Reading all this reminded me of my time at Bedford. I was too late for the exotic stuff, though the Fairey FD2 was parked in a hangar, as was that low speed research Handley Page thingy. There was a P1127 which caused me to push the crash button on at least one occasion and an assortment of fairly normal aircraft.
However, what I suddenly remembered was the Twin Comanche, in RAE colours which was also hangar bound....can anybody say why that would have been there (this was 1973-1974). It didn`t fly while I was there, what became of it I wonder.