Avro 626 (REAF, used as a DDT duster during an anti-malaria campaign 1944). A serious outbreak of malaria in Upper Egypt from January to April 1944 resulted in several the REAF aircraft being equipped to spread DDT, to kill malaria-spreading mosquitos in their breeding grounds. At least one of the Avro 626s currently being used by the REAF’s FTS at Almaza was committed to this task. A “dusting” canister for DDT was therefore mounted beneath its fuselage, with insecticide powder being expelled from the container by the pressure of air from the aeroplane’s forward flight. Otherwise, this machine appears unchanged, still being an overall silver aluminium dope with the serial number J332 only painted on the rudder. The earlier crown in the outer ring of the fuselage roundel has also disappeared. There is, however, now a panel over the third or rearmost observer-gunner’s cockpit which also has its own windscreen. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)