The RAF BBMF hangar will be closed to visitors for the Christmas and New Year period from Saturday 18th December 2021 to Sunday 9th January 2022 inclusive, re-opening for hangar tours on Monday 10th January. The Visitor Centre exhibition area and shop will re-open on Monday 4th January 2022.
Header image: Sqn Ldr Mark ‘Suggs’ Sugden (left), the new OC BBMF, shakes hands with the outgoing OC, Sqn Ldr Mark ‘Disco’ Discombe AFC (right). (Photo: Crown Copyright)
The BBMF has now had a change of command. Squadron Leader Mark’ Disco’ Discombe AFC, who has flown with the Flight as a fighter pilot for the last seven display seasons and commanded the BBMF for the last three years, has moved on. With his time flying with the BBMF over, Disco is moving into a new post as the Training Officer on 29 Squadron – the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit – at RAF Coningsby. He will also be flying Spitfire PR Mk XIX PS853, owned and operated privately by Rolls-Royce, during future display seasons, meaning that he will be one of very few pilots to have flown all of the BBMF’s founding aircraft from the Flight’s inauguration in 1957.
Header image: Vickers Wellington Mk 1C twin-engine medium bombers of 149 Sqn, one of the Bomber Command units that participated in the raid against Berlin on 7-8th November 1941. One of the 149 Sqn Wellingtons, X9878 ‘OJ-A’, was shot down by a night fighter when homeward bound over the Netherlands. Only one of the crew of five survived to become a POW.
