The Fleet Air Arm Museum's latest acquisition, Albatros D Va replica G-BFXL.

Royal Air Force Display Team Vulcan B.2 XH558 on its landing run at Kinloss on September 26, 1985, in the hands of senior team pilot Flt Lt Paul Millikin. The aircraft is undergoing a complete repaint in readiness for next year’s display season. The Vulcan is due to leave the Kinloss maritime base in mid-November after the Nimrod Major Servicing Unit has stripped the aircraft's drab paint and replaced it with an all-over gloss camouflage scheme to give improved protection and make the aircraft more visible for display routines.

Sopwith Pup N5195 on its second flight from Redhill, on September 8, 1985.

Lockheed Lodestar OH-SIR which arrived at North Weald from Finland in September 1985, has been put up for sale by Aces High together with several other vintage aircraft.

No sooner had Ben Cooper acquired Aeronca C-3 G-ADYS than he had the engine running.

At Jandakot, Western Australia, restoration of Doug Muir's Gipsy-engined Comper Swift has reached the undercoat stage. The Swift was built in 1932 and joined British Air Navigation at Heston as G-ABWH. In December 1933 it went to the USA as NC27K, but returned to the UK in August 1935. It went to Australia in 1939, stopped flying in the Sixties and was derelict by the time Muir bought it at Kalgoorlie in 1971. The airframe has been rebuilt and a Gipsy Major I engine has been installed. Muir plans to paint the aircraft in the Prince of Wales’ colours.

Meanwhile, at Brooklands, Flying Flea BAPC-29 “G-ADRY” nears completion. The aircraft, built in the late Sixties, was acquired by Mike Beach and brought to Brooklands last winter from its previous home in Wales. A new set of wings has been scratch-built, and work still to be done includes finishing the wing metal fittings, making the rigging wires and covering the flying surfaces. The covering will wait until next spring - the restoration team are not positively itching to do the job - but the Flea will be finished by the summer.