Nagoya's new airport, known as Chubu Centrair, was opened on an artificial island 35kms south of the city in 2005 and has an excellent roof terrace covering the whole of the huge single pier which extends out from the terminal

Working at Southend Airport in the 'Seventies produced some great opportunities. Just before N80FA departed on its ferry flight to Texas, I was able to fix up an air-to-air session from Cessna 172 G-ATLN. We flew as fast as possible, the Carvair as slow as it could with everything down. I can still hear those P&Ws roaring over the sound of my open window and the general racket in the Cessna. I even sold my car to one of the Falcon directors who duly loaded and flew home to the States with it - truly Car-via-air as Freddie Laker originally intended. This aircraft crashed in Alaska in 1997 as N103; another of the few remaining Carvairs suffered a similar fate up there in May 2007, so now only two survive

In 1978 the first of 116 F-4Gs, converted from F-4Es, joined the 35th TFW to accelerate the take-over from F-105s in the 'Wild Weasel' SAM suppression role. This example was later converted to a QF-4G drone and was w/o on 10.4.02

Tremendous sight at this disused RAF Comms airfield during the making of the film 'Hanover Street'. The Mitchells were taxiing up to this point for the film cameras then doing a 180, backtrack and round over and over again. The identity of this aircraft, painted as 'Big Bad Bonnie/151863', is also quoted by some as 108-34535 working on its original USAAF serial of 44-30210, but it is generally held that 108-33485 is correct. After being allocated to the March Field Museum, the aircraft found its way to Chino where it has been undergoing an extended restoration since the early '90s

The Orao (Eagle) was developed jointly between Yugoslavia and Romania as a trans-sonic attack aircraft. The prototype J-22H, seen here, made its first flight simultaneously with the Romanian IAR-93 on 31.10.74. After withdrawal from operational use, in 1986 it was given to the museum, although the type remains in service with the Serbian AF. Total produced was 103 of all variants (basic J-22, NJ-22 two-seat trainer, IJ-22 recon version and J-22NS with afterburner)

First public appearance of this 501 Hikotai recon Phantom in its unique ocean camouflage, similar to that carried by the Mitsubishi F-2s

With the exception of the Cessna 172, the Il-2 "flying tank" is the most produced aircraft in history, with 36,163 built. Despite this, only about eight examples survive worldwide. In the immediate post-war years, the Il-2 formed the backbone of the fledgling JRV (Yugoslav AF), with about 300 operated. As the rear fuselage and tail surfaces were made from wood, the Ikarus aircraft factory in Yugoslavia manufactured metal replacements to increase service life, the last Il-2s flying till 1955

Tranferred to Korean's low-cost offshoot from the parent in 2010

Initially N323F with Flying Tigers, this 707 seen here about to touch down on LHR's 28L had a six-year career with Aer Lingus from 1969 before going to Zambian Airways. Ended up dbr at Khartoum on 14.7.90 after an undercarriage collapse while flying for TAAT as ST-ALK

Just over the road from the RNZAF base at Woodbourne, this immaculately displayed machine is preserved by The Argosy Trust outside a cafe, recalling the period when it often operated from the airfield. Originally G-ASXN with BEA, it later went to Transair in Canada and then to NZ in 1974. A careful study of Google Earth back home had established that I'd get the best sun angle in the morning, but it was cloudy then. Note plastic owl bird scarer on the wing!

Uncharacteristically, the weather wasn't that kind during our stay in Sochi. This beauty was caught before the cloud rolled in

This long-time Armenian IL-86 appeared with Armavia titles in 2005. Soon after this shot it was wfu at Voronezh and intriguingly the nose was cut off and transported to an armaments test range to be used in a experiment on 7.10.15. This imitated the shoot-down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014, a SAM missile similar to that suspected to have brought down the Malaysian 777 being fired at the nose section

Not sure whether an Ekranoplan really counts as an aircraft, but here is the beast on the Moscow river to form part of a new museum. It is located in Tushino, near the park and metro station 'Schodnenskaya'. Photo taken from a friendly owner's houseboat

One of my earliest aviation memories is seeing this beauty arrive at Southend for maintenance in the late 'Sixties

Quick shot of this engineless transport - would have liked to get that camo An-26 behind too

Acquired from the R Libyan AF in 1965, this VIP Dak was last noted as stored at Erkilet from 1994

Standing outside the ATEL hangar, this one-time Air Canada Vanguard (CF-TKB) awaits delivery to what proved to be a very short-lived airline. Last flew with Europe Aero Service in 1979 and was b/u at Perpignan

A group of six 892 Sqdn Phantoms headed by XT861 which was lost in the North Sea on 7.9.87 with 43 Sqdn

Named 'Mine' and on a very rare but welcome visit to London, this Caravelle is now preserved in the museum at Istanbul-Yesilkoy. Relatively late-build aircraft delivered to SATA in 1970 as HB-ICN.

Aerosucre operated a fleet DC-6s and a couple of ex-BAF Heralds, later adding Caravelles before moving on to the current mix of Boeing 727 and 737 freighters. This Caravelle, originally Iberia's EC-BIF, is seen here in its ex-Aerolloyd colours and is one of a number that went on to perform often nefarious duties down in Colombia in their twilight years. Indeed she went on to Transapel and a drug smuggling career with Aerogolfo, being seized by the Mexicans in 1994 and landing up with the Mexican AF as 10507 (stored at Santa Lucia AB but now b/u).