Miles M-38 Messenger 2A

1946 Miles Messenger 2A.As far as I know, there are only six Messengers flying in the world, so here is a rare opportunity to be part of an exclusive club. At the same time there's a unique set of criteria. A Messenger was made in Britain in the 1940s, seats four people, and can get them in and out of short strips, but is able to cruise at 100 knots - which is still a decent turn of speed nowadays - so you and your family can actually go places and get back the same day. It hasn't been in hiding for years and only just emerged from a hugely expensive restoration either; it was a regular at air shows during the late 1990s, and that's a role which it could very easily resume. It's definitely not a showpiece, but it was an exhibit Goodwood Revival's Spirit of Aviation in the UK this year.Messenger serial no 6339 was built at Miles' Newtonards factory in Northern Ireland 1946 and ferried across the Irish sea on a military "U" registration to Miles' Woodley Airfield base near Reading in the South of England. On September 6th of that year, it was granted the UK civil registration which it still wears. It has a continuous history since that day and I have all the Journey Books showing those first flights from Woodley, and the many subsequent trips across Europe throughout the 1950s, to Le Touquet, Ostend, Le Mans and as far as Bilbao, Biarritz, Cologne and Dusseldorf, and of course, Skegness Pleasure beach in 1954...The aircraft continued to fly with a UK CAA Certificate of Airworthiness until the 1970s, by which time the logs record only about 1300 hours. Fortunately, it wasn't left outside like so many of its fellows but went into storage until it was "discovered" in the 1980s. It was completely dismantled, overhauled, reglued with modern adhesives and reskinned where necessary, at the same time acquiring the identity of "RG333" which involved conversion to its current military Mk4 appearance with the large back windows and skylight. In 1942, the UK's Air Ministry had re