FlyPast September 2024

VULCAN POWER
The September 2024 issue of FlyPast features a very special aeroplane on its cover – the Avro Heritage Museum’s white-painted Vulcan B.2 XM603. This edition has a strong V-Force theme, with articles exploring what it was like to fly on a practise Vulcan bombing mission and to fly on a Victor air-to-air refuelling sortie. We also recall the rise and fall of Avro, 100 years after its Woodford factory opened.

CLASSIC FARNBOROUGH
Tony Buttler looks back on the post-war glory days of Farnborough Airshow – a golden era for British aviation

MESSERSCHMITT Me 163
Our regular ‘Classics’ section focuses on one of World War Two’s most extraordinary participants, the rocket powered Me 163 interceptor. Chris Goss describes its remarkable development and perilous wartime role

VALOUR OVER ARNHEM
The valiant efforts of an RAF Dakota unit and a Mustang fighter squadron during 1944’s ill-fated Battle of Arnhem are described by Andrew Thomas

FLYING BULLS
Luke Bimm takes a ride in the Flying Bulls’ newly restored Mustang Nooky Booky IV

HURRICANE DIG
It was London’s lost fighter – the bid to excavate Ray Holmes’ famous Hurricane

Plus, there’s been no shortage of must-see warbird action in the UK this past month. Don’t miss our report from the recent Sywell Airshow. Could this be the best historic-themed show of the century so far? Jamie Ewan certainly thinks so. We also share some rarely seen images of English Electric’s P.1A and reveal the winner of the hotly contested FlyPast Painting Of The Year Award, in co-operation with GaVA.