As regards to the Swift its just occurred to me that if its not going in the new hangar, it will go into the display hall, as some of the aircraft are coming out of there and going into the new hangar.

Just a guess mind. Personally I would like to see it next to the Hunter F.1.

As regarding re-wiring the Vulcan, the museum has all on keeping the corrosion down and keeping it looking presentable.
To give you some idea of how long it would take to re-wire , I was involved with a partial re-wire project some years ago on a similar vintage aircraft, although slightly bigger (VC-10).
It used to take about three to four months each aircraft working 6 in the morning until 10 at night with two shifts of about twenty guys on each shift plus all the overtime you wanted at weekends!

As far as I know I think there is only one regular volunteer who is into wiring, so I guess the answer is no, there are no plans to re-wire the Vulcan!

The cockpit fest this year is 14th and 15th June. I was going to say check the museums website but its not on for some reason!

Hello Peter

I cannot speak for the museum on this one.

What I can say is that they have helped many museums and individuals in the past with parts and information.

However and its big however, there has been an unscrupulous few who have abused the trust of the museum. For example not returning parts, which have been loaned ‘as patterns’.

They may be interested in letting you have it; I would say a trade would be more likely. Why do you want it do you have a Lancaster?

Hi Guys I have just happened upon this thread, so I have registered and I will try and answer some of the queries raised.

Hastings

I am sorry to disappoint but the stbd inner engine has not run since Squadron Leader “Jacko” Jackson shut it down on the 22nd June 1977.
However, during the eighties I did manage to get both port engines running. The port outer was first, which was run on a couple of occasions, followed by the port inner. We did manage to run both engines together at least once, (blowing a rather heavy set of steps into the hedge I seem to remember!). Given the amount of time the engines had stood idle, they started remarkably easy, and I seem to remember other than a slightly sluggish propeller control everything worked perfectly.

Unfortunately, the stbd inner engine had previously had the attention of the local ATC unit, who in an attempt to un-seize it had removed all the spark plugs and left them out. This allowed moisture into the cylinders thus seizing the engine solid.

Another problem was that RAF had de-fuelled the aircraft on arrival, so there was only a minimal amount of fuel onboard and for the last run we had to drain fuel from the Varsity to give us enough.

So with the fuel all used up that was that.

Beverley Cockpit

The cockpit section comes from XL149. This is not the aircraft, which was broken up at Hendon (XH124), but one that used to be on display in the collection at RAF Finningley. The collection was dispersed as the airfield was used for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee review in 1977. This was a great shame as a lot of aircraft were just scrapped (including an immaculate fully complete Javlin which had just been repainted).
The museum were originally going to have the complete aircraft, but following assessment it was deemed to difficult to dismantle and move. The museum ended up taking the Shackleton instead (itself a monumental achievement to move by road).

Interestingly one other item was salvaged from the Bev, was the auxiliary power unit. This proved invaluable when getting the Hastings started. The cockpit instruments were replaced with just a cardboard representation, and were then used to restore other aircraft (such as the Shack).

On the subject of the Shack, as it was moved by road there is no chance of this aircraft being powered up again.

Vulcan

Like most preserved Vulcan’s, XM594 was subject to a spares recovery by the RAF on arrival at the museum. I don’t no what the reason for some of the parts they took as a lot were specific to the Vulcan. Not only were a lot of instrument panels from the rear three seats were removed, but a lot of electrical contactors which operated things like the air brakes, bomb bay doors etc.
Eventually most of these items have been replaced, (the rear seat panels turned up in a local scrap yard some months later).
We did manage to get all the systems operational again, including the big radar in the nose.

For safety reasons the avionics are not run anymore (the wiring is getting very old now and you would not want to stand in front of the radome with the radar operating!), but the APU is still operational along with bomb bay doors, air brakes and basic electrical circuits etc.

The problem with running the main engines (apart from the look of horror on the face of one of the committee members at the time when I suggested it) was that the alternators had been removed, somewhat brutally by the Airforce. So a lot of work on the wiring and a spare set of alternators would have been required. The aircraft was completely emptied of fuel and I seem to remember the fire bottles were discharged also, we also did not have an air starter at the time.

As for other aircraft being run up, I understand the Gannet was run on a couple of occasions, but I did not see it. I seem to remember the engine had only run about 10 hours since overhaul and was fitted to the aircraft prior to it being ferried from Lossiemouth on its last flight.

I think due to a mixture of heath and safety regulations and manpower requirements only the Vulcan is now kept ‘live’.

Although I am still a member, I am not active anymore, but I will try and find out about why the Swift has not been allocated space in the new hangar.

I hope you found the post useful 🙂