Regarding the Blackburn Beverleys at Bicester (Personal Album, Aeroplane August 2020), I was on No 71 Maintenance Unit when these were flown in. The camouflaged aircraft were ex-No 84 Squadron at Khormaksar, and probably arrived via Abingdon for customs. The silver aircraft I think was from Abingdon, as was one other which was taxied straigh into the dump as it had a broken rear spar. It had an engine change for the trip, all of 20 minutes, and I tried to sell the replacement Bristol Centaurus on behalf of the RAF (as it had zero hours) to someone in the USA who had a Sea Fury and was desperate for a motor. Nowadays the RAF might bite a sensible customer's arm off! It did not happen as the stores officer told me the RAF actually made quite a lot of money from the insurance companies as a result of clearing up all the crashed civil aircraft in UK as well as the service wrecks. The other problem was that as the aircraft was taxied into the dump, it was officially Category 5 and therefore scrap.
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