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Old 1st Aug 2015, 09:21
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Martin the Martian
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Next to Ross and Demelza
Age: 53
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The last-but-one did a wheels up at Fairwood Common sometime in 1960 and the very last one (in front-line RN service) was still going strong as an airborne ECM classroom in 1961 - 831 Squadron Culdrose. It was later shipped off to Abbotsinch where it was allegedly discovered to have been in danger of undercarriage collapse for a while. That it didn't was obviously due to JB and BW etc doing greasy landings. I believe one or either of these Chuffs eventually went into UK civilian ownership.
The last Avenger was XB831, which spent its last flying days with Culdrose Station Flight, known as Chougher or Chuffer, and was grounded in 1963. It now resides at the FAAM, painted in a WW2 scheme with D-Day stripes, which clash horribly with the lack of ball turret. Given the FAAM's work on the Martlet and Corsair, one can hope that XB831 will be restored to its post war glory at some point.

FAAM's Hellcat, KE209, was issued to Lossiemouth in June 1946 for the use of the Captain, and may have flown into the late 1960s in that role. It was handed over to the museum in 1970.
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