The museum closed down in the late eighties & the contents auctioned off. The site is now a luxury flat complex (or similar).

Andy H’ from Newton Abbott (who owns Sea Vixen cockpit XN650) and is ‘HMS Vulture’ on this forum, should be able to answer most questions as he’s a member of the Devon A/C Recovery Team, whose exhibits were on show at Torbay (but now in storage).

…. and the SeaHawk cockpit (not mentioned in the list above) was acquired by myself and turned out to be WF145 (3rd pre-production a/c), but having passed through the Welshpool cockpit collection, is now cherished by Stuart Gowans.

Time for a timely update and to bump the thread for those asking about Torbay A/C Museum.

Forumite ‘HMS Vulture’ has now acquired the Seahawk nose (WF145) that was on display there, and it has now ‘returned home’ in a sense.

😀

I think this may well be of an ejection during a display in Cyprus by memory, in the mid 70’s. It is a genuine image from before the days of Photshop.

Indeed its a geniune photo.

Harrier GR.1 XV739 whilst serving with No.1 Sqdn coded ‘V’, crashed near Episkopi, Cyprus 24 September 1973 after pilot experienced uncontollable forward pitch whilst accelerating from the hover during a display rehersal. One minor injury (a broken leg) 😮

Cheers……..

I was in Devon the week before last, Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Lynton for a day. Place was full of people with six fingers, webbed feet and beards, and that was just the women. 🙂

…oh, you met my sisters then ? 😀

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No takers on this one?… here we go then; having watched a channel 4 programe on a related topic (so it must be true) a nice gypsy lady said unto the interviewer that “pikeys” (not sure of the plural) were quarter bred (or threequarter bred depending on how you look at it) with Romanys as the pure line. Here in Essex we are less interested in their parentage, but are very concerned with the thieving sc*m that; pinch our power tools ,tear off with our trailers, dump in our driveways (quite literally) and clutter our countryside. Lucky heather anyone…

What a lovely country this is/was (delete as appropriate). 😀

May i suggest moving to the South West* Stuart, Ben, Rob etc… ? Our border controls are a bit tighter :diablo:

(* South West = an area to left of a line stretching north from Lyme Regis to Bridgewater. NOT as ITN news etc would have it as ‘an area west of Reading of which Swindon is the capital’ ) :rolleyes:

Talking about good shape, it’s said the the airframe is in a remarkable state of repair, no corrosion holes apparent and just some surface mag corrosion. Looks like AW built them tough in those days.

Awww c’mon Les, you know thats only the way Hawkers showed ’em :diablo:

But seriously, congrat’s on commencement of the work. Look forward to more pic’s…! 😉

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Forgive my ignorance, but how can a tower restored & opened as a museum, be allowed to fall back into disrepair ?

Whats the story behind its demise ? Did the landowner sell out for a quick buck to a property developer, or…..?

Some old threads on the subject shed no light…..

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=85&highlight=ludham

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15901&highlight=ludham

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=44345&highlight=ludham

:confused:
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Thanks Cliff.

Did you get any of that black Buccanear, Harrier, Tiger Moth & Typhoon cockpit projects underway (?)…..?

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