The Americans 2

Some flight line stuff although not everything took to the air.

Duxford - The Americans

Saturday was the latest flying day at Duxford - dedicated to The Americans who have operated from the airfield. I enjoy these flying days which are effectively small flying displays with all the usual museum attractions and smaller crowds than a full blown flying display. This time there was the added bonus of my fellow enthusiast and good mate Gaz coming down from Notts to share the day.

There was a little anxiety early on when my local motorway was closed due to a serious accident and my 'plan B' route was out of the question due to traffic chaos at Dover. Fortunately diverting through Canterbury found roads fairly quiet and , although taking 30 minutes or so longer than normal, the rest of the journey was fairly uneventful and I was at Duxford a little after 11 and Gaz was there soon after.

We had plenty of time to tour the hangars, check on the Firefly restoration which should apparently be flying within a couple of years and then watch the flying display. The weather was pretty good and as there was a fair sized crowd we hung around a little while to watch the aircraft being towed back to the hangars.

All in all a great day out, made better by the company, and a decent run back got me home in time for tea.

As is often the case I managed to take heaps of pictures so here's the first of  multiple posts with some hangar shots to get things started.

Off for a service

The BBMF Dakota left Coningsby today for the ARCO hangar at Duxford for depth maintenance so I may see her there tomorrow. Wonder if it will be getting a new  colour scheme.

Coming to the UK?

I've seen that Huuricane Mk1 P3351 registered in France as F-AZXR, which has recently been up for sale, is coming to the UK. I wonder if it is to form the basis of anoth two seat conversion as I know that the operators of the only two-seater at present want another one. Time will tell I guess.

Bedsheet Bomber

I visited Wings Museum in Sussex a little under two years ago and at the time I was fairly sure that I had spotted a B-25 Mitchell, or a good part of it, around the site. However, as it was not actually on display there was no information about it. 

Since then I have seen that the airframe is a B-25J built in early 1945. It did not see active service but was used for training and other roles before it was converted to a camera ship and came over to the UK for filming of The War Lover and then 633 Squadron.

Sadly after that the aircraft fell in to disrepair at Biggin Hill before going to a museum at Southend for a number of years. When the museum closed the aircraft went briefly to Duxford and then to North Weald where is was painted up as 'Bedsheet Bomber'. The aircraft did not fare particularly well at  North Weald and was then shipped out to North Coates followed by Wycombe Air Park for more proposed periods of display that actually ended up as further periods of neglect.

The aircraft has subsequently been acquired by Wings Museum for static restoration. When I saw it the aircraft was incomplete but the missing centre section and rear fuselage have now been acquired as well enabling a complete restoration to be carried out. There is even the possibility that it could be restored to ground running status but I imagine that is a way off.

Shuttleworth live

A little taste of the live action from last weekend.

Shuttleworth pt3

Not strictly part of the Fly Navy show are the aircraft in the hangars at Shuttleworth. The place is basically a living museum with most exhibits whether aircraft or vehicles being in working order. Some air shows some of these aircraft will be out on the flight line but for the Fly Navy show they were tucked away forming part of the general museum.