Don’t know if it is still there but at one time the original Plane Sailing Catalina was under rebuild at Lee.
The British Hovercraft Museum was also based there so maybe they have to look for a new home as well.
I am inclined to think that the whole thing is a stunt to get the local council or the government to come up with money to help run the airfield. I can’t see how they can justify the expense of maintaining a comparatively large airfield just for their own aircraft.
Surely health and safety laws require some form of fire cover even if it is only the police aircraft flying from there so if they have to have fire cover for their own operations it must make sense to proivide cover for other operators as well and generate income from landing fees and hangarage and parking fees.

According to my British Civil Aircraft Register G-AVDJ wasn’t registered until 29/12/66.
I must admit that for some reason I thought G-ASJV was a MKV (oops!- brain fade again) but I do remember it was featured in Aircraft Illustrated soon after arrival from Belgium and in those days it was cream with red trim.
G-ASOZ was ex Irish Air Corps 158 and the register shows it a a T MK9 so it appears to have been a two seater. BCAR states that it wasn’t converted and was dismantled at Elstree in 1964 but was rebuilt and reregistered as
G-BMSB in 1978.
G-AVAV and G-AWGB were definitely ex Irish Air Corps two seaters.
I am pretty sure that the photo in Civil Aircraft Markings showed G-ASSD with invasion stripes around the fuselage and the aircraft in the advert certainly has them on the wings so it looks like G-ASSD is the most likely candidate.

Try the museum at North Weald. I donated a load of mags to them for their library a few years ago and I am pretty sure it included all my old Aeroplane Monthlies.

Copyright does seem to be a grey area.
Where, for example, does the Brooklands Museum stand with copyright on the AJ Jackson collection. I assume that some of those photos were taken over 50 years ago but as far as I am aware the copyright was owned by the Jackson family and presumerably passed to the Brooklands Museum along with all the original negatives.
If copyright expires after 50 years then it appears anyone who acquires copies of photos from the AJ Jackson collection (from whatever source) can use them at will provided they can establish that the original picture was taken over 50 years ago.
If the aircraft pictured was scrapped / written off over 50 years ago then proving the age of the original photo would be easy.
Is this interpretation correct? If so it seems unfair on both the Jackson family and the Brooklands Museum who have, over the years, borne the cost of maintaining and storing a significant photgraphic collection.

