Aircraft on Fire dumps

Several Vulcans had their undercarriages removed by explosive means, XL427 at Machrihanish is one that springs to mind. At the same time I know of a couple of Argosies that had the wings removed in a similar way (If my memory serves me correct)

I guess that they did just collapse them manually in other cases?

Tim

Slightly off topic but how do you get something the size of a Vulcan or Victor to sit on the ground? Do you jack it up, retract the undercarriage then pull the jacks out or do you just cut the u/c off first? Please enlighten me.
Paul

483 right. Misread the faded paint.

Herewith XG202 on Acklington dump in 1958. It crashed between two trees at Morpeth which ripped off the wings – the pilot survived.
Jim

[ATTACH]161695[/ATTACH]

indiaXray

That is XH483 at Manston.

I had an interesting chat with an ex RAF fireman last year, he wasn’t keen on those fancy new Tin tubs they use, as they don’t actually melt like real aeroplanes do. Sorry Seaking93 I forgot about the stuff at Yeovilton, have you got any current pics??

Tim

Peter,those slides were taken 30 years ago:) Here’s another slide I’ve scanned: XH483 Vulcan B.1A at the Manston Fire School in 1975

Sad to see them like that. I can deal with with scrap cars and landfills but shots like that tear the heart. The care that went into these machines; they weren’t for mass consumption. Lady’s like 463 et al deserved a better end…

🙁

Peter,those slides were taken 30 years ago:) Here’s another slide I’ve scanned: XH483 Vulcan B.1A at the Manston Fire School in 1975

Lots of spares on the Vulcan and Victor…?

The only current military locations that still have any fire training airframes (even if they are not actually burnt now) to my knowledge are Manston and Predannack, as for civilian stuff there should still be several Tridents at Durham Tees Valley airport with the CAA fire school.

Tim

There are still several in use for various things at Yeovilton, 3 Harriers, a Wessex and a ex Egyptian Sea King

murder!! 😮

lol

668
________
Herbal vaporizer
________
Ritalin rehab advice

Vulcan B.1A XH500 Scampton May 1977

Victor K.1A XH619 Marham May 1977

A couple of pictures of me and the occupants of RAF Valleys fire dump in appox 1984/5. (i posted these in the anglelsey/vulcan crash thread as well, but i thought they be easier to find here in the future if required.)

I have many pictures of fire dump aircraft taken in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s – it being of interest toi me. A number were included in my book ‘Grounded’.

Great book Graham – the ‘neanderthal scrapman’ shot was superb!

some of the previous residents at Catterick

http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?page=0&q=RAF%20Catterick&u=location&sort=&limit=50

The only current military locations that still have any fire training airframes (even if they are not actually burnt now) to my knowledge are Manston and Predannack, as for civilian stuff there should still be several Tridents at Durham Tees Valley airport with the CAA fire school.

Tim

having lived to near manston all my life the fire dump up there has always interested me, it was always sad to see aircraft that once stood proud outside the spitfire and hurricane museum be taken over to be burned, most training seems to be done on the specially made training ‘aircraft’, But i know theres still a dominie, phantom and several others still up there. If they are no longer being used for training, what will be there fate, i know the condition of tem must be quite bad, but if aircraft that have been buried for 60 years can be restored, why not these? Is there a database of aircraft that are in fire dumps, or waiting to be scrapped?

I have many pictures of fire dump aircraft taken in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s – it being of interest toi me. A number were included in my book ‘Grounded’.

I do have shots taken on Catterick’s dump in 1980, including one of a Victor K.1 (XZ939 I think from memory), only slightly scorched, it has a nose section of a Vulcan (without canopy) in place of its own, which was in the main hangar (closest to the A1) in good condition. I’ll try to scan the slide and attach.

What ever happened to the nose ? It was in the company of a (I think) Lightning nose and a Devon C.2 without tail section.

Graham

There are a couple of pics in W&R she did meet an explosive end!

Regarding the earlier post about the Shackletons on the dump at Kinloss,

They had the Following from the mid 70s, T.4s WB846 and 847, MR.2 WR953 (? from memory) and MR.3 XF730, and of these, one of the T.4s lasted till the end of 1989 IIRC and went to one of the scrappies in that area.

Tim

‘i suppose aircraft like that arent really as readily available these days’ A bit of that, and I think environmental and H&S thrown in aswel.
Like you say it is horrible to see airframes go, but when I was kid me and my mates would go up and witness the burnings, I hate to say it, we enjoyed it back then beinga very dramatic sight with the flames and black smoke rising from the sodium flares. Saw the Hastings, Shack and many Canberras go. Not all aircraft were burnt of course, some being used for crew evacuation trainers etc.

very sad sight indeed 🙁 what did they use such a soft metal for??? i know they used magnesium alloy in some of these aircraft, but had no idea about sodium, i can imagine that made quite an impressive fire 🙂