On static display at this year’s Paris Air Show at Le Bourget on June 11-20, 1993 was the first of a batch of 20 Yak-3U fighters being built by the Yakovlev company itself in conjunction with the Museum of Flying at Santa Monica, California. Produced at Orenburg in the Urals from surviving wartime drawings and tooling, the aircraft are fitted with 1,240 h.p. Allison 2L engines in place of the original Klimov, and carry a pricetag of $500,000. Brought to Le Bourget in the hold of a giant Antonov An-124 heavy transport, the Yak was due to fly during July.

Messerschmitts galore: Duxford’s incomparable Bf 109G-2 10639 G-USTV meets examples of the company’s Fritz Fend-designed microcar during a Messerschmitt Owners’ Club rally at the Cambridgeshire airfield on May 23, 1993.

Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Dakota ZA947 returning from a successful test flight following maintenance and modification work by Air Atlantique at Coventry. This was its last appearance in its Royal Aircraft Establishment “Raspberry Ripple” colour scheme, albeit with the attractive addition of silver-doped control surfaces: it is now at Marham being camouflaged.

Kermit Weeks’s recently-restored Grumman FM-2 Wildcat on its way to April’s Sun’n’Fun Fly-in at Lakeland, Florida, where it won the Reserve Grand Champion award. The Weeks Air Museum, rebuilt after Hurricane Andrew, will soon be re-opening.

F-AZJM/44-73027, Dijon-based Flying Legend’s latest Mustang, made its debut at the Salis Collection airshow at La Ferte-Alais on May 29-30, 1993.

Spitfire IX MK732/G-HVDM made its first post-restoration flight at Lydd, Kent, on June 10, 1993. The aircraft is available for airshows and corporate functions in the UK care of Steve Atkins on 0860536950. With the loss of one Spitfire to a crash in 1992 and one to a fire in 1993, MK732 becomes the 41st Spitfire currently airworthy.

Following lengthy repair and rebuild, Mitsubishi Ki-46 “Dinah” 8484M has recently returned to the Aerospace Museum, Cosford, from the RAF Museum’s Reserve Collection and Storage Centre at Cardington. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was delighted to boost the restoration of the long-range reconnaissance aircraft with a large financial contribution.

The Salis Collection’s new Caudron G.III is nearing completion.

The UK’s sole surviving Short S.16 Scion G-AEZF needs a new home. Southend milkman Ray Jackson has been rebuilding it with the help of retired engineer George Hurst in a neighbour’s garage - but now the neighbour wants his garage back. Jackson is appealing to anyone in Essex who can provide space to house the 31ft fuselage, and to enable him to continue the rebuild - which is being tackled using photographs and sketches, since no manufacturer’s drawings have been found.

Hawker Hunter T.7 XL595, which crashed in the Peak District on June 11, 1993, killing owner and pilot Wallace Cubitt.

Hawker Hunter T.7 XL595, which crashed in the Peak District on June 11, 1993, killing owner and pilot Wallace Cubitt. Cubitt bought the aircraft from the MoD in 1991 and refurbished it at RAF Coltishall. It had recently joined the UKair display circuit.

Mignet Flying Flea “G-ADVU” / BAPC-211, newly completed by Ken Fern at Stoke-on-Trent, has been on static display at the Congleton garage of project sponsor Ian Burns, whose father built and flew one (unregistered) in the Thirties.