Mark12 – if there were stumps on the pitch at the time of the crash, was there a game actually taking place? Yikes! Can imagine that one, the bowler yelling Howzat as the batsman runs for his life! 🙂

Also – was it the BBMF who swapped the Mk XVI for a P51D? If so, why? Or was there an intermediate owner between? And what became of the Mustang?

Glad you put us out of our miseries. My best guess was:

1 – A very large Meccano set
2 – The prototype London Bus
3 – A Sycamore or similar helicopter that had flown into a bridge

😉 😉 😉

Yes there is a National Film Archive of India. See their website here:
http://www.nfaipune.nic.in/main_page.htm

They would undoubtedly be the people to approach about this, as they’ll have all the expertise, gear and budget to handle the job.

I know that some significant wartime British films were recently discovered in their vaults, having been thought lost for over fifty years.

Good luck

Jagan,

Just a thought but if you want some more expert advice, I would suggest you post a message to the forum on this site http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/

They are the team that has been transferring and restoring all the old BBC films to digital format (not just Doctor Who shows as the team’s name suggest). They are Britain’s experts and are always helpful with advice. They’ll no doubt be able to come up with the name of somone in your area who can assist. I hope this helps.

481 victories for the P-40 seems low to me too. The AVG “Flying Tigers” shot down 286 Japanese aircraft with their P-40s which would only leave 195 victories for all of the rest of the Kittyhawk and Warhawk pilots that flew with all of the Allied countries IF this number includes the AVG.

Dennis

The RNZAF scored 100 victories with the P40 in the Pacific (plus at least two ‘own goal’ shoot downs of other RNZAF P40’s in training!).

There must have been many more victories scored by the Australians in the Pacific too, and also the RAF, RAAF and RSAF in the Western Desert. Then there were P40’s in the European campaign too. And didn’t the Dutch fly them in the Pacific also?

That figure must be for one particular Mk of the aircraft? Or just plain wrong.

Do you really need to call out the bomb squad for .303 ammunition? Seems a little excessive, isn’t it?

I would suggest a phonecall to the local police will do the trick. They’ll know who to contact and which channels to set in motion, or at the very least they’ll handle it themselves.

On a similar note – I was discussing this week with Mum and Dad that we’d better call the police about a live (I believe, but am not certain) 20mm cannon shell that was given to me when I was a teenager by an old guy who brought it back from the Pacific. He told me it was live and to be careful with it. Of course they parents instantly confiscated it, and it’s been in a cupboard in Dad’s workshop, long forgotten, since till I remembered its existence recently. Is it true that it could be really unstable and explode at any point – as was told to me recently?