Canadian Lancaster to visit UK in August 2014!

The Flying Legends at Duxford do a good job most years of bringing exotic fighters from far and wide so they seem to think it's worth the expense. That is for a headline act though. European based ones could simply fly here.

 

For those who missed the last flight of the pair at Southport on Sunday 21/09

 

Thanks for that, I've never had the time to see it up close - usually stuck in traffic going past..... or in years gone by, coming past in the dark from the Red Lion on Hillingdon Hill!

I suppose it depends on the willingness of the owners to join the party.......... the more the merrier I say!

 

The thing about Spitfires and Hurricanes is I suspect they are much easier to airlift or sea freight, being smaller.

It would be nice to think somebody might do an blockbuster film or TV series to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain - from memory, the only such production to mark the 70th was a very good but clearly low budget BBC version of Geoffrey Wellum's First Light, made it seemed with one flying Spitfire in later Grey.Green camouflage and one static replica in correct brown/green.

Of course, the problem is that only 8 USA nationals flew in the Battle.

Steven

 

ARCo at Duxford have mastered this (photo from their website):

 

And there are still several spitfires in crates in this country, that have yet to be either exported or rebuilt, several ex Doug Arnauld that were in flying condition, were crated up when he died, and have as far as i know not been re sold.

 

Don't talk to me about Doug Arnold. The classic stuff he sold overseas would be an airshow on its own if they'd remained in this country.

 

i happen to agree with you on that, At one stage he had airworthy the B17, Lanc, several spitfires, the mossy ,mustang, he was no classic warbird collector as he made out, but mearly someone who found them, then sold them on

 

And a B-24. Ex RAF/Indian AF IIRC. He did keep a Spitfire for himself but I only saw that at one maybe two air shows. It was a very rare beast on the air show circuit.

 

And she's off. Leaving Iceland on her way back.

 

A safe journey chaps.

 

yes i had heard that, not 100 percent what they are, but heard that a mk 22 spitfire,Mk9 spitfire , thunderbolt, amoungst others are still in the uk owned by his sons, now awaiting new owners
Might be called Flying A Services, at Greenham common, they have, or had, the spitfire mk9 and a seafire , some aircraft linked to Mr Arnold such as the wildcat are registered in the states.

 

I didn't think the Lanc was airworthy when he had it - not if it's the ex-Strathallen Lanc now owned by Kermit Weeks - wasn't it was being restored to flight when the previous owner died and he acquired it and then sold it on...

 

Charles Church was restoring a Lanc to flight when a section of hangar roof collapsed and crushed the centre section of the fuselage. That was the ex Strathallan one. Along with a new fuselage section out ended up with Kermit Weeks in Florida. AFAIK it's still in bits.

 

not quite sure, I know the B17 flew in ,i saw that one arrive, i might be getting confused, i know that G LANC was at blackbush, but cant remember if it was flying

 

G-LANC was deregistered in 1991 and now resides at Duxford.

 

Ah, I think I was confusing two different aircraft - G-LANC did belong to DA too, but although put on the register, allegedly never flew.

 

Thanks, i knew it ended up somewhere, talking about what ifs, had things been different might we have had 3 airworthy lancs in this country had the Charles Church lanc not been damaged, or if the Duxford Lanc had been in flyable condition , oh and 2 uk based B17's , a B24

 

I was thinking about this "grand gathering" while driving across to the in-laws (trip to the Malvern Show - some nice vintage cars and lorries, a lot of stationary engines and a few model traction engines - but not much else of interest to me!).

Am I right in recalling that display pilots need some extra level of qualification/authorisation for formation flying? If so, and you manage to round up 30-40 aircraft across the UK and mainland Europe, do you actually have a enough suitably qualified pilots (i.e. formation display flying and Spitfire/Hurricane type qualified) to actually have them fly a big formation?

P.S. I see that Vera is safely back on Canadian soil Just to keep us on thread...