Air Britain’s book Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm has all the tail codes ever allocated.

The second edition of that book is now 21 years old, I believe a much updated 3rd edition is in preparation, a must have for anyone interested in British Naval Aviation when it is published, start saving now chaps

I have been asked to post this press release on behalf of the FAAM

BobT

A statement from the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm
Museum regarding the Barracuda restoration project.

Graham Mottram, National Museum of the Royal Navy’s Director of Collections, Research, Learning and Access and Director of Fleet Air Arm Museum

The Fleet Air Arm Museum has had aspirations to rebuild a Barracuda aircraft for over 30 years. Unlike other more iconic aircraft of its Second World War era, none were retained for posterity and no complete examples exist today.

In 2011 an informal agreement was formed between Newcastle-based engineer Bill Smith and the “Bluebird Project” (BBP) team with Kiltech Vehicle Protection Ltd (KVPL) to progress the project. It is incumbent upon the Trustees of the charity to ensure that their property and resources are being applied within a reasonable framework of controls, and to this extent, required that a contract existed between them and BBP/KVPL. Unfortunately, after two years of trying, we have been unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract and cannot continue any longer under this agreement.

The project has not been cancelled. It has been an ongoing project spanning many years and work will continue.

The decision to terminate the work being done by KVPL/Bluebird Project was not taken lightly because the Barracuda is not represented anywhere else in the world, and its absence from the aviation heritage collections of Great Britain is extremely significant.

The Barracuda remains are the property of the Trustees of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, whose Trustees are also providing the funding for materials and services for the project. It is the Museum’s intention to remove from KVPL/BBP’s workshops those assemblies which have been magnificently restored, and all other components which have been delivered there.

The Museum will continue the restoration work at Yeovilton. Anyone who has donated money to the Museum in support (for which the Museum is extremely grateful) may rest assured that their donations have been, and will continue to be, ring fenced for the Barracuda and will be spent on the project as work progresses. We have no knowledge or details of any funds and therefore cannot comment on monies which might have been donated directly to KVPL/BBP.

We would also like to make it clear that other work on Barracuda parts has been ongoing at Yeovilton at the same time as at KVPL/BBP. FAA Museum’s long term intention was that KVPL/BBP would restore a number of major components and sub-assemblies, enabling final assembly to take place at the Museum, in exactly the same way as other reconstructions like the Albacore has been handled. Once we have recovered the Barracuda material from North Shields we will amalgamate the two elements of the project and continue with it here at Yeovilton.

The Fleet Air Arm Museum expresses its grateful thanks to the team at KVPL/BBP for the valuable work that they have done thus far.

3rd December 2014.

I do not know where this information came from but it is not correct, ‘Humphrey’ is safe and sound in Cobham Hall

Slight thread drift but still abut FAAM
Humphrey has been banished to DCAE Sultan and seems to be in bad condition. Hopefully its there for restoration but in the light of this thread one wonders

Wessex HAS.3 (XP142)

Falklands War History

Humphrey is one of the most famous aircraft of the Falklands Conflict and was the helicopter stationed aboard the destroyer HMS Antrim. Antrim was one of several ships sent to retake the Islands of South Georgia, as part of Operation Paraquat.

On the 21st April Humphrey led two other Wessex HU.5 helicopters onto the Fortuna Glacier to drop Special Forces troops with orders to observe Argentinean positions at Grytviken. The weather was appalling and deteriorated, forcing the troops to request evacuation. Using its radar to guide them through the storm Humphrey led the helicopters back to collect the troops. Blizzard conditions caused the other helicopters to crash as they tried to take off from the glacier. Humphrey made a return trip to rescue all the troops and crew. On the 23rd April Humphrey was back in action, locating and retrieving more Special Forces troops from their disabled boat.

The Argentinean submarine, Santa Fe, was reported in the area. On the 25th April Humphrey was sent out on patrol and spotted the Santa Fe on the surface. Humphrey’s crew attacked with depth charges damaging the submarine. Helicopters from other ships joined the attack with torpedoes and AS.12 missiles, causing Santa Fe to be abandoned.

By May Antrim had joined other ships to assist with the landings on the main Falkland Islands. She was attacked by Argentinian jets that strafed her with their canons. Humphrey was damaged by splinters from the shells, making many holes that are still visible. These holes were patched with tape and Humphrey carried on flying.

Still back to the thread now but one can only wonder who the hell is running the museum!

Most aircraft museums would sell their souls for an attendance of 260 on a Thursday.
I have to admit that this open day along with the open week of the Beetham centre at Cosford in November have become unmissable annual events for me.

Just heard from the curator that they have now added a group that visited so the grand total is 278, that’s just for Cobham not including the main museum.

BobT

Also a shame that the Museum has such a strange attitude to opening the Cobham hall Store. Whilst I understand the safety issues and the staffing required to open surely a Thursday in the middle of October is not going to attract that many people.

For those interested 260 people visited Cobham Hall today and a large majority then went across the road to visit the main museum, thanks to them all.

Wow, thanks for the great pictures. 🙂

The museum is on my ‘to do’ list, but it is very far from here. 🙁

I don’t really understand why the Concorde exhibit is there though, is there link with the location?

The reason that the Concorde is at VL is that at the time of its retirement from test flying the Transport Minister was Anthony Wedgewood Benn, who was a Bristol MP, he wanted the aircraft preserved in the West Country and at that time the only aviation museum who could take it was the FAAM, the aircraft was transferred to the ownership of the Science Museum and flown into VL, the SM then paid for a hangar to be built into which the Concorde was placed, hope that answer’s your question.

FAAM – Harrier T8 – ZB604

Noted today that there is a giant Dragonfly sculpture at Solstice Park, Amesbury (Wiltshire) – I don’t go down the A303 much but it has been there a while, or so I am led to believe.
Anyway, even as I sped past I thought “that looks like a Gazelle pod…”

[ATTACH=CONFIG]227871[/ATTACH]

A little research indicates that it is a Gazelle pod, and an inverted boom although I couldn’t see that. What the research didn’t dig up was…which Gazelle(s) donated their dignity to art?

Not much else around – just an Army Lynx which overflew somewhere around Thruxton. Is it a bank holiday weekend?;o)

Update: looked on Demobbed to find that it is/was formerly HT3 ZA904…

Its actually ZA804 and was officially unveiled on 11/06/07

HTH

BobT