Hi Cees,

We tried to get hold of the tail section,(it was even stored in our hangar before RAFM moved to Cosford), I thought that it would be a good thing to cut our teeth on and a good exhibit to boot. However, it wasn’t to be:(

John

John,

What’s the status of the project? The website hasn’t been updated in over a year.

Any cooperation with the museum at Vraux who display this large fuselage section?

http://www.pyperpote.tonsite.biz/pages/vrauxpag.html

Cheers

Cees

Hi Cees,

At long last we seem to be moving along apace. The website is on our list ‘to do’ and is due to have a couple of newsletters added. The turret is now back to being more or less complete after the unfortunate incident with the cracked perspex:( , it just needs the rear doors (anyone got any door bits out there?) and details parts making.

We are a little bit in limbo at the momentas the RAF informed us that they wanted us out of our current location and to move to a different part of the hangar, however no firm dates have been given and the proposed location doesn’t even have power as it was decommissioned some 12 years ago.

The decision has been taken to re-construct the flight deck portion of the cockpit only at present due to its size and availability of known information. To that end a jig is being manufactured to re-construct both seats, the instrument panel shown at Cockpitfest will be finished to full display standard and will be mated to the restored throttle box to make a more robust mobile exhibit. Rudder Pedals and Control Columns are also being started.

Hopefully before long we can start posting progress as per your Halifax cockpit and hopefully to the same standard.

regards

John

The most I ever found at Stafford was a yellow Wessex Tailboom. In about 2002 I had to go to Aston Down as it was due to close and they had lists of Jaguar tooling that needed to be disposed of. Can’t speak for what was in the other hangars, but the airfield was home to 100s of surplus Land Rovers and 4 Tonners. The Hangar we looked at had skips full of Jaguar jigs and tooling, a main fuselage jig and even some Canberra jigs. unfortunately they mostly suffered from surface corrosion as the hangar wasn’t de-humidified. One thing that did stand out was storage containers (empty) 😮 for Polaris warheads.

At one stage, Shawbury was home to several Jags, a couple of RN Jetstreams, numerous Tucanos and at least 2 Canberras, but this was in the early 2000s.

Hi all,

Just to re-iterate what Junk Collector has just posted. One of my past remits was asbestos removal from Jaguar and you’d be surprised where it would turn up. Prior to 1974, asbestos fibre was added to the adhesive used in making up the honeycomb panels on the aircraft and because you couldn’t identify accurately when each panel had been manufactured, a blanket statement was put into the Vol 6 to the effect that ALL honeycomb on the aircraft was to be treated as if it contained asbestos. IIRC the sealant (PRC) also contained the nasty stuff up to a certain date. The upshot of all of this was that if it remained undisturbed on the aircraft, it wasn’t ideal but was acceptable.

As an aside, a few years ago our project team was contacted to see if anyone recognised a drop tank that was used as a mini submarine on the Scrapheap Challenge programme. A concerned viewer wrote to the producers as he was an ex rigger and knew that some drop tanks were made out of asbestos composite (as the Jaguars was), needless to say we couldn’t identify it, having only a video to look at, which showed dust and c**p spread far and wide whilst they were cutting into it

The Stirling Project has had access to the RAFM held remains of LK488, but that’s about it. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us hold any bits at our Wyton site, which is a shame as at least we can get the occasional visitor to come and look at we’ve been up to. I believe that the centre and tail section plus empennage are now locked away at Stafford.

We do have a portion of the u/c crate but that has now to be returned to them in the very near future. The remaining structure that we recovered some 2 years ago mainly relates to the wing and is pretty mangled, but there are some interesting pieces like the tank covers and flap tracks.

John

Russia……..Stirling

Need I say more!:(

I thought that there were some moves afoot in the past to get a Supermarine Swift in the air.

John