One of the new-production Yak-3s built by Yakolev in the 1990s using original plans and dies, powered by an Allison V-1710 engine. Painted in the marks of General Major Zakharov, a Hero of the Soviet Union who claimed 10 victories in WWII

TE184 spent her early years after being demobbed in the hands of the Air Training Corps in Lancashire and appeared in the 1968 'Battle of Britain' film at Henlow. Restored to flying condition in the late 1980s and was previously to be seen in USAAF and French colours

36 Mirage IIIS interceptors were built in Switzerland with strengthened airframes, the Swiss AF requiring integrity of carrier-based aircraft standards, allowing crane lifting in the mountain cavern hangars and JATO take-offs. The surviving 30 were withdrawn in 1999, by then in grey camouflage, and this one was stored at Buochs-Ennetbü, although the cockpit section is now preserved in Oslo

Rather un-Swiss, the battered condition of this Venom. Note the centrifugal-flow Ghost engine below which fits in its stubby fuselage.

With Dakota HB-IRN at the Verkehrshaus (Museum of Transport).

Two SATA Caravelles sit on the ramp at Geneva. As a long-haired student I hitch-hiked across Europe and took a few photographs with a small compact camera.

Became LX-TAI. This is how your new Pilatus comes into the world: the factory gate opens and the aircraft taxies out on under its own power, crossing a road to reach the adjacent airfield.

First flown in 1951, the Arbalète (Crossbow) was a scaled-down aerodynamic prototype for the projected N-20 Aiguillon jet fighter. Powered by four tiny Turboméca turbojets, the Arbalète achieved 750 km/h (466 mph). One of the lower engines is just visible under the wing.

This was the prototype of the first Swiss built jet aircraft though it never went into production and it was the sole example built. It first flew in November 1951 and is seen in the Swiss Transport Museum

A rare aircraft type, built in 1947