If you do decide to visit East Fortune, you would probably be best to hire a car. Getting there by public transport isn’t especially easy, particularly if you are travelling all the way from Prestwick. By the time you get a train to Glasgow, train to Edinburgh, train (or bus) to North Berwick and then a bus to East Fortune, the day would be just about over!

Yes another good event, combined with a BBMF Flypast and aerojumble. Would be nice if we could have 2 of these events each year, maybe one held down South somewhere? It may attract different exhibits in addition to making it more accessable to other enthusiast.

It IS down south! Try being an aviation enthusiast in Scotland with only two decent airshows a year, or alternatively a huge trek to Duxford or further afield. Contrary to popular belief, Lincolnshire is in the southern part of England – just look at an atlas and mesaure the distance from Berwick to Brighton. 😉

I’m prepared to be corrected as to the ownership, but my understanding (from talking to the restoration team leader a couple of years ago) was that it was not owned by Kelvingrove, nor East Fortune, but was a NMoS airframe. Sorry Ian, while your facts are streight, that’s not a closed case! Based at a, restored by b (who does not own it) doesn’t mean c doesn’t own it either.

Doldrums – can you ask the MoF?
Cheers

Just to help you sort things out, the National Museums of Scotland (abbreviated as NMS, never NMoS) is a group of several museums which are Scottish Executive funded. These are: the Museum of Scotland, the Royal Museum, the National War Museum of Scotland, the Museum of Scottish Country Life, the Museum of Costume and the Museum of Flight. Since the latter is the museum at East Fortune, it couldn’t be possible to be NMS but not East Fortune, since the aviation collections ARE East Fortune. The reason I know all this is because I work for NMS! Although I don’t work at the Museum of Flight, I do know how the organisation is organised.

One other interesting piece. Professionals were hired for the LA198 restoration, because big funding was provided as has already been mentioned. However, this caused discontent at East Fortune since the Aviation Preservation Society of Scotland, who do all the restoration work at the MoF, weren’t allowed to touch LA198. They still do a huge amount of work for the MoF and still don’t get the appreciation by the organisation for all they do. But I’m sure you can appreciate how they felt being told they weren’t allowed to be involved in working on a Spit! 😮

This is the info I have…

1997 – Gifted to the City of Glasgow by the then Minister of Defence Michael Portillo
04/03/1998 – Delivered to the Museum of Flight, East Fortune, Lothian for static restoration, funded by the Scottish Office

I can confirm that LA198 definitely does NOT belong to the National Museums of Scotland. The aircraft was restored at the Museum of Flight but does not belong to the collections at East Fortune.

Kelvingrove is run by Glasgow City and its funded by them, not by the Scottish Executive who fund NMS.

That would be LA198, which was restored at the Museum of Flight. I understand it’s currently on display in the Museum of Transport in Glasgow, awaiting the completion of work at the Kelvingrove, at which time it will be moved there for display.

Post #4 above mentions the first flight as being from the aerodrome at Desford, Leics., which I guess was the R&S flying base. That post from Charlielima5 also mentions the book that probably contains the definitive answer.

My apologies – I should re-read posts before adding to a thread. :rolleyes: Clearly, I have the attention span of a hamster. At least I was right with my deduction of Leicestershire.

Only just got round to checking out this thread. The following website has a small piece on the RS1, including this photo showing it in wartime.

http://www.jaapteeuwen.com/ww2aircraft/index.htm