Thanks John. Rest assured, she will be well looked after.
Regards.

Graham

Saw her yesterday from afar, looking a bit sad for herself. Glad she has found a new home.

The Lightning was on the Rochester Airport site. The BAE Systems factory has a Phoenix UAV as a gate guard. From what we were told, that factory is as ‘safe’ as anywhere else in today’s financial climate.
Regards.

Graham

Is there a replacement ? Or is this a prelude to another closure?
mmitch.

Hi Tony,
Andy Horrex should be contacting you in the next day or so. Thanks for getting in touch. It’s very much appreciated.
Kind regards.

Graham

I have something they urgently need for their Hunter, anyone got a contact please? cheers

Some more up-to-date shots of XX741 at Bentwaters during it’s very thorough re-build and restoration.

Regards.

Graham

[ATTACH]192305[/ATTACH]

Jaguar GR.1A XX741 belonging to the Bentwaters Cold War Museum,seen at Bentwaters in October,2009

More bad news to report. The same Jaguar was targeted by thieves over the weekend, this time both inboard flaps were removed. If anyone comes across these for sale anywhere then please pm me or contact James Everett at [email]everettaero@btinternet.com[/email] .
Kind Regards.

Graham
Bentwaters Cold War Museum

XE707 at Bentwaters did have a glass cockpit fitted although this was removed prior to it leaving the U.S. We purchased the aircraft with a conventional Hunter cockpit being supplied.
HTH.
Regards.

Graham

I don’t think they operated them directly, but a civilian outfit operated Hunters on behalf of the Canadian Armed Forces in a similar role to the US, French, and UK Hunters already mentioned.
Possibly replaced the CT-133 Silverstars in the support role in some way?
When a Hunter outfit was based at St Mawgan in the early 2000s it was mentioned to me that they were involved with this work.

Also noticed since posting that at least one of the French Hunters in the link has a CAF style national marking at the top of its fin, looking more closely they are Canadian!?

Led to believe that the US ones have glass cockpits, including possibly the one that has now gone to Bentwaters.

Wish I could be more precise, but hopefully some info is better than none!

David,
This avenue has already been explored by us on numerous occasions. The loan of MDAP airframes is still a no-go as far as privately-run museums go. Back in 2002 we tried to acquire an F-4C from the Spanish Air Force (these were mostly ex-81st TFW jets). We gained permission from the Spanish Air Force & Government to acquire one of these stored airframes from Torrejon only for it to be blocked by the USAFM. If we had begun this task a couple of years earlier we would have been successful. Unfortunately for us, the USAFM’s policy regarding loans to private museums changed in 2001.

As far as I’m aware the F-100F at Lashenden has been scrapped?

Additonally, it is against USAFM rules for UK Museums to loan on their USAFM airframes to private Museums. Another avenue we’ve explored and failed to get round!
Regards.

Graham Haynes
Museum Manager
Bentwaters Cold War Museum

Bod – I think if you explore options with other museums the aircraft on your list of Bentwaters/Woodbridge machines isn’t completely impossible!

Its worth considering that a number of machines were supplied under MDAP to NATO countries and a number of these are now in fairly parlous condition!
For example in Denmark there is a straight wing F-84 at a civil defence company that dearly should be preserved ! Indeed a number of years ago I recall looking at a F-101 cockpit in use for fire evacuation training at Coventry . Another machine that springs to mind is the F-100 at Lashenden .

In all this it would be great if U.K preservation groups could have a long hard look at what they are preserving and maybe be generous with U.S agreement in transferring a machine or two to you!