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West Malling 1985


Paul J

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As part of taking a beak from kit bashing etc. I will go back to sharing some of my old pics with you all. And, to start off by request from a member here, These are some of West Malling '85 I have just over 50 so will post these in 10's

 

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Gary Numan in attendance as part of the Harvard display team.
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Nice to have the opurtunity to see two B-17s together in the air!!

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Part 2 ....

 

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MS 733 Alcyon.
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Lyndsey Waltons F4U-7  Remember it???
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Howard 500 N500LN  Conversion of a Lodestar!

More tomorrow night.

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Many thanks for taking the time to post these up Paul...very much appreciated. I certainly missed that 1985 show, and was quite sore about it. I did beg my Dad to take me when I heard that there was going to be two B-17s there....quite a rarity even now, but he was having none of it. Certainly do remember Lyndsey Waltons -7 Corsair. One of my favorite warbirds on the circuit at the time....and I'm currently building it. It did appear on the 1983 show poster, but was a no show that year.

 

I'm staying tuned in!

Thanks again.....fantastic photos. The shows were certainly good back then.

 

Best regards;

Steve

Edited by fightersweep
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1 hour ago, Paul J said:

Part 2 ....


3wUIBs.jpg

 

Lots of memories seeing all those old colour schemes!

The Sally B picture above must have been between mid 1982 ( checkered cowl after Ted White died ) and the end of 1993, as I'm sure Sally B went into the olive drab and yellow tail for the 1984 season. Sally carries the red fin stripe from the "We'll Meet Again" TV series. Note the red G-FIRE over flying Sally B below.

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Edited by Army_Air_Force
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Thanks for the photos. I now live on the old West Malling airfield, as it is now called Kings Hill. The control tower still remains as it is offices and a coffee house.

 

Robert

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11 hours ago, Paul J said:

Part 2 ....

 

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I'm guessing that this B-17 is the French aircraft that went on to become "Pink Lady". It is seen below in the centre of the row, after some modifications to 'F' configuration and named "Mother & Country", for the "Memphis Belle" film in 1989.

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Flying Legends 2008 in "Pink Lady" colours.

 

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On 12/08/2018 at 23:23, Army_Air_Force said:

Lots of memories seeing all those old colour schemes!

The Sally B picture above must have been between mid 1982 ( checkered cowl after Ted White died ) and the end of 1993, as I'm sure Sally B went into the olive drab and yellow tail for the 1984 season. Sally carries the red fin stripe from the "We'll Meet Again" TV series. Note the red G-FIRE over flying Sally B below.

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The silver B-17 in my pics IS the French one that visited the UK a few times in OD camo in its latter years and NOT Sally B. True, Sally B did appear in a similar scheme fro the TV series. If you look at my other pics you can see Sally B in OD with yellow tail. All the pics in my post above were taken on the same day.

 

Meanwhile here are some more on the same day:

 

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On 8/12/2018 at 10:21 PM, Paul J said:

Part 2


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No question about it, this iS Sally B seen between mid 1982 and late 1983 it isn't the French aircraft from 1985. The French B-17 had an all red fin panel, not a diagonal red stripe.  You can see the Sally B artwork ahead of the checkered cowl. The cowl was painted to match the Texan cowl that Ted White was killed in June 1982. I have photos of Sally B two days before the crash showing four natural metal cowls. The checkers were a tribute to the former owner that Sally carries to this day.

 

The French B-17 in your pictures doesn't have an upper or ball turret. The silver Sally B picture I quoted has both.

Edited by Army_Air_Force
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Aah!   I now see the confusion!!!   Somehow I must have mixed my slide scans up. My apologies for misundersatnding your comment.  I will have to move those scans in my files to the right year,  Darn!!   But Many thanks for pointing this out.

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Hi Paul!

 

Just caught the new batch of photos! Thanks again so much for posting these up. Yes! Certainly a mix of 1985 and 1983 photos there. I think the biggest giveaway apart from Sally B's colour scheme is the weather. 1983 was pretty dire, particularly on the Sunday (the day I was there). Rained all morning and I only remember it starting to brighten up later in the day. 1985 seemed a lot sunnier! 

 

I remember watching the local news the day before the 83 show, because Jonathan Lipton decided to land the WAR replica Fw-190 G-WULF gear up on the Friday press day. If I remember rightly, several people walked across to where it belly landed on the runway, picked it up and walked off with it! Obviously minimal damage as it flew that weekend. I can't remember, but was G-WULF half scale? Had to ask as I need to add one of these to my collection, but in 1/72. I think they were half scale, so I would need a 1/144 Fw-190 to convert I imagine?

 

I enjoyed the crazy flying routine by Barry Tempest in Tiger Moth G-AYDI too. Very entertaining! Was fortunate to have Barry visit my stall at Duxford one year, and we had a long chat about those displays, and how displays have changed since. Was also impressive to see the Ju 52 / Casa 352 fly at the time as I remember just having got the Airfix kit at the previous week. Flown that weekend of course by the one and only John "Jeff" Hawke. Nice to see the Howard 500 too. This 13 year old had no idea what it was....best guess I could make at the time was that it was a hot rodded Lockheed Hudson! 

 

Best regards;

Steve

Edited by fightersweep
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