Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 'Nellie B', G-THUN,
bears the colours and markings of 'Nellie B', of the 492nd Fighter Squadron (FS), 48th Fighter Group (FG), United States 9th Air Force during 1944, on D-Day 6th of June 1944 and until the liberation and end of WW2 in Europe.
The aircraft is owned and operated by Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd.

At the end of 1942, P-47’s were sent to England for combat operations.
The P-47 gained the nickname 'Jug', as its profile looked like a milk jug of the time.

Weighing 7 tons, the P-47 is the largest and heaviest single-seater piston-engined fighter in history. The most numerous American fighter ever produced, it was a hugely successful high altitude escort and a formidable ground attack aircraft. The 15,000+ Thunderbolts produced and used in WW2, saw service in every theatre of operations except Alaska. By the end of 1944 it equipped 31 USAAF groups and served with many other Allied Air Forces, including the RAF who took 830 machines.

492 FS were given P-47’s in early 1944, flying their first combat missions with it in April. The squadron moved into Europe after assisting with the Normandy invasions with bombing and ground attack.

It was phased out of American service soon after the end of the war and dropped from the US inventory in 1953.

P-51D Mustang ‘Miss Helen’ (G-BIXL)
Miss Helen is the last original 352nd FG P-51 known to exist. She was delivered to the USAAF in 1945 and saw active combat with several confirmed 'kills' during WW2, with the 352nd Fighter Group (FG).
​She was flown by Capt. Raymond Littge as ‘Miss Helen’ and later by Lt. Russell Ross as ‘Miss Nita’, and again now wears the 'Miss Helen' paint scheme.
It’s uncertain exactly how many missions Littge flew in Miss Helen but it’s known that he flew her on a mission escorting B-17 bombers to the railway marshalling yards in Dresden on April 17th 1945, along with another 51 Mustangs.

​During this mission they came across an airfield at Platting with about 70 parked aircraft and Littge made seven attacking passes on the airfield, destroying three Me109s and two Me262s on the ground, despite having been hit during his initial attack by enemy flak, with the damage to his aircraft nearly emptying his oil tank.

'​Miss Helen' was sold to the Royal Swedish Air Force in February 1948 and then to the Israeli Air Force in March 1953. Recovered from an Israeli kibbutz in March 1976, she was restored and flew again in 1987, owned and operated by Robs Lamplough between 1981 and 2015. She starred in the Hollywood film 'Memphis Belle', appearing as 'Miss L' wearing squadron codes AJ-L in 1989.

North American P-51D Mustang, KH774, G-SHWN was owned by Sharkmouth Ltd, but since July 2021 is now owned by Biggin Hill based Warbird Experiences Ltd, now in a different colour scheme. Known as 'The Shark' the aircraft was operated by the Norwegian Spitfire Foundation and Boultbee Flight Academy.
Built at North American Aviations Inglewood factory and delivered to the USAAF in July 1945, she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force in January 1951, coded as 9279 with 403 City of Calgary Sqn. until April 1959. She was then sold to Defuria & Ritts who sold it to Aero Enterprises in Indiana. Neil McClain then bought her as CF-PCZ in Canada and passed her to Paul Feinfrock in Oklahoma as N167F. Feinfrock sold her to Anders Saether in 1980 and Vintage Aircraft Ltd, disassembled and rebuilt her by June 1985. A 357th FG paint scheme was chosen, representative of Col. 'Bud' Andersons aircraft coded B6-S. She was flown to Bergen, Norway during spring 1986 and in the summer went to Duxford, UK.
In 1989 she was repainted in an olive drab scheme coded AJ-N (356th FS of the 354th FG) with the nose art 'Cisco', for the movie 'Memphis Belle'.
While with the Scandinavian Historic Flight until 2010, the Mustang was given a number of different paint schemes.
In 2012 she was bought by Shaun Patrick’s Sharkmouth Ltd and flown to the UK on 31st August 2012. A new colour scheme was selected based on an RAF 112 Squadron scheme, using the shark mouth logo. The colour scheme represents a Mustang IVA, KH774, GA-S (44-11602), flown on ground attack missions over the Balkans and the Adriatic coast by 112 Squadrons Lt. Blanchford.

Grumman FM-2 Wildcat JV579/G-RUMW was built in 1945. Nicknamed 'That Old Thing', it's one of two Wildcat's currently airworthy in the UK.
It currently wears the scheme of JV579, a Wildcat V of 846 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Arm based on board HMS Tracker during D-Day 'Operation Overlord' in June 1944.

Filmed at IWM Duxford during the 'D-Day 75' event on 4th June 2019.

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