Newarks New Hanger

For anybody interested in the new hangar and the succsesful lottery bid there is a very good article in the latest Aeroplane Monthly which I have just seen today.

Just to balance things up the latest Flypast have some crackin pictures of the RAF Museum’s Tempest V in its new colour scheme!

Originally posted by Joe Petroni
The cockpit fest this year is 14th and 15th June. I was going to say check the museums website but its not on for some reason!

Cheers Joe, much appreciated.

Oh, and welcome to the board by the way. 🙂

As regards to the Swift its just occurred to me that if its not going in the new hangar, it will go into the display hall, as some of the aircraft are coming out of there and going into the new hangar.

Just a guess mind. Personally I would like to see it next to the Hunter F.1.

As regarding re-wiring the Vulcan, the museum has all on keeping the corrosion down and keeping it looking presentable.
To give you some idea of how long it would take to re-wire , I was involved with a partial re-wire project some years ago on a similar vintage aircraft, although slightly bigger (VC-10).
It used to take about three to four months each aircraft working 6 in the morning until 10 at night with two shifts of about twenty guys on each shift plus all the overtime you wanted at weekends!

As far as I know I think there is only one regular volunteer who is into wiring, so I guess the answer is no, there are no plans to re-wire the Vulcan!

The cockpit fest this year is 14th and 15th June. I was going to say check the museums website but its not on for some reason!

Talking of Newark, can anyone confirm the dates for this years Cockpitfest please?

That doesn’t sound like a five minute job!:(

Its nice to have someone on here with inside info on Newark air museum

Thanks for clearing up all the rummors

One more question about the Vulcan

Are their anyplans to replace the old wires to get more systems working again ?

Thanks for the welcome chaps, it seems to be quite an interesting forum you have around here. I have been involved with a few bits and bobs which may be of interest so I’ll stick around if thats o.k. with you lot! 😉

Welcome to the Forum Joe , looks like your going to be an asset to the Forum , keep posting !!!

Welcome aboard Joe,thanks for the information.I’ll be interested to hear what the mueum’s position is on the Swift.

Thanks for the info..

Thanks for great information Joe..It is always great to put to rest rumours and here say.

Wont keep me quiet

Hello and Welcome Joe.
Thats a shame about the hastings stbd engine surely someone was supervising their work? If the port engines are still unsiezed then why not run them on occasion and have a donation box set near the aircraft so you can attract funds for its upkeep? Thats a shame about the vulcan having parts forcibly removed by the airforce. This was done on many examples and it seems silly when the fleet was being disbanded to remove items that were surplus anyways.
Ideally what newark should do is inhibit the engines of their aircraft so that they are preserved for generations just in case years down the road someone wants to reactivate one of them.;)

Joe
Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for a very informative post. Answers most of the “why don’t they…” so should keep us quiet.

Hi Guys I have just happened upon this thread, so I have registered and I will try and answer some of the queries raised.

Hastings

I am sorry to disappoint but the stbd inner engine has not run since Squadron Leader “Jacko” Jackson shut it down on the 22nd June 1977.
However, during the eighties I did manage to get both port engines running. The port outer was first, which was run on a couple of occasions, followed by the port inner. We did manage to run both engines together at least once, (blowing a rather heavy set of steps into the hedge I seem to remember!). Given the amount of time the engines had stood idle, they started remarkably easy, and I seem to remember other than a slightly sluggish propeller control everything worked perfectly.

Unfortunately, the stbd inner engine had previously had the attention of the local ATC unit, who in an attempt to un-seize it had removed all the spark plugs and left them out. This allowed moisture into the cylinders thus seizing the engine solid.

Another problem was that RAF had de-fuelled the aircraft on arrival, so there was only a minimal amount of fuel onboard and for the last run we had to drain fuel from the Varsity to give us enough.

So with the fuel all used up that was that.

