NEWS IN BRIEF

TEICHMAN TO HANG UP DISPLAY HELMET

North Weald-based Hangar 11 Collection owner Peter Teichman has announced that he will retire from display flying at the end of the 2018 season, his last show being the Shuttleworth Race Day on 7 October, when he will fly his P-51D.

BOBSLEIGH FLIES

The one-off Reid and Sigrist RS4 Bobsleigh, VZ728/G-AGOS, flew at Spanhoe in early May following restoration by Windmill Aviation. The experimental prone pilot research machine — which first flew on 9 July 1945 as the RS3 Desford — is owned by Leicester County Council and was previously stored in an old miners’ washroom at the now defunct Snibston Discovery Museum near Coalville.

ANOTHER VIGGEN FOR SWAFHF

The Swedish Air Force Historic Flight (SwAFHF) Saab SK 37 Viggen, Fv37809/SE-DXO, flew again at Såtenäs on 15 May after several years in storage and a restoration to airworthiness. Originally delivered to the Swedish Air Force in February 1974, 37809 last flew in September 2007 while being operated by the air arm’s test unit, based at Linköping/Malmen. This two-seater joins the SwAFHF’s single-seat AJS 37 Viggen, 37098/SE-DXN.

AVIODROME BUYS CONVAIR

Convair 340 ZS-BRV has been donated by Rovos Air in South Africa to the Aviodrome museum at Lelystad, the Netherlands. The twin-engined airliner — originally built for the US Air Force as a C-131B — will be flown to its new home this July, and thereafter kept airworthy. Twenty-four examples of the type were operated by Dutch national airline KLM. BEN DUNNELL

PREDATORS TO UK MUSEUMS

With the retirement of the type by the US Air Force, two General Atomics MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicles were delivered to major UK museums in mid-April. IWM Duxford has received serial 03-33120, while the second example has gone to the RAF Museum London at Hendon and will be displayed in its new Age of Uncertainty exhibition. The Predator has been replaced by the more capable MQ-9 Reaper. BEN DUNNELL