Being a newbie I have only just found this thread. As a teenager I was a volunteer at the Museum and can perhaps help straighten out some of the confusion that seems to surround the place.
The museum was originally formed as the British Historic Aircraft Museum at Biggin Hill and subsequently moved to Southend around 1967. At that time the museum was owned by a rather colourful character called Tony Osborne. He owned airworthy Miles Hawk Speed Six G-ADGP which carried a large museum badge on the tail and was kept in the BKS hangar at Southend.
I don’t know the full story but basically after a time the museum failed to pay rent to the airport and somewhere along the line the aircraft were taken over by a bank and the museum folded. G-ADGP moved on with Tony Osborne. It was never registered to the museum.
Some of the members of the original museum society tried to do a deal to exhibit the aircraft and were on the verge of an agreement but in the meantime the aircraft had been bought by a consortium who planned a museum in a purpose built exhibition hall in Aviation Way which was also to contain a function suite for dinners, weddings etc with a night club and hotel/ motel on the opposite side of the road. As far as I understood it was hoped that the museum would at least break even and the rest of the complex would produce a profit.
The aircraft were moved from the airfield to the new site in Aviation Way in October 1970 and I became involved at that point when I was 15 years old.
The museum struggled because the local council regarded it as a business enterprise and would only allow one sign publicising the museum on the main A127 Arterial Road. As a tourist attraction it would have been allowed far more scope for signs.
Initially the new site was just a grass compound and they built the museum buildings alongside the volunteers working outside on the aircraft. The museum directors acquired various aircraft, some of which were registered to the directors rather than to the museum which may account for some of the confusuion over exhibits.
Roy Budge owned a Coupe Stampe G-AYLK which was present at the museum at times. It was destroyed in a flying accident and the remains were behind the museum building for a long time. The replacement was G-AYWT (also displayed at times) which eventually landed up with Brian Lecomber. Roy Budge also owned Tiger Moth G-ANPE which eventually landed up dismatled under the wing of the Lincoln. The museum also owned but never displayed another Stampe F-BDFE (which was allocated G-AYHV) delivered by road from Coburn and Hughes and this moved on at some time having never been restored.
The Flying Flea G-ADXS was built by Chris Storey who displayed it in his garage in Alexandra Street and was loaned to the museum by the Stoery
family. It later went to the Rebel Air Museum and moved on from there.
Mitchell HD368/N9089Z was camera ship for The War Lover and 633 Squadron. The spar was cut by an Aviation Traders crew to move her to Southend because they couldn’t move the spar bolts. This effectively sealed her fate forever as it made any future flying impossible.
At one time the museum had 3 Ansons. TX211/G-AVHU which was used for spares and went to the fire dump at Southend, VL348/G-AVVO which moved on (to Newark?) when the museum was given G-AGPG by EK COLE. I believe VVO was a gift from Southend airport after it was impounded for non payment of ramp fees. G-AGPG became derelict after a vandal slashed the underside fuselage fabric and the wind got inside and ballooned the rest of the fabric which tore off.
The Viscount nose (ex Channel Airways not Channel Express) was loaned to BMA at some time for a holiday exhibition and returned painted in BMA colours.
At one point the museum had 3 Sea Furies. WJ288 on display, WJ244 dimantled (which became G-FURY) and WH589 ( must have been the one dripping oil) belonging to Ormond Haydon-Baillie. We also housed his pair of T-33s until they all moved on to Duxford. Getting the Sea Fury and other flyers out at Southend was time consuming and involved taxying or towing aircraft along a public road to reach the taxiway which could and did cause chaos sometimes.
We also housed the Haig-Thomas Moth Collection at one time comprising. Hornet Moth G-ADLY, Puss Moth G-AEOA, Fox Moth G-ACEJ, Gipsy Moth G-ATBL, Moth Minor G-AFNG and a Tiger Moth (DE208/G-AGYU). If I have missed any out I apologise but this is from memory and it was a long time ago.
The ME109 and Hurricane replicas were from the B of B Museum.
We also had on loan at one point the Shuttleworth Parnall Elf G-AAIN and the Humber Bleriot and Roe Triplane Replicas (from MAPS?)
Other loan exhibits in later years included Pilatus P2 G-Bone and the Leisure Sport WW1 replicas. This loan was arranged by the late Nigel Brendish from Harvestair who gave a lot of help in the final years.
I don’t think Rapide G-AIUL was ever removed from the crate at Southend. It went to Ian Jones, son of Jack Jones who founded Channel Airways but I don’t know what happened from there. I believe the crate also contained a DH84 Dragon Wing marked G-ADDI but DDI was in the US as N34DH so it must have had a wing change at some time.
Magister G-AIDF had been with BHAM but was destroyed by a gale around 1968. The remains were moved to the new museum compound but were too rotten and broken to restore (would probably be judged difficult but viable now) so it was eventually burnt along with the front fuselage of Proctor NP339/G-AOBW – the wings being fitted to NP303/G-ANZJ and the rear fuselage of NP339 was sectioned to show the construction and spent time either in the museum or sometimes as a travelling exhibit.
The Dragonfly (from memory WG725) was the only blue one from the cache at Blackbushe. It was badly damaged by fire when the workers hut at the Museum burnt to the ground and was probably scrapped.
Gemini G-AKGD was wrecked by vandals and I last saw it in pieces behind the museum building. We also had Messenger G-AIEK on loan at one time and they were displayed together in the museum hall for a while.
The Drover was G-APXX supposedly ex VH-EAS. I don’t think VH-FDT was ever allocated to this airframe. The wheels and props came from a Channel Airways Heron. It had no engines.
Vampire XD527 went back to Aviation Traders along with the mock up of the Mystery Jet following an attempt to revive this Vampire conversion. There is a prototype Mystery Jet in the USA stored in the desert (Mojave?). It never flew but I assume this incorporated parts of XD527. The wooden cockpit/ fuselage mock up never came back again and I believe it eventually landed up with Sandy Topen.
G-APOP was never offered to the Historic Aircraft Museum. It may have been offered to the original BHAM.
The museum also had a Fairchild Cornell which was damagaed during shipping and was never displayed. It was gifted to the Historic Aircraft Society and moved to Rebal Air Museum. I suspect it is the one that appeared on Ebay a while ago.
The Historic Aircraft Society also had the remains of Short Scion G-AEZF whic had long been derelict beside the Channel Airways hangar. The museum made various attempts to buy the remains without success and they were only acquired after Channel Airways went bust. By then the fuselage had been cut in half and a tractor had crushed much of the structure iin one wing. I think they were eventually acquired by offering to remove “that pile of old junk from the long grass” as a favour to someone from the liquidators of Channel Airways but can’t confirm that story.
The Beverley was ex A&AEE. The sole survivor XB259 was ex RAE.
There were two Rothmans Stampes dispalyed at the Museum. One was G-AXYW and for some reason t was exchanged with another at some time. Stampe G-AZNF was loaned for a short time as was Tipsy Belfair G-APOD.
One of the museums problems was in fighting amongst some of the commercial management which was a factor in the Museum Curator resigning soon after the opening. This was followed by years of neglect when the volunteer staff were made less and less welcome and I believe we were ultimately banned.
By the time Bill Gent became curator around 1980/81 there was little money and few volunteers to take on the huge task of rectifying the neglect and it was decided to close and sell the exhibits. It was a sad day but by then the options were very limited and Bill felt the sale may see aircraft go to others who were able to offer more appropriate care. Sadly this didn’t happen to many of the aircraft but then hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Hope these notes add to everything else that has been posted.
Both Bill Gent and Stan and David Brett had extensive photo records of the museum (Stan had a photo of several of us younger ones in flying helmets sitting inside the Scion fuselage) but I don’t know if these still exist.

What a great find – just goes to show there are still aircraft and cars buried in barns!
Good luck with the rebuild and I look forward to seeing her in the air again.

Very sorry to hear of the loss. Just shows how little respect some have for the dead now.
It may be worth keeping an eye on Ebay for the next few weeks.
It must be impossible for them to identify every stolen item that gets listed and I do know that a few years ago someone stole a consignment of Corgi models and was even naive enough to list them on ebay with complete boxes of stock in each lot! You didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out the source of his stock! – and yes Corgi and the Police did catch up with the seller.

At the time I saw it Len Heinrich did say that it rarely flew. I think at that time he was the only person trusted to fly it as he had a lot of control line flying experience. It was also a definite no no in any kind of wind partly because it was so big and appeared a bit underpowered. If you couple all that with the problems of getting all 4 engines running properly it probably got to the flying field more far times than it ever got into the air.