If it was anybody else Jon I would say they were back tracking but as its you I will say yes you have a valid point. :rolleyes:
Been serious (only for a moment mind) yes our Vicky should be a lot easier to put back together than the Brit. I did wonder when I first saw the pics if yours was meant to have been dismantled into quite so many parts.
Joking aside they wil both be ready when they are ready and not before! 😉 Will be nice to see these 2 examples of classic airliners in all their glory once again 🙂
In terms of the number of parts i can understand why she was taken apart so much having now worked on her. I think a lot of stuff came of whilst trying to gain access for other jobs. Bristol never had any intention of these things coming apart again once built!
Take for example the outer wings (based on our reverse engineering anyway!) – they will have had to come off to reduce the winspan for transport from 144ft to 99ft (working from memory to forgive me is slightly out 🙂 ). But to get them off you need to strip off the control surfaces, leading edge and a hefty chunk of rear wing (not essential but a good move!). By this stage you then have access to the hatch into the wing which is approx 12 feet away from the join! From there you then have to remove the bag tanks and can crawl on you front inside the wing up to the 80 odd nuts holding it on. Oh and lets not forget the countless rivets holding the skins on……
So by the time you have scaled this up across the rest of the Brit……!!! 😮
Jon
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