Handley Page Halifax Mk III, "Friday the 13th", Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, York
The replica Halfiax was built in the 1990s, using both salvaged components, including the centre fuselage section of a crashed aircraft from the Hebrides which had been used as a chicken hut, and newly built parts. It is painted to represent both a Free French squadron aircraft, that flew from Elvington, and LV907, "Friday the 13th". Wearing the code letters NP-F, she might have become F-Freddie but a number of previous Freddies on 158 Squadron had rapidly become casualties so a different name was chosen to break the run of bad luck. Adorned with various lucky charms, including a skull and cross bones, upside down horse shoe, a ladder painted over the crew access door and a broken mirror by the navigator's desk, the aircraft survived a record 128 missions, all flown from RAF Lisset near Bridlington.
Handley Page Halifax Mk III, "Friday the 13th", Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, York
The replica Halfiax was built in the 1990s, using both salvaged components, including the centre fuselage section of a crashed aircraft from the Hebrides which had been used as a chicken hut, and newly built parts. It is painted to represent both a Free French squadron aircraft, that flew from Elvington, and LV907, "Friday the 13th". Wearing the code letters NP-F, she might have become F-Freddie but a number of previous Freddies on 158 Squadron had rapidly become casualties so a different name was chosen to break the run of bad luck. Adorned with various lucky charms, including a skull and cross bones, upside down horse shoe, a ladder painted over the crew access door and a broken mirror by the navigator's desk, the aircraft survived a record 128 missions, all flown from RAF Lisset near Bridlington.