That type of wing fold was used on Hellcats, Wildcats and Avengers (among others). I would guess that these are Avengers. There is a long glasshouse with what appears to be a turret at the end of it.

I’ll have to second the recommendation for the Plustek range. I’ve got a Plustek 7400 and it produces very nice results, especially when I consider that it was a relatively cheap buy.

I don’t use the multiscan features a lot (prefer to use photoshop for the shots which I do want to improve) but did invest in a newer version of the Silverfast software which eliminated a weird effect I got in some scans where reddish areas appeared in shots with a lot of blue in them.

This was scanned from a 14 year old negative:

ZD241 was in the Falklands until 8 March. It has been replaced by ZA150, I expect that it too will fly back to the UK before being decommissioned.

As it turns out ZD241’s last flight was canceled today, it is now scheduled to go to Brunty either tomorrow or the day after. Updates may appear in this topic on my forum if you’re interested in the details: http://www.vc10.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=544&start=195
I’m hoping someone will be able to get a few shots of its last flight, it will be the end of an era as the last BOAC Super VC10, ex G-ASGM, touches down for the last time!

Edited to add: the three ship did fly in August 2012 but XV108 stood in for ZD241 as the K4 was delayed in maintenance, it did perform some engine runs on the detuners on that day but that was all the noise it managed to contribute to the festivities. There’s a nice photo about halfway down this page: http://www.vc10.net/History/RAFVC10s.html

The report is pretty clear and I’m glad that the BBC have taken only the salient points from it, without any inference.

I agree that given the handling qualities of the DH53 one would have to think twice about flying it but on the other hand this was the ideal situation for it. An operator with sensible practices for operating the craft, a competent pilot with all the needed qualifications and lots of experience and so on. The only thing that was an unknown and turned out to be the killer on this day was the wind. It is easy to underestimate the wind from ground level, especially when sudden changes or as in this case large trees influence the local winds. The fact that the chief pilot and the other DH53 qualified pilot observed the take off and did not see cause for concern tells me that the pilot may never have seen this coming. Sad.