bobgpw

You know, I think we refitted the Nav Plotters seat in 231 and had to move the 6th seat out of the way to do so. There was a lot of grunting, cursing and WD40 used in the process and it is nearly 23 years ago now so memory is fallible! There was definitely a seat missing after delivery and as the Victor fleet hadn't used Nav Plotters for a while, I wonder if that was it? We had it occupied by the time the first high speed runs were undertaken in mid '94.

I believe the 6th seat was originally fitted to B.1 and B.2 aircraft to enable the crew chief to ride with the aircraft when deployed overseas (the drag chute is so heavy that any extra help repacking would always be welcome!). Whether it stayed on the B.2's I don't know. As Blue Steel aircraft, I can only assume that they would not have required it to be fitted routinely as the aircraft were mainly UK based and would have dispersed within the UK when things got exciting. But that is just me speculating and other than lugging the additional weight around, I can't think why you'd want to remove it or reinstall unless you were feeling particularly vindictive. It wasn't fitted when XL231 was retired as I recall and I think they'd been missing from the tanker fleet for a few years by then. The seats are very heavy and difficult to hoist up the ladder into a what suddenly feels like a very small flight deck! That spring assisted seat back is quite violent when it is activated, too.

I was told you could never trust colour photographs...! That black mastic is beautifully done and I hope those responsible won a prize. Nato Black, Coal Black or Tyre Black? Bob

Darn it, I was hoping to start a "correct shade of mastic argument"...

I'm with Steve on this, but I'm fairly confident that a K.2 will follow. The Omega aerial fitment is a bit of a botch job on the real thing and has a lovely mastic seal to the fuselage so lets hope Airfix can capture that accurately, I wonder what colour the mastic should be...

My LHS has at least four Airfix Victors for sale (£60.00) so they are out there... Because of my love for all things Victor, I had to glue my hands into my pockets and leave the shop as I've already got one via Hattons and I still have two Revell/Matchbox offerings to build. That stop frame animation is absolutely brilliant! Bob

Hi Dave, I'm aware of that (I've been lucky enough to help drive XL231) but the kit tooling allows for the differences. The 6th seat is as Airfix depict, when you spin it around to face forwards, there are a very convenient set of foot rests between the front seats. Bob

Just got mine through the post. Delighted would be an understatement and the kit engineering is superb, in my view, worth every penny at full retail rice and made in the UK too! A K.2 must surely be in the offering as there are lots of K.2 details in this kit, for example, the outer wing panels appear to show mounting points for the Mk.20B pods. I just wonder how Airfix will market a K.2 version? Add on pack like the Valiant?

I've just received my Airfix B.2, and a wonderful thing it is too! As far as I know, the cockpit colour scheme in XH648 is representative of all the bomber versions of the Victor. As you well know, after HSA did the conversion work, the front end panels changed considerably. Airfix seem to have provided the centre fuel panel for the K.2 and show it in the hinged down position, the decal is also the K.2 schematic. I think the B.2 utilised the same fuel tray arrangement as the B.1 in that the fuel tray slid in and out of the main instrument panel. The rear crew station also shows the air to air refuelling panel on the desk just to the left of the AEO which the B.2 obviously didn't have. Lots of lovely K.2 features on this kit, so no doubt Airfix will be tapping me for more cash in the near future! Bob

This link may throw some light on your enquiry, albeit in a general sense rather than specific to Merryfield: http://patrickbaty.co.uk/2011/10/05/wartime-camouflage-colours/ I always wondered why my local airfield had concrete and wood chippings as the surface treatment, but this link has taught me something! Bob

Five hull loss accidents in 21 years of airline service is pretty good going!

You may well be right Michael! All the references I have show the B-29A as having a 142'3" wingspan, but the acid test would be to check "Fifi" as she is a 29A. The Renton wing must have required a major redesign and I believe that it was used on the B-50 (which shared the B-29 wingspan of 141'3"). Logic dictates therefore that the B-29A/B-29D (B-50) probably have the same wingspan and that the "extra 12 span" may well be an error. You learn something new every day... Bob

Some aircraft Mode S transponders don't respond correctly to interrogator pulses from the radar. These issues are well known and there are several specific transponders that are affected. As a result, those aircraft should have Mode A/C reporting enabled at all times. I don't use FR24 but I suspect they might use a combination of Mode S addressing and ADS-B? The latter is notoriously unreliable and very dependent on airframe fit.

No F-86's at Stansted, not since the Airwork hangars closed... Controllers are simple creatures and we get very excited when strange and exotic aeroplanes turn up. However, most of the time we live in perpetual disappointment as yet another 737 or 319 rattles past.

I've got the William Wolf B-29 book and he gives the skin thickness as 0.1875" or 3/16" in old money. Certainly at the wing root the skin was at its thickest, running out to 0.032" at the tips. I don't know if Soviet alloys were comparable to US ones, but by the end of WW2, Boeing had moved from 24ST to 75ST alloy for the B-50. In 1/72 scale I can live with the scale 12" wingspan differences, and I haven't checked my 1/48 B-29's yet either!