RFC Memorial, Dover

Very early in WWI RFC squadrons that were part of the BEF used a field just outside of Dover to depart for Amiens and there is a memorial present to commemorate this.

USS Hornet

Our final day in America saw us in San Francisco and a visit to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet which is now a floating museum at Alameda. The Hornet was launched in 1943 and saw active service in WWII notably against Japanese installations. Withdrawn from service in 1946 the Hornet was recomissioned in 1953 and served for a further 17 years including the recovery of Apollo 11 and 12. The ship has been a museum since 1998.

Highlands Aviation Museum

A small museum on the edge of Inverness Airport with a handful of airframes, a section of Nimrod fuselage and a few other artefacts and displays.

Metheringham airfield

Metheringham had a fairly short active life. It opened in 1943 and was decomissioned and out of service by May 1946. In the interim it was an RAF Bomber Command airfield and home to 106 squadron and its Avro Lancasters. Most buildings, including the hangars, were demolished over the next 20 years or so and the airfield returned to agriculture. However, as we saw a couple of days ago, remains of the runway and perimeter track still exist having been re-purposed as roads. There are also a couple of buildings in evidence as well as an impressive memorial.

Bomber Command Memorial

We stopped by the impressive Memorial to Bomber Command just outside of Lincoln today. It opened last year and commemorates the terrible losses suffered by Bomber Command crews in WWII.More than 58,000 crew were lost in the conflict and the names of all are recorded on the Walls of Names that surround the spire.

XM607

Stopped by Waddington today and grabbed a couple of shots of Avro Vulcan XM607. This Vulcan joined the RAF in 1963 and remained in service until December 1982 a few months after being immortalised in one of the Black Buck raids during the Falklands war of 1982. The main bombing mission is real Boys Own stuff detailed in the book Vulcan 607 which is a great read. The aircraft has been on display at Waddington since January 1983.