car, motorcycle, bicycle, bus, lorry, ship, train and aircraft crashes in my time, all as harrowing & distressing as the RR Mk14 crash (I refer to them as crashes, because most of them were not ‘accidents’). They occur on a regular basis. However, I feel that private owners should be free to do as they please with their aircraft, just as I am to paint my old MG in red with pale blue checkers! (Not that I ever would of course, got more style than that!)

These are pieces of engineering, nothing more. As they become rarer, of course owners are going to rebuild them, even if they carry the stigma of a deceased pilot or/and pax.

How many aircraft have caused the death of a pilot, rather than a pilot causing the death of an aircraft, especially in the display environment? Think about it……

Again, I don’t wish to offend, but I think owners should be free to decide what they spend their money on, even if it means resurrecting an aircraft that has been involved in a crash where people were killed.:p

The Black/Gold Chippie is G-ALWB, now at Duxford in Cream/Red..

I think it is probably Taylorcraft L-2A, G-BRIY…Cant quite make out the serial on the tail, but almost certain thats the one.