There is one photo on the website on which you can see the fuselage of the second Me behind the complete one. The second one shows a green-grey camouflage pattern with white markings. (it’s on the ‘more photos’ page, 2nd from left, 3rd from top). That means that the two aircraft in flight photo is definitively fake. Also when comparing markings it looks as though they played around with those as well. There are three distinguishing markings on the nose (two on the left and one on the right, cannot name them unfortunately) and in some photos they seem to switch between left and right, leading me to believe that they mirrored some images or covered markings with camo blotches on the photo, but I cannot confirm this. If all this would’ve been true I would have expected a lot more coverage than just this one page, so it’s still a shaky story.

It also helps to scan at a higher resolution and then resize the image with software to the desired (smaller) size.

MRP, it would be great if you could put some pictures up!

Shouldn’t be too hard, resize the image on your computer to something below 800 pix wide, create a new post and where it says ‘Attach file:’ click on ‘Browse’ and select the (resized)image you want to add to the post. That’s all (only one photo per post though).

Originally posted by station357
What’s this? Have I missed something? I’ve not heard of this one before. Information anyone?

Have a look at this site: http://www.imperial-airways.com/

I think the plans for this have been around for a while, I remember reading about it in Aeroplane Monthly or Flypast a few years back.

Interesting topic. I was told a couple of years back that there are more categories in this discussion.
– A replica is a new-built aircraft that uses the same materials, construction technique and engine (although when the right engine type is unavailable, I guess a similar substitute can be tolerated)
– A facsimile is an airframe that reproduces the look and feel of the original, but uses different materials and/or construction techniques to get this effect.
– A look-alike is an aircraft that only tries to resemble the look of the original (although some of them get mighty close to this goal!)

So if we use this subdivision, then the Me262s in Seattle are replicas, same as the Oscars that are being built in Texas, the Vimys, the F3Fs the new-build Yaks, the Flugwerk FW190s and a few more. Quite a few static airframes may turn out to be facsimiles. The Halifax at Elvington being one of these as parts of the airframe were reconstructed using a mix of wood and metal. The Defiant is another as this is a wooden frame which was covered in aluminium to get the outside effect of a metal airplane. Another example is the Hawker Fury that has been constructed at Brooklands. If you should look under its skin you would find a frame that was built using leftover extrusions from the Wellington restoration. As the result is an aircraft that looks and feels like a Fury, then for the intended purpose (static display) this is a successfull effort, although you wouldn’t employ this technique to create a flying example.

Now the question of which would be the most technically accurate replica is easily answered as I wouldn’t want to call it a replica unless it was completely technically accurate!

Just a few thoughts.

As for favourites…. I think the one I would most like to see fly is the FW190. Closely followed by the Me262. Both of these have not been seen in the air for a long time so the sight and sound would be a completely new experience for a lot of people. As for most ambitious, the project to create a replica Hp42 has just been launched, and when that takes off for the first time I think it would be a major milestone as up untill now the Vimy is probably the largest flying replica around.

Originally posted by Flood
But the Hurricane (Z2389) rescued from Russia is still bearly recognisable…

You should’ve seen it when it arrived Flood! Trust me when I say that this is a big improvement.

And just to add: the Vanguard and VC10 do open to the public, but unfortunately not every day. Also preparations are made to move them sometime during the next few months so this may have something to do with it (it also accounts for the Viscounts partly dismantled state).

I seem to remember that one had wooden wings (Yak-3?) and the other metal ones.

If that is the original that I read about a while ago (a couple of new-built ones will be created as well) then it is Klimov-powered. The new-built ones will get Allisons.

It looks great (although the markings are different to say the least!)