B-17 at Croydon
Q Captain Heinz-Dieter Bonsmann, formerly chief of the Lufthansa Historic Flight and now retired, sends a photo of a Boeing B-17G fuselage at Croydon Airport in the summer of 1961 (the airfield had closed for flying in September 1959, but some on-site maintenance work was still being carried out). A sign over the cockpit window said the B-17 was used for motion-picture purposes..

A I saw this fuselage in August 1961, and noted it as being used in the film The Longest Day. I was later told that it was formerly 44-83811, once N5014N. A month later there was a section of centre fuselage there with sand/brown camouflage and a white underside. Presumably these pieces were used for interior shots. Also around this time another film, The War Lover, was being made, so possibly that was another connection..

P-40 and Spitfire
Q Geoff Dobson submits an interesting photo issued by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) which was reproduced in Flight for June 27, 1940. The caption says the location was Uplands Airport, Ottawa, but why were these two aircraft there together?

A Reference to Air-Britain’s Spitfire International (2002) reveals that Spitfire IA L1090 was shipped to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, for testing in September 1939, and flew tests with the Curtiss XP-40 in May 1940. During a visit to Canada by USAAC technical officers, the XP-40 was flown by an RCAF officer and the Spitfire by a USAAC officer. The Spitfire subsequently flew with several units in Canada before leaving Ottawa for England via Montreal in June 1940, arriving back in the UK on August 1. In April 1941 it became 3201M with No 3 School of Technical Training (STT), Blackpool, passing the following month to No 4 STT, Henlow, where it was finally struck off charge on September 4, 1944..