RE: Aircraft Nicknames

Sir Arthur T Harris (God bless him) may have called it ‘The Shining Sword’, but one aircraft that’s never seemed to have a nickname is the Lancaster.

RE: For lancman

Hurrah! Thanks Peter!

RE: Why did the RAF-Museums painter close his eyes before…

I’m glad someone else has noticed this! The interior of Lancaster ‘Sugar’ has indeed been liberally sprayed with ‘Interior Green’ by an apparently blind man with a clogged nozzle!!!

RE: Halifax W1048

Welcome to the club mate-people have been saying all these things for years!

It’s been argued that it would cost too much to fully restore the Halifax, and/or that it wouldn’t be so genuine anymore if this was done too-but Hendon has many far less genuine aircraft on show already. (Substantial rebuilds, replicas etc) Also, Hendon are now embarking on the long-term restoration of the Hampden, which in many ways is in worse condtion and is less complete.

At the end of the day, they chickened out, and just dumped it there. It IS a moving sight to see for real, but it’s also a big, big shame.

Still, if they did restore it, they’d probably prop it’s tail up in the air on some stupid budgie-perch like the Lancaster…mumble mumble!!!

RE: What was your favourite airshow and why?

The last Great Warbirds, held at Wroughton, was a cracker-Sally and the Lanc together, last time I saw the Vulcan, lovely sunny day. I too find Duxford a bit too samey most of the time.

I miss the old RAF St Athan at Home day, it was right on my doorstep and the early birds in the 80’s could go inside their Vulcan, or see the Me410 and FW190 being run up!

Never liked the IAT much-too big and too modern for me. Vividly remember the Migs colliding in ’93 though!

RE: K5054 replicas

Well, the Du Cross ‘Spitfire’ (I use the name loosely) didn’t have it’s first flight until June 1991, so if the picture you saw is captioned 1984, something is wrong there!

That particular wooden beast with it’s Jag car engine never flew much, was never totally sorted out, and Du Cros himself managed to tip it on it’s nose I believe on arrival for the Great Warbird’s show at Wroughton-I remember it there with a knackered prop and undercart. Apart from the damage, it certainly wasn’t a Spitfire-it just didn’t look right somehow. It finaly crashed for good a while ago, a new buyer or someone mis-handled the engine or something like that, and it’s large bits of driftwood nowadays.