Coanda,

Yes, I studied Manufacturing systems at UWE and graduated in 2002. I made the long journey north to get DYR when the Uni first bought it. I seem to remember there being some kind of aircraft panel in the shed they keep the bus in. I also remember someone saying that it used to be the area they tested Spitfire guns, and when it was emptied they had absolutely loads of lead left behind.

I wonder if the winning bidder will be forced to pay or if he/she could back out of the deal when they discover what an appalling state it is in. I bet the seller will be writing ‘sold as seen’ on the reciept anyway!! Don’t Barclaycard offer some kind of buyers insurance, wonder what they would make of this.
I have wondered this about buying a car on ebay aswell, I would never pay that much money for something without physically seeing it.

Do you think that you would be able to re-coup £6000 by breaking the aircraft and selling all of the components to other parties? I noticed on ebay that another auction was for Vulcan turbine blades – 2 off for £10. It still has all four engines so how much would that be? Maybe museums would be interested in buying an engine for display? Of course the cockpit could be sold, along with anything else that collectors might want e.g. gyros, radio equipment etc and then the rest of the airframe sold for scrap. I’m sure thats what a scrap merchant would do. I would not bid on it though until it had been given a proper inspection just to ascertain the exact condition it was in.

My understanding of aircraft is not that great, but I thought the skin of modern airliners varies in thickness from approx 1mm up to maybe 6mm+ around the windows, doors etc where more stress is exerted. I would think a screwdriver would easily go all the way through, or are the planes double skinned, similar to oil tankers?

Sea Prince WP321 at Bournemouth has got the US registration N7SY if I am correct. I was a volunteer at the museum when it made its ferry flight down from North Weald, only just made it if I remember correctly. Talk at the time was that it was going to be a regular flyer, although I havent seen it move under it’s own power since.

Sorry for the confusion by saying ‘alliance’. What I was trying to say was that the two airlines must have some sort of deal, as you can use Virgin Flying club miles to buy flights on BMI. Looking at the Virgin website, they can also be used with the following airlines aswell:

Air Jamaica
Air New Zealand
Air Seychelles
All Nippon Airways
America West Airlines
Austrian Airlines Group
bmi
Caribbean Star Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta Air Lines
Frontier Airlines
Gulf Air
Hawaiian Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
Nationwide Airlines (until 1 December 2004)
SAS
Singapore Airlines

Both of them are members of the same alliance, and I believe you can use your Virgin airmiles on Bmi flights and vice versa. As the man says, it seems quite logical to me. It would be a shame if they did away with the name though.

Bournemouth always seems to have a good variety of aircraft coming in and out. Not only EAL’s base, but FR Aviation used to do alot of work on privately owned aircraft. I heard a rumour before that the Sultan of Brunei (or someone similar) used to park his aircraft there when visiting England, as the parking charges at Heathrow were astronomical!!!!. Also, during the winter months, Bournemouth gets quite a few diversions as it does not suffer with fog as regularly as some of the larger airports.