Could not make Duxford this weekend as I had to go to Suffolk for the weekend.
Passing through DX on Friday afternoon there was rain in the air and I did notice that the Spitfire was now on a perch by the entrance gate facing the museum.
On the way back on Sunday before the show started we saw one of the Rapides landing in very heavy rain. Now you see it – now you dont, thought the pilot did well as we could not see very well even with the wipers on fast!!!.
We again noticed that the Spitfire on the perch was now facing the road, is it acting as a windsock??
Brian.
You want to get your eyes tested, thats a Hurricane on the gate not a Spitfire!!!
i spoke to a member of the conservation staff whilst at legends regarding the shackleton and he said that the aircraft was to be surveyed to determine exactly what was required to bring it up to display standard and as part of this process the outer wings would have to be remove so that it would fit into the conservation hangar (5) so all this wild speculation is for nought me thinks,
mick,
i think you’ll find that all of duxfords engines are being currently being moved into hangar five.
as for any paper work , i’d be very surprise if any has gone missing, what information have you got?
“Maybe Duxford should stop collecting for a couple of years (unless it is a really unique item) and concentrate on the mass of untouched items it has already.
Thunderchief in 2003 (in the same place 4 years later and in same condition)”
Perhaps the fact that they are in the same condition as 4 yeas ago is thanks to them being indoors in a museum rather than sitting outside rotting as the casa did for many a year in spain!
the duxford example does indeed belong to the iwm, fuselage is in the north side of hanger 2 and the wings which are in a very very poor state are in hanger 5, no current plans to do anything with it as yet i believe, but i do know that some of the conservtion staff are very eager to get the green light to get on with it, all down to the cost and space at the moment i guess. it’s at the back of the line, victor, shackleton, varsity and F105 are in front.
No one seems to have mantioned the classic (in my eyes anyway) early eighties tv series “Salvage One” . Set in a scrap yard that was littered with bits of old planes, i particularly remember an F86 wing lying against a wall. They built a rocket out of scrap and went into space!!!
There was a B25 in another episode.
Another B25 turned up in an episode of the A team, they found in abandoned in the jungle and managed to get it flying usings cheese triangles and a spatula.
Duxford would be far weaker as an attraction for both the public and enthusiast alike without these groups/individuals, but whats stopping the IWM from making more of its own exhibits. Four engines turning on the HP Hastings , or a ground run from the Oxford would be good places to start , both would become unique features to Duxford without the sole survivor tag. After all once the Airspeed Oxford is suspended in the new Air Space building its roll as an educational research subject is going to be somewhat negated.
Septic.
I’m sure that the museum would love to get all four hercules engines on the Hastings running again, unfortunately they are all seized and the props are pretty knackered (plus all the other relevant systems needing overhaul)so without an enormous injection of cash (priced a sleeve valve radial rebuild lately?) it will remain silent.
Great photos but what a pity they didn’t get the Shackleton and Anson organised as well and put them all on the “pan” outside the AirSpace or whatever it’s called this week. That would have been a real Avro gathering but I suppose that was expecting a bit too much.
I suspect that the team moving the aircraft into Airspace are quite busy hanging Mosquitoes etc and dont have time to waste on moving the Shack and Anson, they have a big job to do in a short time.
mick[/QUOTE]
Personally I’d rather that she remained firmly on the ground intact than made airworthy for the sake of pandering to the current obsession with having multiple numbers of the same aircraft wandering around the sky, and I really don’t think that the IWM has the funds to make a four engined bomber fly again,
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