East Fortune Concorde

Steve , I have been looking back through some of the EF photos and I can’t see the Beau in any of them , I can see some small parts – does anybody recall seeing the fuselage sections ??.

Al

Al,

Check out my Webshots (link below) and look at the East Fortune Restoration Hanger page which shows some piccies of the Beaufighter in bits

Hope this helps

I have managed to have a sneeky peek at AA while locked away in her hangar , looks like she was carefully dismantled with an oxy-acetylene burning kit , should be interesting to find out how they glue the wings and fin back on 🙁 .
Steve , I have been looking back through some of the EF photos and I can’t see the Beau in any of them , I can see some small parts – does anybody recall seeing the fuselage sections ??.

Al

There’s a bit of irony in the situation in a way (as well as a lot of aluminiumy 😉 ).

Arf arf! Nice one Archer, like it! 😀

Slightly pedantic point – Alpha Alpha has been a hangar queen for some time, so presumably donated quite a few parts over the last couple of years in order to keep the five flyers flying. So presumably before MoF commence restoration they’ll need to work out exactly what they’ve got and what they still need. From that, they’ll be able to lay out a plan (and budget!) for the restoration. That’s what they did with the Beau as soon as they received it, although since then the Beau’s gone veeeeeery quiet…..

It sounds sensible indeed, but surely not when here we’re talking about an aircraft that was complete and in great shape when they aquired it? The only restoration needed is because of self-inflicted (in a way) damage! There’s a bit of irony in the situation in a way (as well as a lot of aluminiumy 😉 ).

Anyway, the report may be off, so perhaps we should reserve our judgement for a bit.

Sounds very much as though they’ve followed the same policy that they had when they acquired the Beaufighter; acquire the aeroplane, organise to get it transported to East Fortune, and then when it arrives carry out a survey to establish the extent of work required. Makes sense to me; at least now it’s on site and under cover, and they can survey it and organise the restoration without too many time pressures.

This was posted on PPRUNE today. Sad to see that they are now sitting there with a broken Concorde, looking for someone to fix it. Should’ve expected them to get the rebuilding arranged before taking it apart, or is it just me?

Gdday,

Went to see the old girl looking rather sorry for herself in the hangar at East Fortune, had no idea the wings were cut off, l thought they could be removed then refitted???

Also they have put it in this hangar where it now cant be removed, would have been nice if they just built a new hangar and made it able to be towed in and out for special occasions.

Apparently it is being put out to tender who will refit the wings, l guess it could be anyone as it doesnt excatly have to be a company with any type of CAA approval seeing as they sawed the things off.

Hope they get it looking good again but she looks very poorly right now.

Ta
Caley

I think I’m right in saying that one fully reassembled, there is about 1 foot clearance between the hangar roof and the top of the tail. Since the hangar doors are much lower than the highest point of the roof, then clearly (as the photo indicates) there is no way Concorde is coming out without either her or the hangar losing bits of their anatomy!

It looks like a tight squeeze in there and clearly they can’t bring her out for the odd foray into the sunshine. With one foot of clearance between tail and roof I have to wonder how they’ll hoist it up for reattachment ?

I think I’m right in saying that one fully reassembled, there is about 1 foot clearance between the hangar roof and the top of the tail. Since the hangar doors are much lower than the highest point of the roof, then clearly (as the photo indicates) there is no way Concorde is coming out without either her or the hangar losing bits of their anatomy!

I think one of you guys at the recent East Fortune meet was speculating as to the size and height of the hangar doors versus the height of the Concorde plus tail ? :confused:

I think we can easily settle this question with a picture. Not mine, but scanned from this months Flypast (copyright Anne McMunn-Porter Novelli)

I don’t think there is any intention that she should leave the hangar once reassembled. She isn’t going to fly and would disintegrate very quickly if left outside in the elements, and they certainly aren’t going to wheel a large aircraft like that in and out all the time. So, as far as I know, once put back together the Concorde will remain in that hangar permanently (unless the museum manages to build a purpose-built building on newly-acquired land nearby).

Points taken Ian thanks, I was under the impression they might roll her outside for the odd open day. What I’m wondering though is whether or not this will in fact be physically impossible once reassembled ?

I think one of you guys at the recent East Fortune meet was speculating as to the size and height of the hangar doors versus the height of the Concorde plus tail ? :confused:

Will she definitely be able to leave the hangar once all the bits are reattached ? I know there was some talk about this being difficult to say the least.

I don’t think there is any intention that she should leave the hangar once reassembled. She isn’t going to fly and would disintegrate very quickly if left outside in the elements, and they certainly aren’t going to wheel a large aircraft like that in and out all the time. So, as far as I know, once put back together the Concorde will remain in that hangar permanently (unless the museum manages to build a purpose-built building on newly-acquired land nearby).

Will she definitely be able to leave the hangar once all the bits are reattached ? I know there was some talk about this being difficult to say the least.

Still a shame that they hadn’t thought of this when we were there last month!

It’s the right thing to do though. With all the attention that was given to the move, there’s no way that they could’ve justified keeping it hidden for all those months. Now who’s going to get the first photo of her in the hangar up on this forum then! 😀

Surely H&S would not necessitate restoration being hidden from public view? I would have thought that being seen would mean that the museum would be more likely to ensure that it adhered to H&S legislation, since any breaches could be documented.

I would imagine the original decision to hide her away would have been taken on H&S grounds. H&S has historically been king up there at MoF; being part of the National Museums, they have to toe the line a bit more stringently than most.