Not throwing any insults at them, but what’s the rationale? Surely any restoration would increase the value of their property?

As I understand it:

The owner of Unimetals was a bit of an enthusiast at heart, and saved several very rare and significant airframes. Sadly, this gentleman passed away some years ago. His widow is now the owner of the airframes and the Unimetals name. She sees the aircraft as her late husbands assets, and refuses point blank to have them interferred with.

Sentimentallity or not, these airframes are not being restored dispite their rarety (the Swift should be in the RAF Museum along with the Brigand). I hope the guys at Kemble have more luck when dealing with this lady than NEAM have had over the years….

Went to the Bristol Collection at Kemble IIRC

It did. The Unimetals problem exists with the Balliol wreck and the swift also. The owner will not allow any restoration work or preservation work of any kind on the airframes. The swift is in primer, and although indoors, not in good health, and certainly not a good representation of such a historic airframe. For those that don’t know, WK198 was the world Airspeed record holder for a while. Perhaps a new home could be in order… (my opinion)

just figured that out… the phone rang off. damn:rolleyes:

LL Isn’t that taking a risk with the Vulcan’s future? How confident are you you will be able to raise the sustantial funds to provide a building to put her in and how long might it take? If you delay repainting until she is inside the other corrosion – instead of, perhaps, arresting now/next year could get a whole lot worse.

Roger Smith.

We are doing what we can. The undercarriage bays have been cleaned of birds nests and are about to be thoroughly cleaned and waxoyled. The main doors will then be closed and mesh fitted across the leg openings. The spar corrossion treatment is under way, but we have been hampered by the weather so it is taking time…. I’m going to start on the leaky cockpit this week. For now, the flying controls will just have to take their chances, but the fin and spine will be re-skinned before it goes under cover. A local EASA pt. 147 training acdemy may assist us in the skinning work (we are in talks…).

The main structure of the aircraft is in surprisingly good condition, its just the extremities which are dissolving. She is savable, and is worth saving.

Hopefully a hardstanding can be paid for and laid this year, and with any luck, a roof can be build over the winter. We are in the rather unfortunate position where we need more visitors (and money) coming in, but really have nothing to show them yet. In the words of the chairman ‘the site is a mess’. We have a core of less than ten volunteers, and the jobs are endless. We are also having discussions about the future of the site as a whole…. but, as always – we need help (and lots of it…).