Enjoyable thread indeed. On the subject of Royal Flights, in late 1966 the RAAF sent two crews from 34 Squadron (Canberra ACT) to undergo conversions to the HS 748 (RAAF version) and ferry two of these aircraft back to Australia for the VIP squadron.
Because the aircraft were not yet ready we were temporarily attached to the Queen's Flight at RAF Benson in the hope of getting a couple of observation flights prior to our own endorsement in the weeks to come.
We were amazed to see that once in the morning and once in the afternoon, all staff in the main hangar housing the various VIP aircraft would leave their offices and places of work and proceed to each aircraft and polish their allotted part of each type for I think about ten minutes. Then go back to work again.
These aircraft gleamed under the efforts of the polishing staff, giving each person a sense of personal pride of their unit. A nice touch in more ways than one, I thought.