Paul Bradley

Cool! The C-46 looks as if it's in one of the scrap merchants' yards just outside the fence.

And today, you can't even open the windows on the bus, as I was able to do back in the 90's when a school bus was used. Now it's air conditioned coaches. Mind you, they aren't running boneyard tours at the moment due to COVID. Mind you, a colleague of mine has done this in the past: https://www.raceentry.com/desert-boneyard-10k5k/race-information https://www.dm.af.mil/Media/Article-View/Article/1970208/boneyard-run-2019/ He took his camera and walked most of the course.....😉

The other issue is that the PR.XVI didn't have a bulged bomb bay, whereas the B.XVI (and hence the kit) did. Not sure if the kit comes with a set of 'flat' bomb bay doors

Some 20's-30's-period RAF fighters - sorry, the Silver Wings company kits are a bit expensive for my budget.

But aside from that, she was identical...... 😋 Jamie has a point though, and there are also the light fleet carriers in all their numerous guises over 60+ years. 8 Colossus Class, 5 Majestics, 4 Centaurs (including Hermes!), lots of war service, and how many nations? Plenty of re-boxing potential there to get a return on investment. They've kitted obscure British monitors, after all. Yet we get a paper design.....

She's a keeper, alright!

Couldn't agree with you more, Jamie. I thought Luft '46 was bad enough, but KM '46 as well now...... There are so many REAL British carriers that need kitting.

Cheers, guys. You must have a very tolerant wife! Mine was bemused and not terribly amused by my spotting from the hotel balcony on our honeymoon - P-3s doing circuits and bumps was too hard to ignore....... She still reminds me 28 years later....... I also did a Grand Tour of California museums - in a week in late November 1991, we did Castle, San Diego, Chino, Palmdale, Mojave and March - exhausting! If only we'd had digital back then..... Earlier in my stay, we'd done Travis, Beale and Oakland as well as a number of airshows. I need to get scanning.....

Just took this a couple of weeks ago of the SR-71 at Palmdale:

As promised, a comparison thread from 1991 (not 1990!):

As promised in Tony's recent thread, here are my photos from the Travis AFB museum, but from 1991 - checking my spotter's log from that period, it was February 1st, 1991, to be precise. Many of the aircraft featured in Tony's 2013 photos were there in 1991, but I had limited film and was rather choosy about what I photographed. It is interesting to compare the schemes and condition of the airframes from both visits. F-102A 61247: Lockheed C-56 Lodestar 4119729: A-26K 43652: A-26B 435440 Piasecki HH-21 0-28688: VH-34C 571705: Cessna LC-126 (Model 195): F-101 80285: F-102 and F-105 62299: My spotter's log notes 25 airframes onsite, and it's a shame we didn't have digital cameras back then! Later in the year, I went to their airshow, which included one of the first public airshow displays by the F-117A. But that's another story....

My parents' favourites, and a duo I listened to all the time growing up. Had the chance to see them live when they supported Simon and Garfunkel's reunion tour about 25 years ago - they were terrific. A sad day for rock and roll.

Nice work on both Mossies, Tony! Many thanks for those photos - very useful! The one with PoWs is definitely a 16 - note the lack of bomb bay bulge. Shame the serial and code can't be seen, but it does prove that 16s had that scheme. I just downloaded some 684 Ops Book docs from 1945 from the National Archives, so they might show up something I can use.

Looks as if it was a much better Flying Day this week! Are they doing one every week during the summer?

Worth a visit if you are in the area, as we were. I should mention that it's only open on the weekends at the moment. Check the website while planning.

The park is owned by the City of Palmdale and there appear to be volunteers to help with upkeep. Tours have been suspended due to The Pandemic and I assume there has also been limited ability to maintain the airframes. Some of them appear to have been re-painted fairly recently and I would presume they are done on a rotating basis. The grounds appear to be well kept, but that's another matter - I presume City Parks does that. One must also remember that this is a very dry climate, and the aircraft are no worse than those at Pima in Tucson, which has a very similar climate. While it does mean airframes aren't water damaged, the sun is quite brutal. Incidentally, here's a link to the Airpark webpage at the City of Palmdale website: https://www.cityofpalmdale.org/205/Joe-Davies-Heritage-Airpark ...and their brochure: https://www.cityofpalmdale.org/DocumentCenter/View/265/Joe-Davies-Heritage-Airpark-Brochure-PDF?bidId=

Oh, that's very helpful, Antti! I think NS688 is my bird! Many thanks!

On our way home from California, we stopped in Palmdale for a quick visit to the Palmdale Airpark and Blackbird Airpark. These are located on the edge of Palmdale Regional Airport and the famous Plant 42. The Palmdale Airpark (it isn't a museum yet) is run by the City of Palmdale and currently has 20 airframes on outside display in a landscaped setting. There are no facilities, but the adjacent Blackbird Airpark has a small gift shop and restrooms, and has three airframes on outside display. Entrance to both is free. Here are some photos of selected airframes. While quite open, space is cramped and there are some very solid and a little too high concrete bollards in front of the aircraft. Luckily, there were no other visitors when I was there. Canadair Sabre Mk.5, N91FS, formerly BAE Systems: IMG_3172 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr Curtiss C-46, 44-78019: IMG_3170 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr Lockheed C-140 Jetstar, N814NA, ex-NASA: IMG_3163 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr T-38A, 63-8182: IMG_3157 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr A-4C 145067: IMG_3155 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr Rutan Triumph N143SC: IMG_3135 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr B747 N911NA ex-NASA and B-52F 57-0038 IMG_3121 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr X-55A ACCA (converted Fairchild-Dornier 328) N807LM: IMG_3116 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr F-14A 164350: IMG_3114 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr F-4D 65-0696: IMG_3103 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr F-104C 57-0915: IMG_3102 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr F-100D 54-2299, ex-Thunderbirds: IMG_3100 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr F-101F 58-0324: IMG_3098 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr And at the Blackbird Airpark just next door, the SR-71 and A-12: IMG_3083 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr U-2 IMG_3081 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr Yours truly.... IMG_3176 by Paul Bradley, on Flickr

duplicated thread....

Hi Antti - thanks for the tip, but I am looking for the PR.16 rather than the 34. Do it have any photos or profiles of the 16 in silver/PRU Blue?

Many thanks, Wooksta - great lead, I'll check it out.

A long shot, but perhaps the odd one was re-painted. I just find that scheme far more interesting than the overall silver one!

Thanks, Graham! Are there any specific photos in that book? It may be reasonably priced in GB, but it's a bit pricey on this side if there aren't. I will try to get a hold of a copy via Interlibrary Loan. Thanks for the tip!

I've looked all over, but I'm unable to find any photos of an RAF Far East Mosquito PR.XVI with the Silver/PRU Blue scheme - I can only find ones in overall silver, or photos of the PR.34 with the two-colour scheme. Can anyone please point me in the right direction? Looking for 684 Sqn if possible.

You lucky boy! Nice shots, too. I visited back in 1990 - I must dig out my shots and scan them.