The Shack

This is a photo of a model Shackleton aircraft. The Shack was Britain's airborne early warning aircraft during the Cold War before it was replaced by the Nimrod. It always seemed odd to me that we appeared to rely so heavily on an elderly aircraft adapted for the purpose for such an important role when everything else in the air seemed to be fast jets.

Many years ago (I forget how many) we had the privilege as a family of standing on the beach at Lossiemouth in Scotland to watch a low-level flypast of the last surviving Shackletons before they were taken out of commission. It was a memorable event - I may even have some photos somewhere (must dig around and see). Watching them and listening to the noise of their engines as they passed over in formation was truly memorable: as memorable as witnessing the final landings of the BA Concordes at Heathrow a few years ago.

Why am I filming this? Because this model - which was made for us by a professional modeller more than a few years ago - lives on display in our sitting room during the year but makes way for Christmas decorations for a few weeks over the Christmas holiday period. Today it was time to be returned to its usual home so I grabbed a few photos before the Shack was settled back into its usual place.

Hope you like the photo.
Ps, I seem to recall that many (if not all) of the last of the Shacks flying from RAF Lossiemouth were named after characters in the Magic Roundabout which to me, at that time, added immensely to their charm when contrasted with the sleeker, noisier, faster, etc fast jets that also worked out of Lossie.