IT might be called the Iron Maiden - but this mighty traction engine is an altogether different kind of heavy metal from the band with which it shares a name.

The colourful road locomotive and showground engine once starred in a classic British comedy film, also of the same name, in 1962.

This weekend it was reunited with another star of the movie, a Victor "V" jet bomber, at the Yorkshire Air Museum, at Elvington, York.

Museum director Ian Reed said seeing the two British engineering heavyweights brought together in one place was a "magnificent spectacle".

He said: "We are delighted that owner and steam enthusiast Graham Atkinson has kindly agreed to help us reunite the Iron Maiden with the Victor bomber.

"It gave the visiting public the chance to admire two of the finest examples of British engineering history side-by-side in the atmospheric setting of the Yorkshire Air Museum."

Despite its slightly sinister-sounding name, the Iron Maiden is in fact a shining example of the machines that brought many traditional fairgrounds to life. It is now based at the Flower of May Holiday Park in Scarborough

The feel-good film, The Iron Maiden, featuring Michael Craig and Cecil Parker, involves an aircraft designer who falls for an airline owner's daughter. He gets into trouble over his affection for traction engines, which leads him to miss an important demonstration of his own aeroplane.

Described as "very English", the film was intended in part as a celebration of the long history of British engineering excellence, taking in both traditional traction engines and up-to-date jet aircraft.

The Victor is one of the most striking aircraft exhibits at the museum. It was produced by British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page, which went into liquidation in 1970.

The first Victor entered service with Bomber Command in 1958, and the plane had a long and distinguished career. At one stage equipped with hydrogen bombs, it later served as a refuelling craft. Victors took the restocking role in the marathon mission in which a single Vulcan bomber attacked the Falklands invaders during the 1982 war, and also played their part in the first Gulf War, before finally "retiring" in 1993.

Updated: 10:29 Monday, November 01, 2004