That’s quite an unusual picture of a Shack, a Phase III just before the Viper fit. Most people seem to think that the Viper was a Phase III mod. (Well, i suppose it was eventually, it was rolled into the Phase III for the later aircraft.)

As a trustee of GAM I can put some factual information into this discussion. First, GAM were offered the Herald and turned it down for the following reasons.

1. It does not fit in with our collection, we have a collection of post war military aircraft and the Herald would be seriously out of place.
2. When were given planning permission we had very stringent conditions attached to the approval. This was legalized by the Council producing and us signing a Section 106 agreement. We are restricted on the number of exhibits allowed outside. Taking the Herald would breach this agreement.

GAL will not breach the security fence that separates the airport from GAM. Although a big crane could almost certainly swing it over. That assumes that the airframe is in a good enough condition. We surveyed it a couple of years ago and our engineers had serious doubts about the integrity of the airframe.

All of the above does not mean that we aren’t sympathetic to efforts to save the aircraft. It is possible that we could assist any group who are committed to saving her, contact us and we can discuss any assistance we can render.

P Mills
GAM

With the weather looking OK and the aircraft serviceable this looks like a definite for this Saturday!

PM

Rich,

thanks for taking the time to shed some light on the situation at Coventry.
I am somewhat amused that Merlin85 is so insistent on clarity and being open but uses a pseudonym as his user name. Perhaps the simple question of “who are you?” will provide an answer.

As a trustee of a registered aviation museum, as well as a volunteer, I understand the issues that can be created with different requirements pulling on the management of the trust.

I am sure that I do not need to say this, but I will anyway; we at Gatwick Aviation Museum fully support your efforts and will help out wherever we can. It’s just a shame we are so far apart.

Good luck with your efforts. We will be going through some of our spares stock soon and know we have some Mk2 stuff, let you know and you’re welcome to what we find.

Peter Mills
GAM

Rich,

on the way Fri a.m.

PS The concrete for the new building is almost all poured, should be complete tomorrow. Just got to get it set and dried so that we can roll airframes onto it, estimate 7 weeks. The rest of the building will be finished in three or four weeks.

I suspect that the 2C is an aircrew invention. It appears to have been used at Ballykelly and later at Changi in aircrew log books, it may have been used to differenciate between the different phases.

During my time with Shackletons one of my jobs was to fit role equipment into airframes coming back from Phase 3 refurbishment. They were then air tested and issued to the squadron(s). At no time did the F700 and associated documents use the annotation 2C. Later perusal of similar still does not include it. One of the most authoritative Shackleton books written by Chris Ashworth does not use that anywhere either.

pm