Really now ?

[expat]

That Mossie is drop dead gorgeous

Confused though - you know when you look at something and it doesn't quite look right... Turns out it's a B.35 in disguise as an FB.VI - so fighter windscreen and a solid nose.

The thing that didn't look right? I'd never seen a solid nosed Mossie with intakes under the spinners. Took 24 hrs to work out, but it's funny how the human brain works!

Wow Charlie, that IS hardcore anorak................. I (and 99% of others I think) would never have noticed. I got me Googling images of the two though, quite a few differences.

Matt

[C]

I suppose that the B.35 is the most often seen though, be it in 633 Squadron or in museums, purely as they were the ones that didn't have to survive the immediate post war scrapping. There's an interesting thread over at the Flypast forum at the moment regarding the fates of the Dams Lancasters. Considering most were only used on the single operation, due to the depth of the "Upkeep" mod, all the survivors were scrapped in 45-48 after they'd been used to drop all the remaining stores of Upkeep mines in the depths of the Atlantic.

Wouldn't have happened in the US. Sadly the UK has a generally horrendous record of keeping significant airframes. From a choice of hundreds, we are left really with a handful of actual "history making" airframes (G-ACSS, Gloster E.28/39, Mosquito prototype, Meteor prototype, and the speed record breakeing Hunter and Meteor at Tangmere amongst the few)

[expat]

I suppose that the B.35 is the most often seen though, be it in 633 Squadron or in museums, purely as they were the ones that didn't have to survive the immediate post war scrapping. There's an interesting thread over at the Flypast forum at the moment regarding the fates of the Dams Lancasters. Considering most were only used on the single operation, due to the depth of the "Upkeep" mod, all the survivors were scrapped in 45-48 after they'd been used to drop all the remaining stores of Upkeep mines in the depths of the Atlantic.

Wouldn't have happened in the US. Sadly the UK has a generally horrendous record of keeping significant airframes. From a choice of hundreds, we are left really with a handful of actual "history making" airframes (G-ACSS, Gloster E.28/39, Mosquito prototype, Meteor prototype, and the speed record breakeing Hunter and Meteor at Tangmere amongst the few)

You can say that again. So often anything of historical significance is just dumped. The MOD/Government prefer to sell for scrap rather then give a couple of examples away to suitable bodies.

Matt

[C]

You can say that again. So often anything of historical significance is just dumped. The MOD/Government prefer to sell for scrap rather then give a couple of examples away to suitable bodies.

Matt

TSR2 is a good example (apologies for the ongoing thread creep). A significant type, cancelled by a dullard government, yet the two survivors didn't include they only one of the five to fly (which ended up as a target on Shoeburyness ranges).

By constrast, of the 5 prototype EE Lightnings, 4 survived!