I understand that Ian Watson’s brother visited ZA176 last August and was shown round the aircraft by some of NAM’s volunteers! 🙂

I did have some contacts for the ’81 Squadron Associates’ re Canberra PR.7 WH791 – but sadly they all ‘bounced’ the last time they were used a couple of years ago! :confused:

…It looks a bit like the one NAM have just outside the shop; though I’m not sure if it is the same….

Rich,

I have spoken to the Curator this morning who advised me of the following.

He believes that the tyre cradle you have seen is ex-Lancaster, which was purchased several years ago by NAM and then modified to facilitate the removal and tyre filling of the Hastings main wheels.

Sadly both tyres on this unit are now beyond repair and would need replacing, but he believes that the ‘modified’ structure is reasonably sound. He also stated that he would not object to the unit being placed on temporary loan to allow you guys to undertake any work that you may have planned – this would still need clearing with the museum trustees and the generation of appropriate agreements etc. 😉

I hope this may provide a route forward.

I heard about the other possible window Rich – any assistance is greatly appreciated; looks like they’ll need to get the ‘cherry picker’ back and in use! 🙂

I did check in ‘Dedication To Duty’ to see if there were any photographs of the equipment that you’re looking for – but no luck! All I could find was a photograph of the ‘tyre-filled’ main wheels being refitted (page 137). 😉

Thank you for the delivery Rich – that is greatly appreciated! 🙂

When I get the photograph of the required piece of equipment I’ll instigate a ‘standard search pattern!’ 😀

Tony the ‘rattling their tins’ comment wasn’t intended to relate to you or indeed any other group that displays at Cockpit-Fest – but it has been an issue at other NAM hosted events.

A limited number of collection tins are accommodated in the Shop for ‘like-minded charities’ but as a registered charity you have to be very careful about how you interact with other charities; e.g. the long-term proposed Hangar Project with the LLA was originally cleared with Charity Commission long before it ever became public knowledge.

WADR I don’t think that the AN-2 was loaned to Newark just to help to secure a sale; although I may well have misinterpreted the negotiations with the owner.

For context, here are the opening three paragraphs from an article I wrote on the topic for FlyPast in summer 2003:

“During the summer of 2002 well signalled changes in the Civil Aviation Authority regulations for aircraft flying under foreign registrations led to Newark Air Museum being approached by several Antonov AN-2 ‘Colt’ owners, offering to loan their aircraft to the museum.

Indeed in September 2002 the museum trustees had agreed to accept Antonov AN-2 into the collection, however a few days before the anticipated delivery date fate intervened and the aircraft was eventually exported to Brazil.

Despite a degree of disappointment, museum trustee David Hibbert had established a string of contacts amongst the AN-2 fraternity and he continued to correspond and nurture these people.”

Anyone remember the ground run at Cockpit-Fest that year? 😮

Sorry if it was your model stall that was blown away, we should have done a better risk assessment!!