Hi Phil,
Thanks for that - a nice reminder that it wasn't all "Made in Britain"! Also brings back nice memories over the years of visiting (or working at!) similar facilties that still exist here, like the huge airship hangars at Cardington near Bedford, the RAF Apprentice training hangars at RAF Halton, or those that have been lost through modern demolition, like the hangars at Hatfield and Castle Bromwich. The one absolutely priceless piece of "history on a wall" that I remember being foolishly and irretrievably destroyed was on my first tour at RAF Hendon in NW London in 1978, a station with a long and illustrious aviation history from the birth of aviation in England with the Graeme-White aircraft factory there, which became the Hendon flying Club and airfield, WW1 aviation activity and then RAF Hendon before it closed in 1987 (the RAF Museum occupies part of the old airfield site, near the St Pancras railway line). The Officers Mess which was built in 1917 was originally the "London Aerodrome Hotel", then became the Flying Club's HQ and living accommodation for members, and then the Officers Mess for RAF Hendon. A lovely mock Tudor building, full of oak panelling and deep-buttoned leather armchairs - my bedroom was above the main entrance and was one half of what had been the Prince of Wales's permanent suite of rooms kept for him there in the 1930s in which he could "entertain lady friends...." One of the rooms downstairs, just off the main bar, was used as the "scruff's bar" so that one could get a drink without having to comply with the dress regulations pertaining to the main bar (suits after 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, jacket and tie on all other nights...).
That room was about half the size of an ISO container (IIRC) had always been so used through the various occupiers of the building and each wall was covered, instead of with the usual mix of trophies, bits and pictures of aircraft and the like, with large black rectangles, painted directly onto the walls. So it was rather like sitting surrounded by a lot of school blackboards; over the years, these had been adorned with the signatures, in white paint, of anyone who was anyone in the civil and military aviation, and latterly the aerospace, worlds who had visited the Mess and drunk in the "scruff's bar". Start with the Wright brothers, Bleriot, Cody, Sopwith etc, work through just about every famous RAF pilot and civil pilot to Neil Armstrong and they had all been there. A very special place to be. You can imagine how we felt when returning to the Mess after work one day for dinner and a few beers, to find that some complete and utter w**ker from the building maintenance organisation had decided that the room needed smartening up – the whole lot had gone in a day, each wall scraped bare and flat back to the plaster, and then covered in wallpaper…….gutted does not get near describing the feeling
The Mosquito has good memories too, not just because it was a beautiful design, but one of our family friends, now long departed flew Mosquitos in the RAF during WW2 and was one of those inspiring people that helped instil in me not just a love of aircraft, but the desire to join the RAF - my personal favourite picture of one has to be this one.....
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%202705.html 
MG Mark
