Plea for a victor……

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 22-08-02 AT 02:45 PM (GMT)]Damien
OK on re reading my earlier post, it doesnt make sense what i said about keeping her current colors and losing the fuel pods. 🙂

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 22-08-02 AT 00:37 AM (GMT)]Damien.
I was only saying that the victor should remain in her present scheme being that she is the only surviving complete victor left in the world in this configuration. It would be sad to see her painted up in the last scheme worn by the victor fleet.
As far as hacking off other bits and adding turetts etc. that wasn’t called for…:(

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Thanks Ashley for your info on the shack and the victor. It is still sad thought that the shack was allowed to just quietly rot away… A little glimor of hope still exists that at least the Victor will hopefully be saved. I would like to see her retain her bomber command colors and also possibly lose the underwing fuel drouge units to more closely represent a bomber aircraft.

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

I agree with the comments regarding the Shacks demise. How has it been allowed to get into this state in the u.k’s premier aircraft museum of all places? Surely it must be possible to restore it, when you consider some of the bin bag jobs that have been brought back from the brink? There aren’t too many examples of this fine beast left, and its a great pity that we wont be able to see it with its stablemates in the future.

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Talking of which, anyone know the latest on the Air Atlantique situation with their ‘Shaks’. I thought that BAe systems had relented and that the US based example was due back in the UK.

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Thanks for the comment’s Ashley. The Shackleton is very much on the decline in the U.K – let’s hope that not too many more get the attentions of the scrapman.

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Hello all 🙂

Personally, I would love to see the Shackleton restored to her former glory and kept under cover, preferably alongside the Lancaster and York as a testimony to the Avro Company and A.V. Roe…but unfortunately, I’m not Director of the Imperial War Museum 🙁

I will do my best to get some more info on future restoration projects and report back when I do…

Ashley

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Thanks for the feedback Ashley 🙂 It’s a relief to know that she’s going to be restored and presumably kept indoors in future.As for the Shack,it seems a terrible pity that they can’t restore her.Surely in the long term it would be worthwhile no matter what the effort?? With no others currently undercover,it’s hard to see any of them surviving for too long-the example at Long Marston is said to be in particularly poor shape. 🙁
As for the Victor’s repaint not so long ago,Roger Brooks of the Victor Association tells me that he and a number of other volunteers carried out the repaint under the direction of the IWM,which he was a member of at the time.Apparently it was known that the matt paintwork would deteriorate pretty quickly,but the IWM insisted on it anyway, which seems an odd decision.
Any ideas what sort of paint job the Victor will be finsihed in when she’s done?I know alot of people quite fancy the anti-flash white scheme,but I think I’d probably prefer her to stay in her bomber/tanker configuration,being as she was one of the very few Victors to be converted in this way.

RE: Shackleton Last Rites

Ashley – Thanks for the details on the Shackleton . I am rather amazed that the IWM has in the course of providing exhibits for the
AAM done some amazing restoration feats i.e restoring a Spitfire V from a collection of parts and swapped her for the Liberator.
The Liberator itself has had an amazing restoration – the engine’s themselves have cost a large amount of money to be restored.
The Shackleton however has been sat probably 150 yards from a restoration hanger with no need to do any deal or swap to get her yet she is too far gone to be kept as a complete aircraft.
There are parts available in the U.K – indeed a serious approach to two individuals in the U.K could I believe result in the parts which are required to safeguard her future being obtained.
However it’s not to be ! She didn’t feature on the guest list for the ‘Super’ Superhanger upgrade so I guess in ten years or so
when the rest of the British MR.3/3’s expire we will have to visit South Africa.
There is one last hope – could Newark achieve what the IWM cannot – put a MR.3 undercover- let’s hope !

RE: Plea for a victor……

So I take it that XF708 requires more that just a cosmetic clean up. According to the Shackelton Web Site, she has been at Duxford since 1972, which means she spend 30 years outdoors. I am surprised the airframe has survived at all considering it is 43 years old now!.

Any one have any idea of what became of XF703? The same site indicated it was preserved.

RE: Plea for a victor……

With regard to the Victor repaint a few years ago I remember seeing it shortly after completion and it appeared that the matt finish had already started to wear. As the IWM are unable to offer full time hangarage could a more durable (gloss ?) finish have been applied. Who did the work on the Victor and who provided the paint ? As we all know the cheapest option is not always the best.

With regard to the Shackleton the only group who has been responsible for its poor condition has been the IWM. It is simply not good enough for IWM to now ‘wash its hands’ of the aircraft as it has done with numerous other exhibts in the past. Remember the Comet, Varsity and Convair. I would considered that hangar space is now available to move the Shackleton under cover and the prepare for a long (and costly ?) restoration. The Sunderland is a prime example of how a large aircraft can be restored.

RE: Plea for a victor……

She is, but we seem to have a great trait of ingnoring Maritime/AEW aircraft in this country (Im back on the Gannet soap box again !!).

Phil

RE: Plea for a victor……

With regards to the Shackelton. How many of the Mk 3’s have been preserved in the UK? I kind of thought it to be abit of a rare bird.

RE: Plea for a victor……

>Unfortunately though, the last I heard, the Shackleton is
>too far gone to be saved as a complete aircraft…although
>as much will be SAFELY done for her will be done…if the
>Museum thought she could be preserved as an entire aircraft
>I am sure we would…

Okay, this is probably an incredibly dim question but I’ll ask it anyway – surely in the restoration of other aircraft, they must have to make various parts from scratch? Couldn’t the same be done for the Shackleton, if that’s what is necessary? Or does it basically boil down to money, or the lack thereof?

I’m sure you’re right, and the museum would if they could; I just wonder what the limiting factors are in their decisions about these things.

RE: Plea for a victor……

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 19-08-02 AT 12:41 PM (GMT)]Right…here goes 🙂

First of all, yes, the Hastings is owned by the IWM…

With regards to the Victor, as I understand, the Victor although looking rather tatty on the outside is not as far gone as the Shackleton structurally speaking…she IS on the list for restoration, for the past couple of years conservation work has been concentrated on aircraft for the AAM, when this is completed next month, attention should turn to the British/Commonwealth aircraft collection…so hopefully before too long the Victor will be restored to her former greatness…

Unfortunately though, the last I heard, the Shackleton is too far gone to be saved as a complete aircraft…although as much will be SAFELY done for her will be done…if the Museum thought she could be preserved as an entire aircraft I am sure we would…surely it is better to have a part of a Shackleton preserved then to see a whole aircraft scrapped? Ok in an ideal world we would preserve all aircraft but sadly, this isn’t an ideal world…:(

Ashley, Duxford Correspondent

RE: Plea for a victor……

I noticed that the HP Hastings seems to have been recently restored. Was it in the same condition as the Shack and Victor prior to the restoration. The Hasting seems to look pretty good condition. Is it also owned by the IWM?

RE: Plea for a victor……

As far as I’m aware, they stay pretty much in the same places the whole time. I don’t remember them moving in the last three years or so, anyway.

RE: Plea for a victor……

Guys,

Do they periodically move those aircraft around?(The Victor and the Shack) or are they no longer very structually same to move anymore?

I would imagine that the tires and landing gear are pretty rough.

RE: Plea for a victor……

It is the sole surviving Mk.1 Victor as well. I am appalled at the way IWM has treated these two aircraft; how on earth can they claim they are not significant enough?

RE: Plea for a victor……

Hello Ant.
Hope you hear back from him soon. Years ago there was an enthusiastic group that repainted her, I wonder what happened to them now??