Sidney Cotton's Pirate War - revisited

A couple of years ago I ran a couple of posts on the piratical old rogue Sidney Cotton and his WW2 exploits in the famous Lockheed G-AFTL; and how it was returning to the UK to be refurbished.  Several of you said you enjoyed the tale.  But I hadn’t updated the story for you: and now’s the time.

I’m pleased to say the illustrious aircraft been restored to full flying glory (- in fact, possibly even ‘better’ than before because I can tell you the newly-installed interior is rather more sumptuous than it ever was).  Recently it’s been a centrepiece in a big display at IWM Duxford, ‘Spies in the Skies‘, on WW2 aerial reconnaissance.  I’m including the link here: it works right now but I suspect it’ll be coming down in the near future as they draw stumps on the display.  But there will be other opportunities to see the Lockheed because it is flying perfectly well now. 

Also on offer from the IWM is this short film (click above) on the plane and a little of its history.  We need to be a bit cautious on the story, because Cotton was a serial liar – a shame, because the true story is riveting enough without his self-serving embellishments:  see those earlier blog posts.

On another aspect of the IWM display, they were also showing a short official film on Bomb Damage Assessment in WW2 - link here.  Different times:  the destruction of avowedly civilian targets being cheerfully discussed in the film would count as war crimes today.  O tempora, o mores … 

ND