Originally Posted by
Hotel Tango
Seems it was ZA947 the Battle of Britain Memorial, once 42-24338 of the US Army Air Force and 661 of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Also did a stint with the RAE.
It was KG661 'Portpatrick Princess' when it arrived at Farnborough (along with it's sister TS423 'Mayfly' which was supposed to be a source of spares) from West Freugh, however an eagle eyed spotter from Brize Norton pointed out that KG661 was written off in 1945, so how it acquired that airframe number is a mystery.
It was re-registered ZA947, was almost written off after a main gear failure in about 1990 but was repaired.
Lined up for departure from runway 07, the crew reported they had a problem and were shutting down and vacating the aircraft, however before the props stopped, the left main gear collapsed allowing the still turning prop to contact the surface. It broke off at the reduction gear and bounced up, hitting the fuselage neatly in the middle of the forward escape hatch, the crew fortunately choosing to leave via the main door (someone told me the escape hatch had been sealed and could not be used anyway). The skin on the upper wing surface was badly wrinkled because the wingtip was left resting on the ground. As ATC Supervisor that afternoon, it was my duty to go down and inspect it!!
Transferred to BBMF when RAE Transport Flight disbanded in the early '90s.