Not sure about the Belfast joints, but I believe that both Beverley cockpits currently in preservation were cut to remove them.

XL149 certainly was; as I posted elsewhere I saw it chopped in 1977 at RAF Finningley.

…. And how many Blackburn Beverley aircraft now remain? To rely on a single example is to tempt fate….

Whilst I’m not a fan of the Cold War building at Cosford at least “the one” is under cover, in a controlled environment and in a building I believe with a fire suppression system installed!

This gives it a much better chance of survival than many airframes that I could name.

I think we can sum it up. The last flight of the Vulcan will be at Duxford on October 5th????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

a) Fulfill some of the conditions imposed by the award of a lottery grant?

Condition meet – to restore a Vulcan Bomber to full working order.

b) Give as many people an opportunity as possible to see 558 in case the axe does fall and they have to ground her?

This has been met to a point.

c) To try and attract a sponsor or sponsors to ensure her long term future?

Tried, but no one wants to sponsor the original WMD regardless of it’s net worth.

We tried and gave it our best and our best gave us XH558.

I think you might find that their HLF contractual commitments are valid for a little longer than two months!

On the news bulletin I saw last night they were asking for public donations – £10 per person to fund the purchases. A bit like TVOC!

One of the paintings is with the Museum of Scotland [aren’t they involved with East Fortune??:confused:] – so let’s hope they raise the money by donation and keep their other budget for the planes, like Concorde. :diablo:

The UK’s aircraft preservation movement is one of the most diverse in the world and IMHO it would be very difficult to “un-pick” how it has evolved by trying to introduce a new national scheme to save airframes. It was difficult enough to devise a listing scheme like the NAHR to identify what is important and worth saving.

With the current financial situation and the increasingly scarce funding resources available to the heritage and arts sectors as funds are drawn away to the 2012 Olympics; I believe that financially such a scheme would be a none-starter.

It’s almost beyond belief that in this day and age a national museum like Hendon should have to take out banner adverts on sites like this to draw in visitors and presumably generate operating funding. So much for free museum access!

With all due respect Hendon ducked out of the Beverley situation this when they let theirs be scrapped.

A massive undertaking, which I doubt anyone would be prepared to take on – although Elvington supposedly looked at the Paull example several years ago.

I guess nationalising an airframe is an interesting concept! 😮

I guess the National Aviation Heritage Register partially covers it – but where is the long-awaited new edition?

Apparently she made the Newark area as well…

http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/newsItem.php?id=3