Fairey Gannet XL500 on static display at RNAY Fleetlands' Open Day on June 16, 1990. The vast Gosport helicopter repair yard - Europe’s biggest - was adorned for the day by a splendid collection of static historic types gathered together by Fleetlands Museum curator Graham Cooper. Exhibits included the Gannet, Hawker Sea Hawk WV911 and Fairey Swordfish NF389 from the HMS Daedalus historic store at nearby Lee-on-Solent, plus further machines from the RAF, FAA and Science Museums, and the Fleetlands Museum’s own superbly-restored Sea Vixen XJ841.

The unmistakable tadpole profile of a pristine Handley Page Hampden emerges from a pile of corroded wreckage at Surrey, British Columbia, where the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation is continuing to rebuild Hampden I P5436. The aircraft was recovered from the sea off Vancouver Island 4yr ago.

Another type on display at the RNAY Fleetlands Open Day on June 16, 1990 was Hawker Sea Fury WJ231 from the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

Northern Aeroplane Workshops’ Sopwith Triplane G-BOCK after final assembly at Old Warden on June 27, 1990. Built to original Sopwith drawings over the last 17yr, the aircraft is seen here fitted with a dummy rotary engine which was soon to be replaced by a real Clerget in preparation for a first flight later this year. G-BOCK wears the colours of No 8 (Naval) Sqn's N6290 Dixie II.

The Mew seen at closer quarters at the Shuttleworth Collection's Gipsy Air Day on June 3, 1990, where a brake snag limited it to taxying.

Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF takes off past a distinctive Old Warden backdrop on the afternoon of June 19, 1990, on its first flight since restoration to Cape configuration. Owner Desmond Penrose was at the controls.

Photographed recently at Lodi, California, Travel Air 4000 N8134 is one of four immaculate examples still being used for cropdusting by Precissi Flying Service. Built in 1929, N8134 must, along with its sisters, be the oldest agricultural aircraft still in use ... unless any readers know otherwise?