Won’t she need more than 4 airworthy engines? A spare in case she goes tech away from home?

Not only that but when she was grounded at Southend, I thought the reason for that was corrosion in the main spar or some other major work. Have they sorted all that out, or plan to do more than change the engines to make her airworthy?

Most of the complete series are on Amazon at the moment, Thunderbirds on DVD for £15-99 is a bargain for nine DVDs

See

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joe-90-Complete-Series-Box/dp/B00006FI5Z/

I have them all aparft from Terrahawks of which I didn’t like much.

Very sad news. As a young boy I watched every Gerry Anderson TV series when they were first broadcast from Twizzle and Torchy through to Terrahawks, although I wasn’t a fan of the latter series. Very honoured to have met Gerry when he came to our local theatre and gave a lecture with films on the making of his series. He brought some actual studio models used in Thunderbirds and you can see these here on the stage in this photo I took at the time.

RIP

Not meaning to come over all ‘Dave Spart” and republican, but, to be frank, just because HRH lowered his ample royal backside into this blameless aeroplane, and pedalled gently round the circuit at White Waltham, looking like an over-sized potato balanced in a matchbox, is not, in my opinion, a compelling reason to cherish this aeroplane above all other until the end of time.

There. I said it.

I’ll forward that to HRH and see if he agrees! People have been sent to the Bloody Tower for lesser comments about our Royals! 😮

No one said anything about ‘a compelling reason to cherish this aeroplane above all other until the end of time’. I was just relating a ‘claim to fame’ that it has above all others, that do not have that on their record.

A very rare and interesting Photo Gary, which I haven’t seen before. Regret I cannot shed any light on what was on the front end, but I very much doubt if 92 Squadron’s checks were retained as 92 Sqn. had re-equipped with Lightning F2s by 1964. I would guess there is some sort of DFLS insignia on the nose. As for the serial, if you look very closely in the right place you can see ‘XG185’ in very small black letters just above the end of the white stripe.This is how it was worn when with the Blue Diamonds and still wears the code ‘Z’ above the fin flash.

I saw the Wapiti at Palam in 1981. It looked very tatty, and the “engine” seemed to be made of wood. According to Leslie Hunt in “Veteran & Vintage Aircraft” it was ex A Flight, 1 Sqd, and at Kanpur 1 Base Repair Depot for 20 years.

According to the latest aircraft mags, the Indian Air Force Historic Flight’s plans include making a Wapiti airworthy. Surely this can’t be the one in the museum, which only just about looks like a Wapiti with so many ‘bodge jobs’ done to it?

Thanks John, well that shows what’s there,but does not say at what stage of restoration each is at? He could have been logging reggies on a plate for all we know! It sounds like Ron Souch has ‘mellowed’ also, as he didn’t used to take kindly to anyone showing interest in his restorations. I can speak from personal experience many moons ago!