Col Pay’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-18 Mustang Mk 21, VH-AUB. This is not a P-51, but was manufactured in Australia; it is one of three Mustangs currently flying in Australia - all of which attended the Scone display. The other two belong to Jeff Trappett and Bob Eastgate.

Also at Scone was Ted Allen’s Hawker Fury. It is one of four imported into Australia from the USA. Three of them, including Ted Alien’s, were restored by Guido Zuccoli of Darwin, Northern Territory; of these, two have already flown. The third is expected to fly within the year, as is the fourth Fury, owned by Rob Poynton of Perth, Western Australia. Ted Alien’s Fury is painted to represent a Sea Fury operating from HMAS Sydney during the Korean War.

A hangar-mate for Peter Sledge’s Spitfire Mk IX RR232 - restored to static condition and reported in December’s Grapevine - is another Col Pay machine, Spitfire HF.VIII MV239. This aircraft was originally allocated the RAAF serial A58-758, though it was never worn and the aircraft never saw service with the RAAF. Pay has spent the last two years restoring it to flying condition; though it looks complete there is still plenty of work to be done, and first flight is not expected until early 1986. For static display during the airshow it was fitted with a display propeller and a rather racy aerial mast. MV239 was one of two Mark VIIIs owned by the late Sid Marshall; its sister aircraft, MV154, was the central figure in an illegal export case from Australia to the UK in 1979.

The Hon Patrick Lindsay's ex-American S.E.5a is progressing well at Personal Plane Services' hangar at Wycombe Air Park. It is seen here in mid-October 1984 during pre-rigging.

The remains of a Nakajima NK-11A radial engine were salvaged from a construction site at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on November 7, 1984. The engine was originally part of the Nakajima G10N1 Fugaku (Mount Fuji), a scaled-down prototype for a six-engined super-heavy bomber capable of attacking America from bases in Japan. The project was abandoned in 1945 after two years’ development.

Two photographs of Edward Hulton's Short Sunderland V, G-BJHS, taken during its flight from Calshot to Rochester on November 20, 1984.

Work is proceeding on the RAF Museum’s Supermarine Southampton restoration project at Cardington. In early October 1984 the hull was turned onto its back by fitting two large semicircular “bulkheads” round the hull between cockpit and turret positions and rolling it over, inch by inch, on wooden rails. The whole delicate operation took only about an hour and was accomplished by just five men - a tribute to careful planning. A platform, top, was built round it for easier access to the underside. The planing surface, left, has now been removed to allow work on the main hull skin beneath it and on the internal frames, right. Plans for the restoration have now been expanded to include the fitting of a reproduction of the whole wing centre section cell (lower and upper) to the completed hull; hence the aircraft will be exhibited at its full height as well as in all its varnished glory.