Eric Mc

I have this old John Hinde postcard in my collection which shows an Aerlinte 720 at Dublin around 1964. It's in the later colour scheme adopted around 1964 but it's always been a favourite airliner image of mine. I've had it in my collection since around 1974. I am making progress. After weeks of filing, sanding and priming I've got to the point where the main colours can now be applied. I've got the top white coat on each model now and I've also painted the engines intakes on the 720 yellow as I will be placing engine covers in intakes as per the postcard shown above.

Great result. I’m refurbishing one of these at the moment but not trying too fix all of the flaws.

Venues will also be an issue. You can't have a show without a venue and many of them are schools. I don't see schools being over-enthusiastic with opening their doors to all and sundry for a long time to come.

I ordered some decals from Nick a week or so ago and they arrived within four working days.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, although the Dragon kits are nicely moulded, they have their inaccuracies too. In my opinion, Dragon missed a golden opportunity with their Lunar Modules.

I uploaded some video I took at Heathrow in 1992. Very prominent is a Saudia DC-8.

That is really nice. It would be good if Revell released a version of this in slightly different colour scheme that the current Spaceship 2 is carrying.

Yes - I used to listen to HF aircraft radio back in the 1970s, You could pick up some quite unusual aircraft VERY far away (flying down over Central Africa, for instance). The reception was terrible with lots of fading and static - but it made it all sound very exotic. Interestingly, when United bought their 720s, they did not require HF so their 720s lacked the famous fin "spike". The "Ceaser's Chariot" 720 was an ex United aircraft so did not have the spike. However, because it was being used on longer routes by pop groups - and flying overseas - it was fitted with the long wire

There used to be some interesting airframes lying in the scrub around Edwards Air Force Base.

I have the 1983 Breakfast TV broadcast recorded on VHS somewhere. The first launch was covered extensively on BBC and on RTE (Ireland). I was living in Ireland in 1981 so watched a lot of the action on RTE. Their space correspondent was a chap called Leo Enright who really knew his stuff. For the first few Shuttle missions, the BBC relied a lot on their Tomorrow's World team, so Michael Rodd did a lot of the London studio work and Kieran Prendeville was sent out to Cape Canaveral for the launch and was also at Edwards Air Force Base a few days later for the landing. Qui

The "tanks" are "Kuchemann Carrots", designed to improve the behaviour of airflow over the wings at speeds close to the speed of sound - also seen on the Handley Page Victor. The most regular user of 990s into Heathrow were Swissair. The only other operator who might have flown one into Heathrow would be Middle East Airlines (MEA) who operated them for a while.

There was huge media interest in the Viking programme back in 1976. After all, they were the first successful landers on Mars. It was the US bicentennial year as well so all things American were in the news. Obviously the programme lasted a long time so media interest waned after the initial excitement of the landings. As for the Shuttle, there was also massive media interest in the Shuttle up to and including the first few flights. Most media outlets covered the first two launches live. After STS2 interest did drop off as it became "routine" only to pick up again in 1986 with

Was it referred to as Icelandair in those days? That 748 has a vaguely French look to it. I think it might be Rousseau Aviation.

That is an impressive CV Bob - especially the traditional Irish music bit. Looking forward to seeing some of your builds.