Cockpit collection, Rayleigh in Essex

it had moved and shrunk when I last went

not at Hanningfields

I haven’t been down there in a couple of months, but it seems as though Hanningfields has closed now?

Is it just me who can hear ‘Mind the gap’ when looking at the last pic of that Valiant cockpit!!!

Seriously it is a lovely and well kept cockpit

Slightly OT but I visited the highland aviation museum in Scotland last weekend. The have the cockpit of Valiant XD875 there, and unlike most other museums, you can access all the cockpits!

Slightly better view from the pilots seat than the Vulcan, but not as good as the Victor!

She’s pretty much complete, bar a few deletions, perhaps sensitive equipment.

not at Hanningfields

So the conclusion is either they are at Hanningfield Metals or at Foulness. It seems a shame that so little is known about them and that they are no accessible to view, where’ve they are!

There are four Valiant cockpits, Flixton, Brooklands, Scotland and this one from the Rayleigh collection. Plus the airframe at Cosford.are there any other bits of Valiant anywhere?

Any idea whereabouts on Foulness?

Slightly off topic, but as an ex 1312 cadet, does the ATC Squadron at Southend still have the Lightning and Chipmunk cockpits?

Regards;
Steve

That’s a rather sad tale, and the subject of an old thread.

I belonged to 1476 Rayleigh Squadron when we first received the Lightning cockpit, it then apparently went to the long
defunct Southend museum. A couple of years ago the powers that be at Rayleigh ATC decided in their wisdom, to sell the cockpit.
Along with a very nice WWI (BE2 ?) propeller which I had donated. Well it was nice when I donated it, probably not so nice
after it had been chucked into a container for some time. 😡 😡 😡

As far as the collection in Rayleigh goes, didn’t the owner have a Viscount cockpit ?

XD826 Vickers Valiant BK1 (N)

Wouldn’t that be like hens teeth? so rare it must be almost invaluable. I understood all Valiants were destroyed.

Only one complete Vailiant remains and that’s at RAFM Cosford. Three nose sections (including XD826) and another cockpit section remain.

I was always under impression that information on the collection has intentionally been made hard to come by as the owner doesn’t particularly want a lot of visitors.

They definitely aren’t at Bentwaters and no one has ever tried to do a deal with me about locating them at the Museum.

Graham
Museum Manager
Bentwaters Cold War Museum

Whilst flying over foulness about 10 yrs back i noted the collection which was located at the far end of Island.
Since then it has moved on. Last i heard the owner was trying to do a deal with the museum at Benwaters.
But i believe the collection may actually now be stored in one of the former HAS shelters on Bentwaters.

TS

XD826 Vickers Valiant BK1 (N)

Wouldn’t that be like hens teeth? so rare it must be almost invaluable. I understood all Valiants were destroyed.

Going by the demobbed out of service website…these maybe them…

XD826 Vickers Valiant BK1 (N)
XH560 Avro Vulcan K2 (N)
XH669 HP Victor K2 (N)
XH670 HP Victor B2 (N)
XN795 EE Lightning F2A (N)
XS421 EE Lightning T5 (N)

was this not the collection held by Hanningfield Metals ?

Thanks guys, do we know whet this Cockpit Collection consisted of?

Whilst flying over foulness about 10 yrs back i noted the collection which was located at the far end of Island.
Since then it has moved on. Last i heard the owner was trying to do a deal with the museum at Benwaters.
But i believe the collection may actually now be stored in one of the former HAS shelters on Bentwaters.

TS

Both have moved on . The Lightning was the last to leave and it was sold I believe to a cockpit collector.

Any idea whereabouts on Foulness?

Slightly off topic, but as an ex 1312 cadet, does the ATC Squadron at Southend still have the Lightning and Chipmunk cockpits?

Regards;
Steve

Last I heard it was located on Foulness thus visits were not possible.

If anyone knows anything about this collection I am also looking for info on it.

Thanks