So who are the new owners?
It has been suggested that two were bought by a scrapman, and that the third is destined for the USA, but not, as originally thought, for HAMM at Lakeport?
It strikes me that these three jets had each already achieved a great deal when No.39 stood down in 1982 (were any of them the Punta Arenas jets, I wonder?). Since then there have been operational dets in Africa, the Balkans, the Gulf and Afghanistan, and as they retire (the last examples of the type in RAF service) they mark the Canberra's 57th year, and the RAF Canberra's 55th. The individual airframes are each well into their 40s, and have been in service for half of the RAF's existence. They have outlasted many younger types, which entered operational service after they did, and retired before them, including the Bulldog, the Gnat, the Lightning, the Buccaneer and the Phantom.
To match this kind of record, the Mossie would have had to have still been in use in 1999, or the Camel until 1973. These airframes are history.
And yet no-one has seen fit to preserve them. Surely to god one should be in Hendon, one in Duxford, and one at Cosford or Norwich, or on the gate at Warton or at Shorts.
And if not all three, then surely one of them? It seems a bit like selling off the Victory....