After reading the 2011-2012 museum annual review it stated in the expansion of the museum that after the 100th anniversary celebration of the RAF in 2018 the museum planned to have the proposed battle of britain super hangar or what ever you want to call it built in Hendon and have a large hanger in Cosford able to hold the collections bigger aircraft. Now other than obvious large types at Cosford and the vc10 and possibly tristar that are arriving in the next year or so what else would go in this planned hangar ?
By: Tin Triangle - 29th January 2013 at 21:29
To me, the relative lengths of military/civil service aren’t so important as the quite different stories the two airframes tell. The Lyneham machine perfectly represents the military role of the Comet as the RAF’s first jet transport, and has an interesting story to tell about the slow decline of the British Empire, and the legacy of having to fly UK armed forces rapidly out to trouble spots.
G-APAS, on the other hand, is the last surviving complete Comet I and therefore I believe the oldest jet airliner surviving. To me its story is more about the astonishing technological leap Britain made in the immediate post-war period; the brief, world-leading career of the Comets in the early 1950s, and the terrible cost Britain paid for leading the way into unknown technological territory.
Doesn’t South Kensington have remnant sections of G-ALYP from the Mediterranean crash? I can’t help thinking that if they could display G-APAS somewhere, fully re-painted up and polished like the early BOAC aircraft, it would be a much more appropriate home than Cosford.
Oh well, we can dream…
By: pagen01 - 29th January 2013 at 21:22
I would disagree with that David, Cosford is of course the RAF Museum but thankfully it tells the story of its service aircraft and weaponary by displaying the airframes that pioneered and researched their use.
The Comet spent far more time on trials than as an airliner.
However I am kind of with you with the London Colne idea, as that is the main de Hav museum and this Comet was used by the company for weapons trials, but then it is also well suited at Cosford – but not in faux airline colours!
By: David Burke - 29th January 2013 at 21:13
Cosford’s core business is RAF aircraft -its only with the foresight of previous curators that many of these prototypes and trials aircraft were preserved.
Therefore the Lyneham Comet is of far more significance to the RAFM .
By: DaveF68 - 29th January 2013 at 21:11
Time flown as a civil aircraft, a few months, time flown on the military register, 10 years. :dev2:
By: pagen01 - 29th January 2013 at 21:10
So did many of the prototypes and trials aircraft displayed at Cosford:confused:
Re expansion, I would think taking on one of the other C hangars as the RAF tech school shrinks would be the most viable option, who knows even a mad scheme of interconnecting two of these hangars could be devised!
By: David Burke - 29th January 2013 at 19:03
I don’t really see that it did spend most of its career as a military aircraft. It certainly spent a long time on manufacturers trials for military programmes but she saw far less actual military service than the Lyneham example
By: DaveF68 - 29th January 2013 at 18:56
Cosford’s Comet spent most of it’s flying career as an military aircraft, so it belongs in their R&D collection.
By: cometguymk1 - 29th January 2013 at 16:22
I think the Cosford MK.1 would be a great addition to London Colney but it would take a lot of vision -money and a new hangar .
In an ideal world would be nice as both our fuse and Cosfords Comet flew for Air France in service.
By: SADSACK - 29th January 2013 at 16:20
re;
better in the long term to have more space than you need, so you can add a/c over the years.
With this bunch of lunatics, I wouldnt be suprised if The Sentinal was withdrawn early.
By: Wyvernfan - 29th January 2013 at 15:18
Great. Hendon can at last get their Blackburn Beverley under cover. Oh.. hang on……:rolleyes:
Rob
By: Arabella-Cox - 29th January 2013 at 14:57
I now the covered weighbridge at Boscombe Down is a large hangar but I only realised just how large when I saw it comfartably giving shelter to a TriStar, Comet 4, Canberra 9 and an Airship Industries airship.
Of course at some stage Cosford will need to make room for E3 Sentry abd a Sentinel R1.
By: David Burke - 29th January 2013 at 14:31
I think the Cosford MK.1 would be a great addition to London Colney but it would take a lot of vision -money and a new hangar .
By: Tin Triangle - 29th January 2013 at 13:46
Well, that sounds like a hangar full already! It’s most encouraging news that they’re planning to build something for the VC10 etc.
I think it’d be good to reorganise the Transport and Training hangar to be Maritime and Training, and use the new hangar to concentrate on Transport. So in the old hangar you’d have Varsity, Nimrod, Neptune, Anson, Bulldog, Provost, Chipmunk etc etc and other small stuff, and the new one would have VC-10, Herc, Britannia, Comet, Argosy and Andover. I’d also like to see the Valetta out of storage and in that mix!
EDIT: I’m really not sure what they’ll do with the two Comets seeming as they’re going to recieve the Lyneham aircraft XK699. Perosnally, I think it would be wonderfuly if room could be made for a gloriously polished G-APAS at the Science Museum in time for the 60th anniversary of the Comet’s first flight. Then RAFM would be left with a genuine RAF Comet with excellent provenance for the new hangar.
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January 28, 2013 at 10:15 pm