Ok lets say it was a sea fury. They got built at Blackpool?
Irish sea trawler hit by test firing?
Any closer?

Using Mastermind scoring, that's two white pegs and one black peg.

That's Mastermind the board game, not the TV show: one detail is entirely right, two are partially right, and one is entirely wrong. Let's not say it was a Sea Fury.

Anyone? Hello? Earth calling Aeroscale, Earth calling Aeroscale ...

Hi Sean

As you can tell, I'm completely at sea on this one - boom, boom! Sorry.

I found a reference to Hawker Hunters being built at Blackpool. Is that it?...

All the best

Rowan

'Fraid not.

Your last clues (I mean it this time!): it's the opposite coast, and the aircraft concerned could have used a very different weapon.

A Tornado? Not strictly a fighter but I have no other idea...

Getting cooler again ...

Tornados were built on the same coast as Blackpool (where there was, indeed, a Hunter factory).

If you go back over some of the answers so far, you'll see a fair few pointers that should, by a process of elimination, lead to the result.

Hi Sean

Time for a desperate change of tack! - a Blackburn Roc, at Brough?

All the best

Rowan

Very much warmer.

Skua?

Still needs a bit more heat.

Hi again

A Firebrand?

All the best

Rowan

Yes!

The story is that Blackburn always tested aircraft guns by raising the tail and firing them into a nearby sandbank. What they didn't realise was that over the years, especially as shot weight increased, the bank was being worn away, and one day it just wasn't thick enough any more. Unfortunately someone had moored a trawler in the Humber, just on the other side, and a Firebrand raked it with 20mm fire. Not sure if anyone was aboard at the time ...

God bless Rowan and thank you for Him! We can have another question now...

Hi Sean

Nice one! That has to be the toughest - or at least the most obscure - question we've had in a long time! None of my web-searches brought up even a clue to that story!

I'll go hunt for something for the next question.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

I might have posted this beastie before - I can't remember. Anyway, what aircraft is this?



All the best

Rowan

Petlyakov Pe-2I?

Hi Warren

You're very, very close! Try a tad earlier...

All the best

Rowan

PETLYAKOV VI-100?

Nice obne Warren

You've nailed it!

The VI-100 looks like it could have been an amazing aircraft if it had gone into production, far in advance of its European contemporaries in 1940.

Over to you for the next one.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks for that poseur Rowan. I have always liked the looks of the Pe-2 so that one caught my eye immediately.

OK trendsetters! Here is one I found after minutes of looking in my massive reference library... (BWAHAHAHAHAH!!! All 5 or so books.)

I would say it's a Curtiss Jenny.

Sorry Michal. That is incorrect...

Yeah, there was a devil whispering into my ear: it's not so easy, it's not so easy...