Wonderful to hear this ex German Sycamore is once again airworthy. The last time I saw one in action was when an RAF example visited a Shuttleworth flying day many years back – have some slides – must dig them out.

On the topic of Sycamores, I visited the helicopter museum at Weston a week back and noticed that an example had moved there from an industrial museum in Bristol. I then came across this video of that example being craned out of its prior exhibition space at Bristol ….looks like there was a heart stopping moment during the process, which can be seen at at 0.44 in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTypmDy90YE

Tim

Look like some of the footage at least was filmed at Barton. I think that Tiger was once based at Breighton – may still be.

Did somebody drive a tug over that right wing support, or is that the way it’s supposed to be?

The supports are deliberately cranked – better seen from this angle of a picture the other one: http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000136645.html

Tim

Any further news please on the latest situation – when is the aircraft due to be lifted off the barge if not already done or if already on the harbour any news of how long it will still be visible at Ramsgate?

Tim

Are they going to keep it inverted? Is the upper side in a better state of preservation?

Good question – even if the upper surfaces have survived in better condition due to inversion, the shoulder wing surely makes more difficult any prospect of “righting” the aircraft for display, as it would compress the fragile fuselage unless some intrusive supporting structure were introduced? I wonder if it will be displayed in a pseudo underwater diorama in the way that the FAAM dealt with the Skua : http://forum.planetalk.net/viewtopic.php?p=53814

Tim

B-17 Sally B at low level transited over Solihull area about 17.10 …..beautiful in the sunshine. 🙂

Tim

Naive / optimistic view of public interest in Olympic mascots looked like a major contributor to their woes over the year – see: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/retailing/article3548825.ece That plus the write-off related to the Italian arm of the business look to be the causes according to business reporting. Hope they can survive and get the supply chain back on track too.