aviationanoraks.co.uk

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Photos this week on the website come from our visit to Rougham Control Tower Museum in Suffolk.
A small museum based around the former airfields tower, it is full of artefacts, history, and personal stories from those who served at the station during World War II.
For anyone with an interest in USAAF operations, this is a must-do location.

B-17 model by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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The Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden is our subject matter this week, so no need for too many words as everyone here knows the collection very well.

Old Warden by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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Now we finally seem to be getting over some of the technical issues that have plagued us recently, aviationanoraks.co.uk is now back up as our regular feature platform.
The .com version of the website will hopefully become our archive, but this is going to take some time to rebuild.

Anyway, this week at the .co.uk site we feature the Shuttleworth Collection Lysander, which was positioned beautifully for walk around photos when we were there.

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This weeks update is a small one, with a few photos from quick visits to Mildenhall and Lakenheath last September

Untitled by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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This weeks update is the first part of two taking a look around the small but very informative Bottisham Airfield Museum.
We knew they had acquired and fairly recently repainted the former IWM replica Mustang that used to hang in the American Air Museum, but we did not expect the amount of information, artefacts and history that were also on display.
This weeks set looks at the displays around the museum, and this time next week a set featuring what is now one of the most convincing replicas around, the Mustang, will be our main topic.

IMG_7586 by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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This weeks photos go back to the Race Day show at Old Warden last October and feature just a small number of the vehicles that either attended our took part in the event.

Untitled by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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One of the visiting aircraft to Old Warden for the Race Day show was Stearman 18263 (N38940), which stayed for the whole weekend.
With it being parked close to the fence line, it gave us an opportunity to photograph it at different times of the day in varying light conditions, the results of which can be found on our website now.

Sunrise Stearman by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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More from the Race Day weekend at Old Warden this week, with photos of some of the based and visiting aircraft, along with some of those that arrived to take part in the flying display.

Race Day by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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It’s mostly motorcycles at aviationanoraks.co.uk this week, as our look at the 2023 Shuttleworth Race Day event continues with some of the two wheeled attendees (and one horseless carriage!)

Race Day Motorcycle by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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A big update at aviationanoraks this week as we cover the flying display from last Octobers Shuttleworth Race Day.
A really pleasant end to the show season, featuring many Old Warden favourites alongside some interesting visitors.
We will leave these photos up for two weeks before starting something completely new.

DH88 Comet by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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This weeks photos are from our first ever visit to the Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre, located in a former railway building not far from the centre of Wolverhampton.
Packed (and I do mean packed!) with artefacts relating to all things transport connected to the Wolverhampton area, and with most of the cockpits open for access, it is a pleasant way to spend a few hours surrounded by local history.
I actually walked around twice, as there are so many things on display it is easy to miss the smaller objects first time around.

As a footnote, while there I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Alec Brew, author of a number of local-area aviation books.
Alec passed not long after my visit, so our photos from the day are dedicated to his memory.

Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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For the next three weeks, aviationanoraks is taking a break from aircraft, and instead will be showing images taken at the AGBO historic rally held at Weston Park on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border in March.
Three sets of photos will be uploaded over the coming weeks, each set being taken (mostly) from different parts of the stages.
Something we had not attended before, or attempted to photograph, but it was a very enjoyable day.
And how fast are those MkII Escorts???? Mental!!

AGBO Rally 2024 by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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Back to aviation now at aviationanoraks.co.uk and part 1 from our visit to the Shuttleworth D-Day weekend.
We chose the Sunday to visit which was apparently quieter on the visiting aircraft side, but we had an enjoyable relaxed day looking around the collection and the four aircraft of the D-Day Squadron.
Over the coming weeks we will look at each of the D-Day Squadron aircraft individually, thanks to the unrestricted external access which allowed close up inspection, but we start this week with the visiting aircraft, vehicles and a few from around the hangars.

Shuttleworth D-Day. 2024 by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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Moving on to the D-Day squadron aircraft now at the Shuttleworth D-Day weekend, and a look at the incredible survivor ‘Placid Lassie’ that was brought back from dereliction in 2010 and is now operated and cared for by the Tunison Foundation.

Placid Lassie by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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The second D-Day Squadron aircraft on show at Old Warden in May was C-53 ‘Spirit Of Douglas’ which has had an interesting history, being operated by the USAAF, RAF and even Air America amongst others.
It is fitted with the AiResearch Maximiser Speed Kit, and sports a luxury interior.
More photo of this beautifully presented aircraft at aviationanoraks.co.uk this week.

Spirit Of Douglas by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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More from the Shuttleworth D-Day weekend this week, with photos of the third D-Day Squadron aircraft, DC-3 *Western Airlines*.
Don’t know if it was because this was the only one of the four that we hadn’t seen five years previous, but this one really stood out for us, a true 1940’s workhorse airliner in its correct 1940’s scheme.
Full set of photos on the website now.

Western Airlines by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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The final set from the Shuttleworth D-Day weekend is our latest update at aviationanoraks.co.uk featuring the last of the four D=Day Squadron aircraft, C=47 “That’s All, Brother”
Back in 2019 when we saw three of these four during the last big D-Day commemorations we thought we would never get to see them again, even more so after the events of 2020, so it was an absolute pleasure to be able to get up close and reacquaint ourselves with these historic aircraft.

That’s All Brother by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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The photos to cover the next couple of weeks have now been uploaded and are from this year Midlands Air Festival at Ragley Hall.
We seemed to struggle with the light more this year than before so are not as sharp as we would have liked, but they do give a record of the event.

Draken, Mids Air Fest 24 by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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This week, a break before we cover our next airshow in the form of photographs taken by Mrs A during a VIP experience day at Longleat Safari Park.
The day involved being taken around the park in one of the site Land Rovers, and leaving the normal public route to get closer to the animals which gave the opportunity to take more close up photographs.
The animals are so used to the park vehicles that they do not take any notice of them whatsoever.

Longleat by aviation anoraks, on Flickr

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Part 1 of our look back at the stunning Sywell 2024 airshow are now uploaded.
The first set take a look around the static displays which were very well thought out, some featuring aircraft that flew later that day in the air display.
More to come over the next few weeks…..

Sywell static by aviation anoraks, on Flickr