North East Land, Sea And Aircraft Museum Diary

Hello Chaps, the 747 was a private owner who was storing it on site with the aim to turn it into a man cave i believe, under the workmanship of StuArt aviation. it left site at the start of last year i believe but we are unaware of where it went too, unless the boss Thunderbird167 knows.

On site wise we have recently became the proud owners of an aircraft tug, one which served on the HMS Ark Royal ( not the last one) pics to follow, it has already earned its place in our collection as it has proved invaluble lately for the recent moves we have had, most recently in preparing the lightning for its future move into the display hangar. 

The volunteers over the last few month have dug in deep and made some amazing progress in reshaping the collection and making the site more user friendly.

I would urge anyone who is up north for any time to pay us a visit, or make the journey to check out the progress. (when we get off of lockdown that is)

Have included a topside view of the Vulcan to see progress so far.

for regular updates, please follow our facebook page www.facebook.com/nelsamofficial

our website is also www.nelsam.org.uk

The B747 cockpit section moved on last year but I don’t know where to but perhaps Thunderbird167 will be along to add more but if not I will make some enquiries about it ?

Could you give an update and some photos of your B747 cockpit section inside and out – I am particularly interested to see how clean a sectioning from the rest of the airframe was achieved?

Time for a long overdue update for those who do not do facebook

Tomorrow sees the departure of Mystere No 146 to the Polish National Aviation Museum in Krakow

Also departing is the T33 down to storage with GJD Services at St Athan where it will be on show at SWAM

The new extension to the Romney building is now structurally complete with painting inside to be done before the Dragonfly moves over.

During the next six months the main aviation collection will be being re-shuffled and the Lightning, Anson, Pucara, Spitifire and Morane will be moved in from temporary storage or outside dispaly 

Great stuff !

That’s is quite incredible, you actually got one of those long dormant Olympus engines to come alive again and it worked too.

What an amazing achievement for all involved :applause::applause::very_drunk:

Some recent progress….more to see on our twitter/You Tube.

The Bluebird twitter feed has changed from ‘start a Vulcan ‘ to ‘started a vulcan’ so I’m guessing they may have had success in the attempts to breath life into XL319

Superb. Just like the Newark Shackleton and Vulcan it’s always a joy to see something big getting some TLC.

A little compilation video from our painting weekend on XL319-

https://youtu.be/NXvc7JmNIzM

Nothing done on the tail damage yet, but never say never. We’re concentrating on the engine work and basic painting for now.

Great job on the painting! I may have to revisit NELSAM sometime this summer so I can admire it up close.

Good to see further painting, so long after it was first started. XL319 is looking really good. I think the picture of 319 from 2010 tipped up in the snow, is one of my pictures taken shortly after 319 was found trying to reach for the sky again. Have you made, or will you be making repairs to the damaged tail?

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Our painting weekend went well- we had some BBP members and other assorted keen volunteers, and although lots remains to be done, we really broke the back of the topside painting. Plenty of pics on our twitter feed-

https://twitter.com/bluebirdk7

We’ve considered it, though for reasons unknown it’s currently removed from the aircraft!

For some time after the Vulcan landed at Sunderland, by various means we made the APU made operational.
Has it been considered to get the APU running again?
From a distance the the APU sounded like a Olympus at idle speed.

The brakes are very seized and the tyres are very flat…and we don’t plan on taking the single engine we’re going to try and start above a cautious idle!

Thanks for keeping us updated on this! It’s good to hear things are moving within that Vulcan! Just curious, but will you need to do any work on gear/brakes before applying sparks? Or is that big, triangular test stand bolted down firmly enough to withstand a bit of a push from an Olympus?

Another good day on site, we tested instrumentation to the cockpit (JPT and RPM both working), fitted the inlet trunk to No.4 engine and got some kerosene pumped into it with a wet crank on the starter. Pics and vids on our twitter. (Link above)

What a fantastic gesture and an excellent start by the sounds of it. Just getting one turning and burning would be an achievement after so long being dormant.

Keep us informed.