That GR1 Front Cockpit Section has got me intrigued, is it an ex Battle Damage Repair Training Aid? If it is, then one of the scab patches may have been done on a course I did many moons ago (Riggers did the scab, whilst we repaired a jetpipe with a steel plate and the stuff you used to seal around coal fires).
And just to enhance my sad anorak status – is that a TTTE tea mug I see at the back of the trailer?
Baloffski,
It was used for BDR during its time at St Athan and yes that’s my TTTE coffee mug on the trailer, as Anon said I also have a collection of Stein mugs from the annual TTTE Oktoberfest from 1981 to 1999.
Just to help you and others here is some more detail and some before and after pictures which may surprise some!?
Built in 1983, ZD710 (c/n 326) had its first engine run on 19 January 1984, the first flight taking place on 9 February. Its four flight tests were complete by 21 February and it was delivered to the RAF on 4 April 1984. ZD710 only served with 14 Squadron and, once deployed, spent most of its time at RAF Bruggen, Germany. It was capable of carrying the WE-177 nuclear weapon making it a first-strike aircraft.
After having displayed the aircraft earlier that week, on 14 September 1989 the pilot, W/Cdr. Wright and navigator, S/Ldr. Lawton took off from RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire in ZD710 ‘BJ’. According to the crash report the aircraft “entered a large flock of birds resulting in catastrophic failure of the port engine and significant damage to the starboard engine”. Even though the pilot had full power on at least one engine the aircraft lost height, both the pilot and the navigator then ejected at 120ft agl before the aircraft hit the ground near Drayton, Oxfordshire. It was destroyed and, subsequently, written off.
The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered from its crash site, the fuselage remained at RAF Abingdon and the cockpit section was taken to RAF St Athan in South Wales. Here it was used as a training aid by apprentices before being disposed of. The remains of ZD710’s cockpit went to a scrap yard in Essex before finding its way to the Robertsbridge Aviation Museum, Sussex. It then went to a collector in Welshpool, Wales before being transferred to a Devon-based collector. The remains then found their way to Ruthin, N. Wales finally ending up with the Air Pulford collection in Cheshire, alongside several other Tornado aircraft projects
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