Its still being done, when the covers were removed from GR9 ZD433 at FAAM this week the serial on one side had been altered to ZD488 with the aid of black insulating tape.
Fleetlands open days also used to be rife with confuse the number cruncher’s tricks, serials altered, codes changed and a broom stick painted black and fixed to the nose of a Sea King so it looked like a gun barrel.
Be nice to see the FRS2s and Tbird all on display one day if we’re lucky. Do they still have the P.1127 there as I’d love to see a hangar dedicated to V/STOL
The Sea Harriers are actually F/A2’s not FRS2’s, the P1127, Sea Harrier F/A2 and the GR3 which has a FRS1 nose and is on the ramp are all still on display inside the FAAM. The 2 F/A2’s that arrived yesterday and the T8 still to come are not part of the FAAM collection so will not be on display in the museum.
XV227, XV228, XV230, XV232, XV243, XV244, XV247, XV249, XV255, XV258, XV260 and XW664 – credit to ‘Falklands the Air War by the late lamented BARG team published in 1986
There were some discussions many years ago about the possibility of building a replica 184 and restoring the example now at FAAM but it came to nothing, as I said before there are now no plans to restore this example, and what you see in the photos are all that there is.
There are no plans to rebuild the 184, the Gladiator and Barra are next, if you look in the background of the last photo you will see the ‘fishtank’ as the staff called it that now houses the 184 under construction
Interesting insight! However the FAAM Martlet – AL246 as you recall, C.No 656 – isn’t ex-USN, but the earliest survivor of the type, and was destined for the French Aéronavale, one of the US machines delivered to the UK after the fall of France.
The Hellcat (I presume the same as the one you remember?) is also in the FAAM collection.
Dave Morris at the FAAM would probably be most interested to hear from you, and your recollections…
Regards,
I will pass this on to Dave M when he returns to work on Tuesday
The picture of the Corsair in post 3 is a very old photograph showing its postwar coat of paint, that layer was removed to reveal its wartime coat and markings beneath, the same process is now being used to reveal the secrets of the museums Martlet.
So if it’s not going into the FAAM, why is it going to VL?
Someone with an interest in the F4 and felt strongly that an original 892NAS airframe should be preserved has after a lot of work managed to get permission to move the aircraft to VL where it will be preserved and looked after by a group on the airfield.
But, I still shake my head over the fact that no-one at FAAM didn’t pounce on this F-4 for the museum before this happened to it when the RAF retired the F-4…..
There were a lot of reasons that it was not ‘pounced’ upon, however, lots of items from the dump were acquired for the FAAM’s F4, I made 2 trips up there myself with a lorry.
This is a sign of the times where the MOD are concerned, DE are tightening the rules on everything and charges are being made for things that in the past would have been gratis
Pagen01, I also last visited the NMUSAF in 2005 and the watch tower contains bricks from various watch towers located on 8th AF airfields in the UK, each brick has its original airfield name painted on it.
Public transport to FAAM has always been a problem located as it is in a rural area, currently the only bus service that calls at the museum is operated by Nippybus service N11. This leaves Yeovil bus station at 1000 reaching FAAM at 1028, however the last pickup from FAAM back to Yeovil is at 1300 so giving the visitor only two and half hours at the museum. A service does drop passengers at 1428 in the FAAM carpark but on checking the timetable its unclear if it takes anyone back to Yeovil.
Other than that there are plenty of taxi’s in the Yeovil area but that would cost anything from £12 to £17 each way.
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