PhilB

That is a great Job and a bit personal for me.
A 249 Squadron Spit from my Father's squadron whilst he was on Malta (1941-3).
He was the Engineering Officer on 249 so one of "his" aircraft.
I remember the stories of Buck McNair, Johnny Plagis and "Screwball" Beurling (He wasn't called "Buzz" on the Squadron despite what you might read)
One thing I do remember about his memories was that on Malta, supplies were so short they painted them with anything they had.
So codes etc could be white, yellow. sky or whatever was available at the time.
Good to have the photo as well as most Malta Spits had an additional blanked off cannon port on each wing  as when they flew them in a lot had four cannons but on going into service two were removed for spares and the port blanked off with a rounded cover.
Nice easy way to get spare cannons to the island!
There was no set pattern either so some could have the inner fairing blanked and the others had the outer.
 
Nice build and thanks for sharing.

Found a good pilot's walkaround of the Avanti II.
Very fast, low operating costs but very expensive to buy.
But Piaggio was rescued by Ferrari so not surprising.

 

Function before form and so ugly it's brilliant.
Used to see these over my house when I was a kid.
Nothing else sounds quite like it.
Plenty of foreign schemes too.

Function before form and so ugly it's brilliant.
Used to see these over my house when I was a kid.
Nothing else sounds quite like it.
Plenty of foreign schemes too.

Found a good pilot's walkaround of the Avanti II.
Very fast, low operating costs but very expensive to buy.
But Piaggio was rescued by Ferrari so not surprising.

 

Function before form and so ugly it's brilliant.
Used to see these over my house when I was a kid.
Nothing else sounds quite like it.
Plenty of foreign schemes too.

Function before form and so ugly it's brilliant.
Used to see these over my house when I was a kid.
Nothing else sounds quite like it.
Plenty of foreign schemes too.

Function before form and so ugly it's brilliant.
Used to see these over my house when I was a kid.
Nothing else sounds quite like it.
Plenty of foreign schemes too.

They have a great collection.

I'd have to check my stash of old photos but I think I have one of that Starship at a Mangalore airshow. In the mid 90's I think. They even had a MiG21 at that airshow.
 
Cheers Matty

What can you not love about two 4-blade contra rotating props painted like a bumblebee attached to a prehistoric and pregnant guppy?!  My money is waiting. 

Yesssss, bring it on........this is the one displayed at the Hermeskeil museum in Germany, great looking "indeed-ugly" weird looking airplane......
 

 

 
Jack
 
 

Oooooh - we wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious...
 
That could be a thing of great beauty - to some of us, anyway...
 
Icelandic Fine Art?
 
I thought they were closing their doors for the time being?
 
Iain
 
 

You've been speaking to my wife again!
 
Seriously , the Gannet is so perfectly British .. how could not love it 

Just caught this on Chad Summers' Flying S Models YouTube channel:
 
 
Kev
 

No, there is evidence from people who were there at the time.
Accounts from ground crew and others.
Research from historians like Brian Cull and Brian Cauchi who have spent years on this subject.
I'd dig up my father so you could argue with him but I'm afraid he was cremated.

 
You might want to look at this documentary about returning a Hurricane and Spitfire to Malta for the anniversary a few years ago.
The blue paint is mentioned at around 21 minutes in and why they went to the trouble to fully repaint the Spit.
 

I was out on the airfield at Heathrow one day and an Avanti landed and taxied right past me.
Looked like something from way in the future and I fell in love instantly.
Never saw a Starship which was a shame as I find the designs of both these aircraft pretty amazing.

 

I was out on the airfield at Heathrow one day and an Avanti landed and taxied right past me.
Looked like something from way in the future and I fell in love instantly.
Never saw a Starship which was a shame as I find the designs of both these aircraft pretty amazing.

 

Neat!  I love the SS. On our tour of PIMA back during the 2018 US IPMS Nats, I discovered they had one there too, and took all sorts of close ups of it, as it was 110f out, but still got to get super close to it......just couldn't touch it or get burnt!
 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 

I "worked" with both the Starship and its counterpart the Piaggio P180 Avanti in ATC, and never understood why the Starship vanished from the GA scene......
 
 
and ....after googling the facts, i found out........it's a sad story.....

My thinking is that it has something to do with the guns.  Some Spitfires Vc's were sent to Malta carrying 4 20mm cannons and 4 0.303 machine guns.  On arrival, the outer cannons were removed as Spitfires with the C wing typically flew with 2 cannons and 4 machine guns. 
 
However, I'm also wondering if any were fitted in the field with 0.5 inch machine guns in place of either or both of the .303's??  That might have necessitated such a bulge.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

No, there is evidence from people who were there at the time.
Accounts from ground crew and others.
Research from historians like Brian Cull and Brian Cauchi who have spent years on this subject.
I'd dig up my father so you could argue with him but I'm afraid he was cremated.

 
You might want to look at this documentary about returning a Hurricane and Spitfire to Malta for the anniversary a few years ago.
The blue paint is mentioned at around 21 minutes in and why they went to the trouble to fully repaint the Spit.
 

Yep, as you can see, quite a lot shared spare parts.
The rule is there are no rules.
My late father was the engineering officer for 249 Squadron on Malta from late 1941 to Spring 1943 and supplies were so scarce they had to cannibalise everything.
Don't be fooled by any profiles carrying 4 20mm cannon.
They were often fitted for delivery but one on either side was removed for spares and you will see that in photos in the book.
I've only got a couple of his photos of Malta spits but the general rule is a sun-bleached, worn out look.
 

 

Great doco. Thanks Phil.
 
Cheers Matty

No, there is evidence from people who were there at the time.
Accounts from ground crew and others.
Research from historians like Brian Cull and Brian Cauchi who have spent years on this subject.
I'd dig up my father so you could argue with him but I'm afraid he was cremated.

 
You might want to look at this documentary about returning a Hurricane and Spitfire to Malta for the anniversary a few years ago.
The blue paint is mentioned at around 21 minutes in and why they went to the trouble to fully repaint the Spit.
 

No, there is evidence from people who were there at the time.
Accounts from ground crew and others.
Research from historians like Brian Cull and Brian Cauchi who have spent years on this subject.
I'd dig up my father so you could argue with him but I'm afraid he was cremated.

 
You might want to look at this documentary about returning a Hurricane and Spitfire to Malta for the anniversary a few years ago.
The blue paint is mentioned at around 21 minutes in and why they went to the trouble to fully repaint the Spit.