Hi everyone
Just thought someone may be interested in these… Anson VM325 was donated to the Air Scouts at Halfpenny green (Now Wolverhampton) in the Summer of 1967, She flew in fom Benson fully serviceable – The only things the crew took away were the very pistol and the crystals out of the radio. They even left the tanks virtually full. My father, who was an ex RAF engine fitter used to run the engines up every Sunday – The fuel lasted years…
Eventualy, she fell into disrepair and went on to Coventry and then Gloucester. The last pic which is copyrite Jet Age museum, shows her now… 🙁
Nige
By: Nige - 28th April 2004 at 22:32
The last time I saw here she was dismantled at Gloucester. I think all the parts are there, just in VERY poor condition…
What was worse was that in the late 70s, while it was still in a reasonable condition, the RAF asked if they could have it back for the RAF museum – The scouts were ofered a Hunter AND a Whirlwind in exchange (All metal…) The guy who ran the scouts refused for some strange reason, at which point there was an almighty row and me, my father and several others departed the scouts…
There are some more pictures
here…
Look in the gallerys
Regards
Nige
By: ageorge - 28th April 2004 at 22:15
Nige is she intact but just dismantled ?? , is she in Very poor condition ??
can you mail me at
[email]ageorge@haemonetics.com[/email]
Many Thanks
Alastair
By: Steve Bond - 28th April 2004 at 15:43
Well done, it looks great.
By: 682al - 28th April 2004 at 13:35
The poor old Anson doesn’t seem to have fared too well once taken out of service. They are difficult to maintain unless kept under cover, and restoring one such as VM325 is a daunting prospect.
Here’s the nose of VP519 (the only bit that survives). It was another resident at Halfpenny Green in the 1960/70’s until chopped up by a Manchester scrappie. The Northern Aircraft Preservation Society acquired the nose and kept it for many years without a serious attempt at restoring it.
My pal and I took it on in 1984, by which time it actually looked worse than the latter photo of VM325. We stripped it down to (literally) every last nut, bolt and screw and gave it the best treatment we could. Twelve years later, and after god knows how many hours of effort, we produced this result. We’re quite proud to have done our bit for one of Avro’s finest….
By: Bruggen 130 - 28th April 2004 at 13:19
I used to finish school and go straight to the runway at Coningsby to watch Ansons,
canberra’s and Javelin’s landing, Happy days.
Phil.
By: Ray Jade - 28th April 2004 at 13:02
I’ve a few pics to put up in the ‘1952’ thread (in due course)
By: Peter Mills - 28th April 2004 at 12:59
In the early sixties many RAF stations had an Anson as a part of the “Station Flight”.
These were used as general hacks and did just about every job going!
By: Steve Bond - 28th April 2004 at 12:01
Looks like a row of 2 or 3 of them in fact.
By: Ray Jade - 28th April 2004 at 11:53
What a shameful state! At least she’s under cover.
Seeing the pics of the Anson in her prime has answered a small question for me. I was wondering about the aircraft just visible (to the left) in the pic of a Whitney Straight I posted (you can now add links to specific posts! http://forum.airforces.info/showpost.php?p=341077&postcount=32). Looks like an Anson.
By: Steve Bond - 28th April 2004 at 11:36
Yes thanks for those. The Anson was a great beast and served well for years. In the 50s & 60s I lived in the centre of a triangle formed by Bovingdon, Booker and Northolt, so the sky always seemed to have an Annie in it.
I was going to upload a JPEG of a pristine one at the fantastic Abingdon display in 1968, but the file size is too big – sorry.
By: Arm Waver - 28th April 2004 at 11:28
Time has not been kind to her has it.
Nice photos of her way back. Thanks nice to see such photos
OAW
Sign In
April 28, 2004 at 11:12 am