Seen departing Lee-on-Solent late afternoon and heading off south was a formation of five Cessna Bird Dogs.
24582 US Army (green), EC-MAB/12992 USAF (grey with Sharksmouth markings), F-AZTA/BYA French military (grey), F-AYVA French military (green with Day-Glo rudder), and OE-CCI (green with red/white/red tail).
Lovely engine sound in the late afternoon summer sky as the formation flew south.

Boeing 707s still regularly operating are N88ZL operated by LOWA in VIP configuration and is possibly available for charter, and TZ-TAC by the Mali government which I would suggest may possibly be not. Both of these are Stage III noise certificated and I believe N707JT is Stage II, though it may be possible to obtain permission for some flights in the European Union airspace. VP-BHM DC8 is operated by Brisair, in VIP configuration and enquiries would be required to ascertain if it was available for charter work. SAHA examples are Stage I (un-hush kitted) and bearing in mind the current political climate I would suggest is a bit of a long-shot; but given diplomacy and determination…

“BTW, anyone remember the Gulfstream 1?”

I do! The Ford Motor Co had a small fleet of them based at Stansted in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s for scheduled company flights to (then West) Germany before they were replaced by BAC One-Elevens; and Birmingham Executive, which became Birmingham European Airlines, also operated a small fleet in the 1980’s for services to Europe. In the not too distant past I recall N196PA of Phoenix Air crossing ‘the pond’ on a semi-regular basis with intermediate stops at either Shannon or Prestwick.

Black “Sea King”

On the subject of Helicopters, as I was sat at Sutton Scotney services having my truck checked over by VOSA at 0830 I saw a black Sea King heading west bound on the back of a trailer. The Sea King also had a radome sticking out from beneath the front cockpit windows, any ideas whose it could have been?

That description may allude to S-61N G-VIPZ which was overall black in colour. That particular airframe had been advertised as ‘for sale’ and I note that it has been de-registered as transferred to another country; possibly for operation at Galway, Eire.

…not forgetting Armstrong-Siddeley with their Hurricane, Typhoon, Whitley and Lancaster models, which were named after the very successful aircraft that the Hawker Siddeley group built during the second world war.
Also from WW2 was the Nakajima Ki43 Hayabusa, (known as the ‘Oscar’ to the allies), which leant its name to the world’s fastest production motor cycle the Suzuki Hayabusa.

Any recent news and or photographs of ‘AE at Barbados?

I visited Bovingdon during May 1978 and recorded the following:
151632/Gorgeous George-Ann (NL9494Z)
151724/Brenda’s Boys (N86427)
151863/Big Bad Bonnie (N8455Z)
151790/Amazing Andrea (N7681C)
151645/Marvellous Miriam (N9115Z)
I can’t remember if any of them ever subsequently adopted different marks on opposite sides of the fuselage during filming for Hannover Street, as the B17s for the ‘Memphis Belle’ film did but I shall check; and I can concur with previous posts that photos of the B25s and CASA 352s together was very likely to have been at Blackbushe.
(I also remember a few ex Belgian Air Force Pembrokes being resident at Blackbushe just before the B25s arrived for storage.)
Keithjs: If it were possible I would be very appreciative of a copy of the DVD ‘(Do?!) Mitchells fly in IMC’!
Cheers
Steve

Preserved Wessex sighting

Saturday night at 8.30pm I saw G-ATBZ Wessex 60 in what appeared to be ‘weathered’ Bristow colours on the back of a low-loader lorry, just north of the M4 motorway near Heathrow and heading in the direction of West Drayton.