COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER
WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK
E-MAIL TO: aeroplane@keypublishing.com, putting ‘Q&A’ in the header
Are you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question, or trying to trace an old aviation friend? Our ‘questions and answers’ page might help
THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS
‘Droop snoot’ Britannia
Q Steven Keating recalls his time when, as a junior technician, he was based at RAF Brize Norton between 1972 and 1975. In 1974, with the Brize runway being resurfaced, personnel and aircraft were detached to RAF Fairford when Concorde was a regular sight pounding round the circuit (see pages 34-40). He recalls, “One morning, driving in to Fairford, I saw what seemed to be a very unusual, heavily modified Bristol Britannia. It was XM490 and, according to the title on the droop-snoot nose section, it was a ‘C Mk III’”. The wording on the fuselage side, meanwhile, reads ‘Royal Air Farce’…
Steven can’t remember the date, but it could have been 1 April, and he has no idea who took the photograph. He gave the picture to his late father, who was a flight engineer on Britannias with Monarch Airlines, and discovered it at the back of one of his…
