I knew a former Stirling pilot during my RNZAF Service. AVM Larry Siegert ( CAS Oct 76 - Oct 79) Was a Stirling Captain, aged 19 in 1944 and dropping supplies over Normandy when attackled by three German fighters, which he managed to avoid, shooting one down in the process. At his funeral a couple of years ago, another former RNZAF CAS/CDS and Lancaster pilot Sir Dick Bolt described Siegert as "the finest natural pilot he'd ever met". In the 1953 Air Race to NZ, the RNZAF entered one of its new Hastings C3s, flown by Siegert, who gained a AFC for a night landing [Ceylon?] in a tropical thunderstorm and on three engines. Siegert once told me the Stirling had a major design fault in that it was made to fit the standard RAF hangar of the time, hence the wingspan was less than ideal!