Removed by poster.

“Which long lost aircraft type do you want to see replicated and back into the air?”

Dave, if the wishlish includes all aircraft, I’d love to see a Barracuda fly. ( Non-flying rebuilds don’t have the same appeal, to me they’ rather like stuffed birds in glass cases.)
I believe various Barra bits have been collected from a few high-ground UK crash sites, apart from the excellent nose/engine section at the FAA Museum at Yeovilton : see current thread) I believe that a few still lie in waters that were formerly RAF/FAA bombing ranges off our Scottish eastern coast, and nearer inshore after flying accidents from local naval air stations, but after all this time, the corrosive salt water environment and the subsequent trawl fishing activities with nets snagging and pulling at wreckage would offer nothing of any use whatsoever. (Doubt if even a few licks of paint from your excellent team could help restore such hopeless cases as could be recovered) If we’re looking at a scratchbuild project it’s got to run into £ millions.Similarly,if you consider the historic aircraft that we still have in museums I’m sure a great many of them could be made flyable apart from only one aspect…and that’s got to be (again) the purely financial aspect.
So realistically…no more Barracuda, sadly, like the Monty Python Norwegian Blue Parrot it’s extinct, no-more, deceased…dead… an ex-parrot..it has ceased to be! 🙁

Right on the button Papa Lima, these are the inlets in question, and although your Barra’s more advanced than mine you’re going to be wondering like me! Do I glaze them over, do I blank them off a little way in, do I wait until we know the correct answer?

(Sorry to read that your father’s no longer with you : in a similar vein, I’d corresponded with a former Barracuda pilot and author two years ago (on another matter) but a recent letter I’d sent was returned as undeliverable. Hopefully he has moved, but as a gentleman of advanced years even then, I fear the worst and didn’t pursue it. We’re all poorer for the loss of these gallant gentlemen with their knowledge, skills and stories)

I’m encouraged though Papa Lima, we may have set the ball rolling again on this one 😉

…ps how long I gotta stand in the corner?…don’t like being a Junior member..want an avatar…but I haven’t mastered the doings yet. (3 posts give me some seniority?)…bl**dy falsetto hurt my bronicals now…off to gargle…where’s the Glenmorangie?..
bms(….aarrghhhh…)44…

Barracudas….in particular

Hello folks, I’m a new member to this board too, having stumbled across this Forum by happy accident…and I like your style so hopefully will be dipping in from time to time. However, at the risk of appearing to be an anorak, let me get this question out of the way.
The years after I was first rolled out of my hangar, the nearby skies were full of Barracudas Swordfish and the like, and although not a dedicated modeller, I’ve got a 1/48th Barra building at present, which, when finished, will hopefully wear the markings of an aircraft from a squadron then based at that former naval air station.
Those of you of an observant nature, and I can see you don’t miss much! will have noticed, and I think only on the marks I and II Barras, two rectangular cut-outs (inlets) either side of the fuselage in the under-leading-edge wing surface just below the pilot’s cockpit. The kit has glazing panels to fit these ‘inlets’ which appear to be say 8 to 10″ wide by some 18″ long, but I don’t think they were glazed, and more importantly, haven’t found anyone who can tell me what the function of these were. Even enquiries at the FAA Museum drew a blank. Can anyone throw any ideas or answers into the pot? Thanks in anticipation.
bms44