Up for sale

This Spitfire XIV was restored to flying condition by Avspecs in New Zealand in 2015 and has only flown 23 hours since. I saw it in its museum setting at Omaka a couple of years ago and it looked pretty impressive. I wonder where it will end up.

Avro Triplane incident

This Avro Triplane replica of the Shuttleworth trust reportedly lost power on take off at a Shuttleworth air show yesterday and was seen to disappear behind a tree line. The aircraft has been reported as substantially damaged but I am pleased to hear that, after a hospital check, the pilot is reported to be fine.

AW139

I caught HM Coastguard Agusta-Westland AW-139, that relocated to Manston fairly recently, over my garden this morning.

Hawker Sea Hawk

This 1/72 scale kit is an old Novo offering picked up cheap as it was missing its canopy. I already had a Falcon canopy for a Sea Hawk but needed to tweak the kit a little to make it fit. This wasn't the only tweak it needed! The cockpit was non-existant being the head and shoulders of the crew moulded in place so these were cut out and the spares box raided for a seat and a little appropriate detail. The roundels were in raised detail on the wings and gad to ve sanded flat and the wheel wells were moulded in the closed position so I opened them up as well. I also had to close a gap in the air intakes internally as you could see straight through one side of the fuselage to the other. The engine exits were also closed so I opened them up and extended the front wheel well as it was too short. The first decals fell apart so I had to use spares for the under wing lettering and roundels but a coat of gloss varnish saved the others. Overall it hasn't come out too badly but if you want a Sea Hawk there are better options out there.

Great news

This Me 109E was recovered from Russia in 1993 and is currently the only one flying in Europe. I saw some footage of it flying in Germany last year and wished I had made the effort to go to the show but it will now be at Shuttleworth next month and I booked my tickets a while ago🙂

Diamond Seven?

It is being reported that, apart from official flypasts, the Red Arrows will only display as a seven ship formation for the current year and that rhis will continue until at least 2030. The age of the aircraft and engines is cited as the reason. With nothing definite on replacements have we seen the last of the famous Red Arrows Diamond Nine?

Morane Saulnier MS 230

The MS 230 was the main French training aircraft through out the 1930s, having first fliwn in 1929. This is the Smer 1/72 scale kit of the aircraft built straight out of the box.

BAC-111 scrapped

I gather that the BAC-111 previously on display at East Fortune was scrapped a short while ago. It is a few years since I saw the aircraft and it was looking a little sad then but years of exposure to the UK weather had caused corrosion particularly in the wing roots and it was uneconomical to carry out repairs. Only two complete 111 airframes now remain in the UK.

Red Bulls addition

Europe's only airworthy F86 Sabre, as seen here at the Duxford Battle of Britain show last year has joined the Red Bulls fleet. This should be good news with their resources hopefully keeping it on the show circuit.

Manston Airshow

Given the lack of any information for a show that was scheduled to be taking place in around a month's time it was no surprise to see the official announcement over the weekend that the 2026 show, like the previous year, has been cancelled. Anybody who had left their ticket monies from 2025 to cover the 2026 show will now be refunded.

Apparently the organisers will now be looking towards a show for 2027. Third time lucky? I won't hold my breath.

Metheringham Visitor Centre

We visited Metheringham airfield in 2019 as seen here. At the time it was off season for the Metheringham Visitor Centre but we were in the area again last week when the centre was open so we went for a look. The centre is based around the original WWII gymnasium building and includes displays relating to WWII operations as well as a little tea room. A bomb shelter also survives and a separate building houses further diplays relating to WWII. The newest building on site is a hangar which is dedicated to displaying a Douglas C47 or Dakota which has been splendibly restored and is open for tours.

RAF Swinderby

Swinderby is in Lincolnshire just off the A46 between Newark and Lincoln. It opened in 1940 and was a bomber command field mainly for 300 and 301 Polish Bomber Squadrons although when they left it was occupied by 455 Squadron RAAF until early 1942. For the remainder of the war it was a heavy conversion unit. Post war, into the 1960s, it was used by no. 8 Flying Training School before switching to recruit training in 1964. The final passing out parade in this respect was in July 1993 and the station closed at the end of the year. It was put up for sale in 1995. A main runway still exists but most buildings have been demolished amidst ongoing development including a new village on the old domestic site. This village does include a couple of memorials to the airfield which we went to look at. There is also a large information board detailing the airfield history which surprisingly contains a host of grammatical errors and several spelling errors - referring to Dublin in Poland instead of Dubin and a couple of references to Awro Lancasters as opposed to Avro, for example. I gather the board has been there for over 10 years so it is a surprise it has not been corrected. Anyway, a few pictures:

RAF Balderton

Balderton airfield is a little south of Newark and opened in 1941. It was primarily used as a troop carrier transport airfield including by the USAAF from January 1944 until September 1944 during which time it supported Operation Market Garden. It was returned to RAF use after this, being home to Avro Lancasters of 227 Squadron until April 1945. After this it saw little use apart from bomb storage and was eventually sold at auction in 1959.

Today nothing really remains of the airfield with the modern day A1 having been re-routed through  it and open pit gypsum mining having destroyed most of the rest. However, a memorial stone has been erected at the original site of the main entrance.

On Freedom's Wings

On Freedom's Wings is a life size sculpture of a Lancaster bomber off the A46 near Newark just over the Notts border in Lincolnshire. It was erected by the Bomber County Gateway Trust as "a beacon of remembrance, a symbol of sacrifice, and a celebration of heritage". It was effectively unveiled last September but the official opening ceremony is next month. I was passing yesterday so grabbed a couple of shoots from the viewing point in Folly Lane.