MrB.175 – Exactly how long ago was it that we had three Beverley’s on display. A ‘head in the sand’ attitude to some degree maybe made it seem to people that they could stand the weather indefinately. Clearly they couldn’t.
This is exactly the case with the surviving Britannia’s. If Duxford get their’s undercover that’s a civil one preserved. Is it realistic to spend money on the Cosford one when the same amount of money would go rather further in helping to keep the Kemble example alive. As for the condition of the Cosford example – I think maybe you need to look deeper . Certainly last week the u/c door brackets were exfoliating at a fair old rate and the wing underside is suffering. I should imagine if a few of the upper surface panels were removed and the interior inspected it wouldn’t be that sound.
David
Of course you are both quite right and correct in this respect. Unless under cover or given huge amounts of attention by lots of volunteers regularly, it feels like a lost cause to keep large aircraft outside for year after year but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t keep trying.
Fingers crossed G-AOVT will be under cover soon at Duxford and we would love to have XM496 under cover, especially as it’s the only RAF machine that survived. However, as usual, it comes down to lack of funding and we only just scraped together the cost of the public liability insurance in order to allow the public onboard XM496 at the years forthcoming Kemble Air Show.
You could write volume’s on it but it’s one of my biggest gripes is that there’s no one which takes ownership (BAPC?) of available resources and a plan to saveguard certain airframes for the future. Cosford’s money is Cosford’s, so there’s no chance of someone coming along and saying any funds they spend on G-AOVF should be directed elsewhere (XM496).
On the subject of G-AOVF, she is a very sound airframe. Yes as you’ve pointed out above there is corrosion, but in real terms most of it is superficial, and as a whole, considering she’s been outside for more than 20 years now, she’s in remarkably good condition from a structral point of view.
Compared to aircraft like the 707 (and Viscount just being dismantled) the Britannia was over engineered and this has helped her survive so long outside in such a reasonable condition. However, after I’ve said all of that, yes she does really need to be inside and the museum has a plan not to leave here out in the cold forever, although at the moment I believe her fin is too high for most of the hangars at Cosford.
I’m led to believe that Cosford’s plan is to have no aircraft outside and once the move around for the new hangar has taken place both the Argosy and Andover will go undercover (a first!). I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong but that’ll just leave the Brit and Neptune outside. Fingers crossed they’ll both be under cover soon!
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