Moved to Germany

This Dornier 28 A-1, one of only three that are airworthy and the only one in Europe has been British owned of late. It has had the odd mishap including wing damage from clipping trees at Spanhoe in 2022 and a couple of months ago was damaged again whilst returning from an air show in Germany. It has now been sold to new owners in Germany and moved to Paderborn where it will be repaired and re-registered.

Oft seen at Old Warden in the past I last saw it there in May of this year.

Award winners

The De Havilland Aircraft Museum at Hatfield was awarded the Preservationist Of The Year trophy recently by the National Transport Trust for their long term restoration of this Mosquito FBVI, seen here 3 or 4 years ago. Even then it was looking impressive and it had an official roll out earlier this year.

This is the second time in five years that the trophy has effectively gone to a Mosquito as Tony Agar won the award in 2020 for his restoration of the ground running Mosquito at East Kirkby.

Under threat?

The future of Nimrod XV232, which is currently with a preservation group at Coventry airport, has been thrown in to doubt as the group has been given notice to vacate their site by May next year. The aircraft is currently in ground running condition. Hopefully a new home can be found and there are certainly a couple of museums that spring to mind that have space but its a question of money, logistics and practicality for the future. Lets hope there is a good outcome.

Here's a couple of shots of the Nimrod from when I saw it in 2023.

Getting ready for Wanaka

Sadly not me as my visit last year is likely to be a one off but Duxford based Spitfire PL983 is making the journey to New Zealand to help mark the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire at the 2026 Warbirds over Wanaka show. It will be displayed by John Romain.

Now at Cotswold Airport

Often found at Duxford over the last couple of years P51 Mustang Marinell, part of the Northwind collection, arrived at Cotswold Airport today where it will apparently now be resident. Seen here outside the ARCO hangar at Duxford.

F84 Thunderstreak

This Airfix offering of the Republic fighter bomber is a 1/72 scale kit from 1974 that I was building at the same time as the Skua below whilst I was waiting for copious amounts of filler to dry. It all went together quite well and I opted for the Luftwaffe markings partly to keep the USAF set as spares but also as they looked a little less fragile and made a bit of a change. Long out of service I have seen a couple in museums including one in Sunderland Land, Sea and Air Museum.

Lest We Forget

DH Dove VP952

Continuing the theme of departures from Cosford is this De Havilland Dove. Seen here outside at the RAF centenary show in 2018 it was moved last month to Gatwick Aviation Museum. It is a little while since I was last at Gatwick but there are some images of the visit in my galleries section. The Shackleton, which we had a tour of at the time, has since been repainted.