By
Hamish MacPherson
The debris of the Messerschmitt ME-110 from which Rudolf Hess bailed out over Eaglesham on his historic lone flight to Scotland to plead for an Anglo-German peace
IT was 80 years ago yesterday that Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess parachuted down to Renfrewshire from a crashing German aircraft and caused one of the great mysteries of the Second World War.
Even now, the Hess affair still seems to be causing embarrassment in government circles as some of the records in the National Archives are sealed and will remain so until 2041.
What is open for all to view, however, is one of the two engines of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 that Hess flew that fateful night. The engine is on display in the National Museum of Flight’s (NMF) Military Aviation hangar at East Fortune in East Lothian, on loan from the board of trustees of RAF Museum.