Yesterday I made my first visit to the de Havilland aircraft heritage centre at London Colney, it was a very interesting museum & the staff were both friendly & helpful. The two exhibits that stood out for me were the Heron & the HS125, unfortunately a carelessly placed engine lifting beam made it impossible to photograph the 125, still it looks good & (I assume that they have the engines) will be even better once completed.
I wonder what plans there are for the Comet 1 fuselage, this is surely the most significant civil aircraft relic in the country & shouldn’t be left to rot away at the back of the yard. Although some repainting has already taken place I think it should be kept in Air France colours. This isn’t just any fuselage it’s the only surviving, original spec., Comet 1 fuselage.
I don’t mean any of this as a criticism of the people at the centre, but recent events have shown us that just because the very last example of a particular aircraft is in a museum doesn’t mean that it’s safe!
On my way home I drove past the old de Havilland factory site at Hatfield, expecting to see the Art Deco administration block standing proud among any new development, oh dear! As you can see from my pictures it is a sad sight indeed. My last visit was to a BAe open day in 1982 the photo of the 146’s outside the flight shed were taken then.
S.B.
By: Bruce - 29th May 2006 at 17:31
The 6 is being prepared for painting later in the summer. Watch this space for pictures!
The 35 is currently in the hangar mouth for the time being. It has had one or two excursions this year. Once the wet drought improves, it will be out most weekends…
Delighted to see a pic of ‘my’ Chipmunk in one piece. I would have been there myself, but was laid low by some horrible bug…
Finally, we have got to the point where the hangar is largely populated by nicely restored/preserved aircraft. Its a far cry from ten years ago when we were at our lowest ebb…
I like to see pics from forum members, and if you have constructive criticism them so much the better…
Bruce
By: Rlangham - 29th May 2006 at 16:52
Cheers for the pics – is the museum having a shuffle around like the last time the Mossie 35 was outside, or is it permanently positioned there with the Mossie FB.VI fuselage half in half out? Might try and go this week if the weather’s any good
By: Joe Petroni - 29th May 2006 at 16:42
Popped into the museum myself yesterday, so here are a few extra pictures.
I love the smell of dope in a morning. 🙂
By: TobyV - 29th May 2006 at 00:34
Great pictures from the HTF open day… I am a big fan of the 146 😀
Interesting to see nothing much has changed at Hatfield in the last year. I was there literally about a year ago and took a few pictures from similar positions. I have an additional picture taken from round the front of the Admin buildings at Hatfield if anyone’s interested.
Bruce, stick with it on the 125… its a very important example and bar the missing engines still looked good when I went there. That one and G-ASSM are the only complete ones I know of being preserved. By the way, what happened to the cockpit of G-AYRA? I saw a photo on a.net that you’d got that but when I visited the museum myself I didnt see it?
By: Lee Howard - 28th May 2006 at 19:53
Sounds good Bruce. From memory there were a number of parts under the main cabin floor. I distinctly remember seeing a set of Comet control yokes in a carrier bag – they still there?
Forgot to add to my original comment that ‘NX is actually a Comet 1A.
As you already know, but others perhaps won’t (so I’ll recall it for their benefit) the tail section of Comet 1XB XN453 had been purchased by the Museum from RAE Farnborough in the late 1980s after the rest of the aircraft was scrapped, the idea being to try and fit it to ‘NX to make her more complete. Unfortunately nature intervened. During the notorious storms of October 1987 the whole assembly was blown over a large security fence, ripping nearly half of one tailplane off and badly damaging the top of the fin. A group of us went to Farnborough in late 1989 to recover what was left but, though it was brought back to Salisbury Hall, such was the damage the scheme was abandoned.
We also went to Heathrow to salvage parts from Comet 4 G-APDT when she was scrapped in August 1990.
By: HP81 - 28th May 2006 at 19:48
That all sounds like good news Bruce. Sorry to hear that the 125 is in poor condition, don’t give up on it though it looks fine. I like the two versions of the company livery, I have always thought that it would be a good idea to paint airliners like that. For example, the Duxford Brit. could be Monarch on one side & British Eagle on the other. More UK airline history could be represented that way.
S.B.
By: Bruce - 28th May 2006 at 19:20
F-BGNX is quite definitely on the list for work in future. I have recently started collecting parts for the cockpit, to complement what we already have. My intention is to fully fit out the cockpit and forward fuselage using a mix of original and replica parts, and to turn the passenger area into a comprehensive display on the aircraft.
The front end was suffering badly from corrosion, hence the desire to repaint it five years or so ago. At the time, there simply wasnt time to replicate the Air France scheme, so we chose to represent G-ALVG. The intention long term is to return it to the Air France scheme.
The new plan for the museum sees the Comet being brought under cover, and the work will be done then.
The 125 was largely done about three years ago, and I will be continuing work on it in the summer. Frankly it is not in good condition, but I am doing my best with it!
I will move the hoist next time I am there!
Bruce
By: Lee Howard - 28th May 2006 at 18:43
It is a shame to see F-BGNX like that. When I was a mere 15 years of age I joined MAM (as it was then) as a volunteer and spent all of my weekends and Bank Holidays at Salisbury Hall (courtesy of my parents who very kindly drove me the 30 mile round trip each day!!). ‘NX was “my” project, and over the winter of 1989/1990 I spent many a cold, windy hour couped up inside her with nothing but a can of paint, a brush, a rubbish stereo and an electric fan heater for company, painting the floors, bulkheads and cabin interior that lovely “cockpit green”. I managed to get some of the external cocooning off (a job in itself!) to expose the Tricolore, “Air France” and registration markings underneath and painted them back in. When the Museum opened to the public in the spring she was opened up and people could walk through the fuselage in which we had put display cabinets of Comet memorabilia.
Unfortunately I had to move from Herts late in 1990 and shortly thereafter the fuselage was closed to the public (probably on safety grounds) and she was, I believe, used to store various Museum items. The repaint of the nose to represent G-ALVG was done to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first flight of the Comet. Unfortunately, in doing so, this obliterated the very stylish Air France winged horse on the stbd side.
Happy days!
Very sad to see what remains of Hatfield, though. Especially the art deco main building, which must surely rank as being one of THE most recognisable pieces of British airfield architecture?
By: HP81 - 28th May 2006 at 17:36
Here are some more from the open day in 1982. The Trident was G-ARPP. My apologies if the Nimrod has been scanned back to front, I’m not sure, but several of the others were!
S.B.
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May 28, 2006 at 5:30 pm