Beverley Cockpit

The cockpit section comes from XL149. This is not the aircraft, which was broken up at Hendon (XH124), but one that used to be on display in the collection at RAF Finningley. The collection was dispersed as the airfield was used for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee review in 1977. This was a great shame as a lot of aircraft were just scrapped (including an immaculate fully complete Javlin which had just been repainted).
The museum were originally going to have the complete aircraft, but following assessment it was deemed to difficult to dismantle and move. The museum ended up taking the Shackleton instead (itself a monumental achievement to move by road).

Interestingly one other item was salvaged from the Bev, was the auxiliary power unit. This proved invaluable when getting the Hastings started. The cockpit instruments were replaced with just a cardboard representation, and were then used to restore other aircraft (such as the Shack).

On the subject of the Shack, as it was moved by road there is no chance of this aircraft being powered up again.

Vulcan

Like most preserved Vulcan’s, XM594 was subject to a spares recovery by the RAF on arrival at the museum. I don’t no what the reason for some of the parts they took as a lot were specific to the Vulcan. Not only were a lot of instrument panels from the rear three seats were removed, but a lot of electrical contactors which operated things like the air brakes, bomb bay doors etc.
Eventually most of these items have been replaced, (the rear seat panels turned up in a local scrap yard some months later).
We did manage to get all the systems operational again, including the big radar in the nose.

For safety reasons the avionics are not run anymore (the wiring is getting very old now and you would not want to stand in front of the radome with the radar operating!), but the APU is still operational along with bomb bay doors, air brakes and basic electrical circuits etc.

The problem with running the main engines (apart from the look of horror on the face of one of the committee members at the time when I suggested it) was that the alternators had been removed, somewhat brutally by the Airforce. So a lot of work on the wiring and a spare set of alternators would have been required. The aircraft was completely emptied of fuel and I seem to remember the fire bottles were discharged also, we also did not have an air starter at the time.

As for other aircraft being run up, I understand the Gannet was run on a couple of occasions, but I did not see it. I seem to remember the engine had only run about 10 hours since overhaul and was fitted to the aircraft prior to it being ferried from Lossiemouth on its last flight.

I think due to a mixture of heath and safety regulations and manpower requirements only the Vulcan is now kept ‘live’.

Although I am still a member, I am not active anymore, but I will try and find out about why the Swift has not been allocated space in the new hangar.

I hope you found the post useful 🙂

the beverly

That beverly cockpit should be offered for sale to anyone willing to take it on as a project. looks like a bleedin eyesore right now!

No idea about engine runs on anything. As I said, I visit very rarely. I assume if they haven’t been kept up, it’s quite difficult to start again.

Beverley cockpit section looks far worse now. Didn’t look closely but it appears to be splayed out at the rear.

Vulcan APU, how loud is loud?
The main thing was it gave the impression, though false, of being a live aircraft again, not just an inert exhibit. Priceless.

Peter I guess in our world..all static display aircraft should be given the chance to ground run…

Well especially the Piston powered ones!!

hastings run ups

Hi Brit.
Yes they used to do regular runups on the starboard inner engine in the late 80s but you never hear anything of it now. When I was there in 96 the props were all in sequence.
Have they ran the varsity before??

HP Hasting TG517 Inquiry

“do they still fire up the starboard inner engine on occasions???”

Does anyone have any information with regards to the HP Hastings having an engine startups. It would be interesting to see or hear about that?

I have noticed in many photos taken of TG517 that one of the engine props is out of sequence with the other three? I figured that maybe that one was frozen, any ideas?

The vulcan

Great pics Brit. It is a shame about that beverly cockpit section. looks for only for the skip now. I remember in 1996 when we were there that it was pretty stripped out inside.
I wisk I could of seen the Vulcan with the apu running. Was it really loud when it was running? It is a shame that they couldnt run the engines on her although when we were theere in 96, the fellow in the museum saud that they “dry” turn the engines over occasionally???

Beverly Cockpit photo.