Have just been trawling the net, and apparently the museum of berkshire aviation, at Woodley, have (or did in 2000) a large upper fuselage section of G-AMEW / XA265 Marathon …………. Keith.

And the two a/c sold to Japan were still extant in the late 1960s. JA6009 (c/n 136) was in the Terminal Building of the old Nagoya Airport at Komaki (Aichi Prefecture) and JA6010 (c/n 137) was at Tama-Tech. This is a theme park which now hosts the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix so maybe there’s a chance its still there?

Anyone read Japanese ? http://www.mobilityland.co.jp/tama/ :confused:

And if RAF Norton had displayed a Vampire alongside PK724 … what’s that behind the mystery Spitfire?

And which one is this?

The photographer was based at North Weald and remembers (vaguely) a film being made at the time?

FOF Starliner – January 2007

The UK Air Pilot (1937 Edition)

These two shots may help in your quest.

The first is from the UK Air Pilot (1937) Edition but overlaid onto Google Earth (I’ve just figured out how to do that … neat or what 🙂 )

and the second is the same map on its own for clarity:

G-AHRC in her element

I think I took this shot at Tollerton on 16 May 1971.

Maybe it’s time for a “Barnstormers Photo Thread” 🙂

Earliest photo at Lambeth?

This photo from the IWM collection is dated 27 November 1946:

http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?QF0=AutoID&QI0=225194&TN=uncat&RF=zOrderImage&DF=zOrderImage&NP=0&AC=QBE_QUERY

And the ailerons seen in the RX168 project photo will be flying soon …..

ML407 – squadron service

The following quote is from the second edition of our book Spitfire Survivors – published in 1986:

This aircraft was built at Castle Bromwich as an L.F.IXC against Contract No. B.981687/39 of 28 May 1942 and delivered to No. 33 M.U. Lyneham on 23 April 1944. Six days later, ATA ferry pilot Jackie Moggeridge delivered it to No. 485 Sqdn (RNZAF) with which it saw considerable operational service as the personal aircraft of Johnnie Houlton — although it was flown by a total of 16 New Zealanders during its seven-month stay with the unit. Coded “OU-V”, ML407 flew 137 sorties with No. 485, including 69 fighter sweeps and bombing missions (armed with a 500 lb bomb), 30 patrols over the Normandy beach-head and six armed recce missions. It accounted for two Ju.88s (one shared), two Bf. 109s and another 109 damaged, one of the l09s being downed by Houlton over Omaha Beach on D-Day itself.

It sustained damage (Cat. Ac) due to presumed enemy action on 12 October, but by 19 October the damage had been reclassified Cat. A, and on 30 October the aircraft was with No. 420 RSU of No. 84 Gp, 2nd TAF for repairs; these were completed by 11 December, when it was redelivered to No. 485 Sqdn.

On 28 December, ML407 was reassigned to No. 145 Wing of 2nd TAF, but on 4 January 1945 it was placed on charge with No. 341 (Alsace) Sqdn, a Free French unit operating within No. 131 Wing. Its stay was very brief, although it did acquire No. 341’s code of “NL-D”, before moving on to a variety of volunteer units: No. 308 (Krakowski) Sqn on 11 January, No. 349 (Belgian) Sqdn on 8 February as “GE-P”, back to No. 485 (RNZAF) Sqdn on 22 February, No. 345 (Free French) Sqdn on 22 March and — finally — No. 332 (Norwegian) Sqdn on 19 April as “AH-B”. ML407 was placed in the care of No. 151 Recovery Unit at Wevelgem, Belgium, on 26 April 1945 and it was eventually shipped back to the U.K. to be placed in store at No. 29 M.U. High Ercall on 27 September 1945.

Despite rumours to the contrary, Graham and I are still working on the third edition … it will be published “when it’s ready”!

(It will be a bl**dy big book when it’s finished too!)