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Old 24th Aug 2020, 13:05
  #41 (permalink)  
PDR1
 
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Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
but I don't think it was intended to be exhaustive.
Indeed not. But it's also worth remembering that military standardisation of types was something that started during WW1 (part of which gave birth to the AID and the requirement for interchangable parts). In the early part of the was RFC training units literally bought aircraft as required from any of dozens of local suppliers, many of which vanished without trace after delivering less than a dozen aircraft. These days that would pose a support/sustainment nightmare, but those were simpler times and the RFC technical cadres included skills in trades that could manufacture any needed parts at squadron level in much the same way that warships could make parts from raw materials when at sea. As a result it was quite feasible to have unique aircraft in regular service (especially away from the front line units). So it probably isn't possible to identify a single aircraft by elimination from a closed set of possibles.

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