Leeming Javelin moving to Jet Age Museum (Hooray!)

Always amazed to see how few fixing bolts hold the wings on.

Brilliant job by the team from GJD Services today who delivered and reassembled her. Thanks also to Gloucestershire Airport’s maintenance guys -and the airport generally – for their continued support. More pics in the gallery https://flic.kr/s/aHsjHQACMb

Great set of photos there. And as has already been said it would be interesting to hear how easily (or not) the Javelin came apart.
They seem to break down into a fairly reasonable load!?

Rob

It looks in good condition despite its time outside. I wonder if it came apart quite as easy?

Tim S

Brilliant job by the team from GJD Services today who delivered and reassembled her. Thanks also to Gloucestershire Airport’s maintenance guys -and the airport generally – for their continued support. More pics in the gallery https://flic.kr/s/aHsjHQACMb

Time to make a trip then!

Fantastic, congratulations.

She’s arrived! [ATTACH=CONFIG]236258[/ATTACH]

Some Leeming images from last week courtesy of David Thompson

Moggy

From experience at waddington the resources and willpower are there. Its the bureaucrats that need shooting. Raf guys often help with local projects.

Yes, Sabrejet, the Duxford one, the trials were in 1974 or 75 ,I was at western radar Aberporth at the time and handling the flights, we also had Lightnings from Valley MPC doing boom runs

Good to read of your save,well done. I have always been impressed with the pics of Javelins with 4 air to air missiles mounted,wonder if this could be done? Did you know that the Javelin helped with Concorde trials? The last one flying used to run air sampling flights over Cardigan Bay, Concorde would do a supersonic run north to south and the Javelin would then fly in the opposite direction into the wake and then dash back to Boscombe with the air samples.

This is the example now at Duxford: circa 1972 the first and only time I saw a Javelin in the air!

good to read of your save,well done. I have always been impressed with the pics of Javelins with 4 air to air missiles mounted,wonder if this could be done? did you know that the Javelin helped with Concorde trials? the last one flying used to run air sampling flights over Cardigan bay, Concorde would do a supersonic run North to south and the Javelin would then fly in the opposite direction into the wake and then dash back to Boscombe with the air samples.

Congratulations on a great result 🙂

…so does anyone know if the JAM Javelin is the ‘Yatesbury’ one?

The trustees felt, however, that we couldn’t stand by and see her go elsewhere or, worst case, to scrap

Shame a few other museums didn’t employ that very philosophy before scrapping significant airframes, even when sat right on their own doorstep!

I’ll gladly make a small donation to help things along with the Jav!

Rob

It is very likely that the aircraft will be reassembled on the main apron side of Gloucestershire Airport when it is delivered. With the full support of the Airport, it may even go on ‘gate guardian’ display, where XH903 previously stood. Whilst remote from the museum (which is on the opposite side of the airfield), we think this will be a useful ‘advertisement’ for what we do.

The assessment undertaken for us indicated that the airframe is in reasonably sound condition but, clearly, in need of restoration and, long-term, under cover display. This will be in ‘Phase 3’ of the museum building and, realistically, is still several years away.

The acquisition is actually something of a distraction from our main fundraising focus towards our much-needed ‘Phase 2’ workshop and comes at the worst possible time. The trustees felt, however, that we couldn’t stand by and see her go elsewhere or, worst case, to scrap. The aircraft’s arrival will enable us to fully evaluate the restoration needs and determine the necessary budget. At that point, it is likely we’ll look toward a targeted fundraising campaign. In the interim, you can help by joining the museum, or making a donation via PayPal using our jetagemuseum at hotmail dot co dot uk email address or via our website http://www.jetagemuseum.org/Contact.aspx

One of my Cold War Favourites, Well done.

Of course not forgetting the splendid example at Coventry !

This is great news ! Wonder if the Javelin will be flown in like the Meteor T7 delivery ? If she goes indoors that will only leave the Yorkshire Air Museum example outdoors at least in the UK….

Glad it stirred some memories WV-903. I understand that each one of the frames for those bikes cost about £4k back then (ie roughly the cost of a house), but as it was all just lost in the overall budget no-one had any idea what the project was costing BSA, or indeed, what the effect on the rest of the budget or production was. Very sad.