Sywell entertained two new visitors this week. As many of you will recognize from the photograph above, the first of these visitors was none other than P51-D “Jumpin Jacques” operated by Hanger 11.

I don’t know exactly what time she arrived, but when I made my morning trip to the Aviator Hotel reception (to collect used newspapers to pack your models), I popped onto the airfield as usual to see if anything interesting had arrived… and there she was, parked neatly next to Sywell’s resident display team The Blades! So, back to the office to grab my camera and to take a few shots for the Sywell Arrivals photo folder.

“Jumpin Jacques” was originally 44-72035  and is a P-51D-20-NA model built at North American’s Inglewood facility in California on December 21 1944. The aircraft was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group. This group became very famous as the first all African-American Fighter Group known as “The Tuskegee Airmen” and were referred to as “The Red Tails”. Entering combat with the 15th Air Force in March 1945 and flying to the end of the war she flew on bomber escort and ground attack sweeps over Austria,Germany, and Czechoslovakia. She still carries the scars of battle today with bullet repairs in several places.

The original “Jumpin Jacques” was flown by Lt Jacque E Young of the 3rd Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group.

Over many years “Jumpin Jacques” has appeared at lots of air shows in Europe, and has been seen at Duxford’s Flying Legends air show on many occasions. She has never had a major rebuild and is almost original as built in 1944 This makes this a very special and rare P-51 Mustang. She is a very welcome visitor to Sywell.

The second visitor arrived a little later on Thursday morning.I first heard the sound of a Merlin engine at my desk, while I was on a call from a customer placing an order. Once the call had finished I popped out again with camera in hand to take a few shots as she landed and took her position on the flight line.

This Spitfire was built as a single-seat LFlX fighter at the Castle Bromwich factory in 1944.It was delivered to the Royal Air Force at No.33 Maintenance Unit at Lyneham as PV202 in September 1944 where she was brought up to operational standard.The aircraft finally entered service with 33Sqn. 135 Wing of 2nd Tactical Air Force, based at Merville, Northern France, carrying the codes “5R-Q”.The Squadron supported offensive operations on the Allied push into Europe strafing roads and railways. The aircraft moved to its new base at Maldegem in Belgium before returning to the UK in December 1944.In January 1945 she was issued to 412Sqn. Royal Canadian Air Force operating from Heesch in Holland.The Squadron moved into Germany itself, based at Rheinand Wunsdorf forward operating airfields.After the war in Europe the Squadron returned to Dunsfold in May 1945 and PV202 was flown to 29MU at High Ercall for storage in July 1945.

She is now converted as a “two Seater” Spitfire.  PV202 is currently operated by Duxford based company Historic Flying Limited.

NOW TO MODELS AND 3 GREAT FATHER’S DAY OFFERS…

1/48th SCALE HOBBYMASTER SPITFIRE AND MUSTANG  FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL OFFER !

The website has quite a number of 1/48th scale Hobbymaster Merlin Engined Spitfires and 1/48th scale Hobbymaster Griffon Engined Spitfires, and 1/48th scale Hobbymaster P51-D Mustangs at fantastic low prices! Please click on the links here to go straight to the models.

As a special deal this weekend only, buy any model from the Hobbymaster 1/48th scale Spitfires or Mustangs and there will be a reduction of an additional £5.00 on these already low prices! (offer ends midnight Sunday 21st June). Order in the normal way and the £5.00 reduction will be made on credit card payments when the payment is processed. For PayPal payments £5.00 will be reimbursed to your account on dispatch of your model(s).

1/200th SCALE  HOBBYMASTER CIVILIAN FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL OFFER !

Flying Tigers still has a great choice of 1/200th scale Airliners on Sale. Please check this out by clicking this link.

As a special deal this weekend only there will be a BUY TWO OR MORE MODELS FROM THIS RANGE, AND GET THE LOWEST PRICED MODEL AT HALF PRICE on these already low prices! (offer ends midnight Sunday 21st June). Order in the normal way and the reduction on the lowest priced model on the order will be made on credit card payments when the payment is processed by our office. For PayPal payments the reduction will be applied and reimbursed to your account on the dispatch of your models.

1/72 SCALE  VEHICLE SALE SECTION ( HOBBYMASTER AND OXFORD DIECAST )  FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL OFFER !

Please visit the Sale Military Vehicles section by clicking this link.

As a special deal this weekend only there will be a BUY THREE OR MORE MODELS FROM THIS RANGE, AND GET THE LOWEST PRICED MODEL ABSOLUTELY FREE ! (offer ends midnight Sunday 21st June). Order in the normal way and the FREE MODEL will be applied to the lowest priced model on the order. This reduction will be made on credit card payments when the payment is processed by our office. For PayPal payments the reduction will be applied and reimbursed to your account on the dispatch of your models.

Lastly New Hobbymaster Pre-orders added to the site.

I have added ( and will continue to add over the weekend ) new Hobbymaster models for Pre-Order.

Please continue to check the site for additions. HA4701  North American RA-5C Vigilante 156624, RVAH-6, USS Kitty Hawk,1971 and  HA4801 E-2C+ Hawkeye 2000 VAW-123 “Screwtops”, USS Enterprise Atlantic Ocean, Oct 2005 have both been heavily Pre-ordered.

Please order early to avoid disappointment.

Once again thank you for taking time to read this Newsletter.

Richard.

Flying Tigers.

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