On december 16, 2007, airport hardstandings on two continents reverberated to the roar of 9,800 h.p. of Rolls-Royce Griffon V12 power, echoing the days when RAF Avro Shackletons patrolled the globe. At l630hr GMT, at Coventry airport in the UK, "Shack" AEW.2 WR963 Ermin-trude (the type's last operator, No 8 Sqn RAF, named its aircraft after characters from The Magic Roundabout TV programme) made its final engine-run of the day in sub-zero temperatures at the Air Atlantique (AA) Classic Flight's last open day of the season. Less than an hour later, its old 8 Sqn stablemate, WL790, Zebedee (at one time it was named after another character, Mr McHenry), began the last ever flight of an ex-RAF Shackleton from Midland Airport, Texas, heading for the USAF base at Davis-Monthan in Arizona and a future on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum (PASM).
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