Shackleton 1722

Thanks for the responses, the photos are brilliant, thanks for posting them, I see what you mean with the crew! Such a shame they couldn’t continue flying her, a beautiful aircraft!
I have read more recently they have given her the odd ground run, but with the watercanon salute it does seem her flying days are over. But, we can hope!

You might be interested in these pictures of 1722. I was visiting Ysterplaat AB in Cape Town in 1987 and the curator, whom I had met several times before, invited me to the official last engine runs of this aircraft. I was exremely lucky as I arrived on the right day and there were only a couple of dozen other people there. I think the occasion was for a special SAAF Museum photoshoot. The photographer even let me walk round the aircraft with him. The engine runs finished with a salute with the water canons.
Of interest in the later pictures was the technique used to put the aircraft back into the hangar. As the wings were too wide to go through the hangar door, they put the aircraft in sideways with skates under the main wheels and the nose wheel turned through 90 degrees.
The last picture show the old gate guard which was subsequently broken up. Although it is marked as 1717 it is actually 1720 (1717 was broken up some time before). 1720 was then repainted to illustrate how 1717 was delivered in 1957 – note the old Springbok roundels.
As regards the crew, you can get an idea of their ages from the group photo taken after the engine run. The crew are wearing orange overall with badges on them.
I’m afraid that I don’t know whether they had any more engine runs after this occasion.

Graham

One of the problems is a lack of qualified crew to fly/maintain it. I believe it is also quite low on remaining spar fatigue hours.