Am I right in thinking that the only B&V aircaft of any type still extant is the Bf109-derived Bv155 in storage in the US?

Nice to see a Tiffie that looks all dirty and used:

I was thinking the same thing myself.
Anyone know what causes the dark near-circular patches on the underside of the wing by the undercarraige doors?

Anyone know owt about the P-51 that flew over Widnes approx 12.35 on Sunday heading due south?

The Airbus in the forest incident was back in 1988 at Mulhouse when an A320flyby went horribly wrong;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EM0hDchVlY

It is one of the great miracles of aviation that only three people died in the accident. There is a summary of the accident report at

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19880626-0

but there have been allegations of dishonesty and cover-ups in the manner in which the accident was investigated. I am not in any position to offer any comment on these, which probably need to be batted back to the commercial aviation forum anyway.

Going back to the Portuguese incident, or near-incident, the A310 does not have full fly-by-wire so the pilot would not have the comfort zone – if that’s the right phrase – of being able to push the aircraft to the edge of its performance envelope under full control. Or what would seem like full control.

I can’t work out whether that makes it scarier or not. As other posters have said, you can have all the idiot-proof FBW in the world and it still won’t rescue you from the laws of physics, birdstrike, wind shear, you name it. He’d eaten right into his margins and got away with it. The next time may be different…

Good day out, isn’t it? Took my son and his girlfriend earlier this year – they’re both 16, greener-than-thou and pacifists to their fingertips, yet they were both absolutetly fascinated by what they saw with an intelligent appreciation of what it is all about and what it meant in an earlier era.

I had a similar experince with my OM2 20-odd years back and they went of their own accord. PMN’s probably right. OM2 still working BTW.
Actually spotted the little blighters on the press day at Farnborough. Guy from General Dynamics spotted my consternation and had a look…there’s something about the phrase “Sir, you’ve got bugs..” that just rolls around with a deep southern US accent!