Manston Museums visit.

The Defence Fire Training and Development Centre is under Army administration. The way I understand it is they are responsible for the overall running of the school and the courses for themselves and the RAF, this includes uniformed service personnel and uniformed civilians employed under their umbrella.
The RAF also do their aircraft specific courses on the same site.
It appears that any appropriate fire outfit wanting to put their personnel through various courses there can do so.
the Navy do general fire fighting courses at Portsmouth, and aircraft related courses at Culdrose/Predannack.

I thought the existing site was fire training for all 3 services? The guardroom is usually manned by army types.

No; only the Defence Fire & Rescue Service (uniformed MoD civilians who look after the Army garrisons as well as quite a few RAF stations) and the RAF train there. The Army types manning the guardroom are MPGS (Military Provost Guard Service) who are a nationally recruited armed guard force – much in evidence right across the MoD, as units are usually too short of their own manpower to run a 24/7 guard force.

They also have Nimrod XV229.

I can confirm that!

They also have Nimrod XV229.

You can see a burnt out dominie and the tail of the Phantom on the mounds, as well as there bespoke fire trainer the multisim: http://www.dftdc.org/fsctefacilities/pages/Multisim%20(Port)_jpg.htm

Website with aircraft pics here: http://www.dftdc.org/index.html

Drive past the museums on your right and the entrance is about 300 yards further on the left. The hardware is well hidden from the road but easily identified on Google Earth.

I must admit I was unaware that the fire fighting school was till there. The airfield is so vast I assume I missed it. Is it visible at all, and if so where is it? A Phantom and a Harrier would make excellent additions to the museum.

It came from nowhere but me. Thanks for clarifying the case and my misconception of it.:)

Sorry, didn’t mean you in particular SkyHigh, it just seems a common misconception that an apparently dead airframe on a site isn’t serving some kind of useful purpose.

I thought the existing site was fire training for all 3 services? The guardroom is usually manned by army types.

I have not heard anything about the school closing, and am a local and in contact with a few staff on site, but whose to say they wouldn’t be the last to know, one thing i do know is that the airport in its current position will certainly NOT be taking over the site if the fire school moves! I would stake all i have on that fact!

Just to stir the pot a bit more…… I was in Thanet last week and the hot rumour – from one of the local MPs no less – is that the MOD will shortly announce the closure of the fire school when it puts the Defence Fire Service out to contract. It is assumed that the RAF firefighter element would relocate to Culdrose and join up with the RN school. Timescale unknown but they will probably aim to have the whole thing finalised by 2014. In which case you will see the entire Manston ‘fleet’ of training airframes go under the hammer with Defence Disposals. The impact on the surrounding area will be very interesting, as Kent International Airport may well be tempted to buy up some or all of the site in order to have the more modern buildings such as the former officers’ mess and the fire school HQ. And if that happens then TDC’s (currently shelved) plan to create a roundabout at the ‘museum crossroads’ could spell disaster for the History Museum’s compound. Stand by for an official announcement later this year……

It came from nowhere but me. Thanks for clarifying the case and my misconception of it.:)

No, the airframes are still use by the Defence Fire Training School for important training for fire crews to extricate pilots from crashed aircraft.
Many other sites have similar stocks of aircraft (Predannack RN Fire training, 7+ Harriers, Wessexs’, Dominie etc).
I’m not sure where this view of what apppear to be abandoned aircraft on an airfield are not serving a role anymore come from?
When the MoD are ready to release them off charge they will usually be made available through DSA.

I am sure if either became available they would re-arrange exhibits to accomodate one of them, at least. Yes the dreaded R letter, but why? And why does the MoD simply retain airframes, and even parts of airframes, which are of no value to them, but which would be treasured by those with rather more interest?

They actually have two Harriers; one is a total wreck and is worthless, the other is a recent arrival to the fire school so they will not part with it any time soon. The F-4J has USN Vietnam history and is much coveted, and not just by the Manston History Museum across the road. Although I have no idea where they would propose to store it in view of their tiny compound which is bursting at the seams already. Unfortunately the F-4 has the dreaded ‘R’ word in one or two places within the airframe so best of luck in trying to sort that out if you really want it!

I believe there is a Harrier and a Phantom which the History Museum would like to get their hands on but the MoD still own the aircraft on the fire dump and won’t release them. Bizarre.

Nice to see the Victor getting resurrected! And sad to see Pagen’s photo with the nose supported on one of the fuselage tanks during demolition. 🙁

Very pleased you have shared these on here. I am frequent visitor and always find something new to look at and think about and as you say the History Museum for a £1 is extremely good value – they had an excellent Wings and Wheels day a week ago and the sun shone brightly on the lovely Nieuport replica.:)

Nice pictures, drove by earlier and thought i havn’t been yet this year.

The RAF crash fire vehicle collection is at a seperate museum located inside the base perimeter at the defence fire training school, and is by appointment only, but i am told it is worth the effort.

Whoah! What a contrast! Externally the Victor now looks great – as do all the indoor exhibits (the T-33 is rubbed down ready for painting).

I was pretty pushed for time so rattled round looking at the aircraft and didn’t see all the vehicles, or the incredible detailed displays.

Indeed Pagey, I took these not long after it landed-