Peter MillsTo be strictly accurate the Viper fit was not initially part of the Phase 3 conversion. It was a separate initiative which later got rolled into the Phase 3 conversion. A number of early Phase 3 were returned to have the Vipers retrofitted.
Peter MillsThere’s still a large section of wing at Gatwick, it’s going to look odd with half a wing missing!
PM
Peter MillsAs Bruce says the site wil not be empty, we still have 12 airframes and have just been granted planning permission to replace a building with a new one to house all the aircraft except the Shack, which has permission to be outside.
On site now are:-
Buccaneer S.1. XN923
Sea Vixen XS587
Venon FB51 J1605
Meteor T7 VZ638
Sea Prince T1 WP308
Harrier GR3 XV751
Sea Hawk FB6 XE638 ??
Canberra PR7 WH773
Hunter F51 E430 (Composite)
Shackleton MR3 WR982
Hunter T7 XL591
Lightning ZF579
Airframes disposed of last year:-
Shackleton MR3 WR974 – Bruntingthorpe
Sea Prince T1 WF118 – St Athan
Pembroke XK588 – St Athan
Gannet AEW3 XS472 St Athan
JP3A XN494 – Brunty
Jaguar XX734 – Boscombe Dowm Museum
Piston Provost XW442
Whirlwind HAR10 x 2 XP398 XP351
Wasp XS463 (XT413)ut
We also had an Ercoupe 415D (G-EGHB) for many years but that was sold to Italy about 4 years ago and is now flying again after a fantastic restoration.
We did at one time has a wreck of a Gazelle, but that left many years ago. I seem to remember it going to the Shoreham area.
That I believe is the lot!
Just to reiterate, we are not out of business, very far from it and expect to re-open next year with a new museum and a series of events to celebrate the new era for the museum. Keep an eye on the web site for updates.
Gatwick Aviation Museum
Peter MillsI (or someone from GAM) will certainly post when the Lightning is going to its public runs.
The timescale is fluid and of course it depends on everything working. We had to re-splice nearly a 1,000 electrical connections alone so we fully expect to have some fault finding to do. Providing we don’t find any “show stoppers” we hope to be ready to run publicly in late June or more realistically July.
Peter MillsOK,
had intended to let this thread follow its natural course and submerge into the depths.
However, I feel that I need to answer fully the responses made as to my “hostile” response and my apparent sensitivity.
Post 24 asked a reasonable question, to which JG gave an authoritative, definite reply, sadly it was inaccurate. The word yes at the start of his response I believe reasonably took to be the answer to the dismantling of the Shackleton. It is often the case that a response that is inaccurate becomes almost fact if it repeated or read by many people. I don’t post that often but do feel obliged to post whenever I see comments or statements that I know are wrong and in which I have knowledge and or expertise.
The second part of the response implied that the museum would be unlikely to survive unless it attracted sufficient visitors to cover its outgoings. A statement of the obvious delivered in a particularly unpleasant form of words, my interpretation. Fortunately that is not the case at GAM. Now it may be that the posters command of the English language and grammar is as poor as my own and the way in which the statement was framed was not quite what was meant. I have no intention of publishing the fine detail of the museums accounts here to satisfy some measure of decision as to who gets support. We are not complacent, we have plans to offer events and collaborations to attract more visitors to the museum. The museum outgoings are very few, we own the site, no rent. As a charity we are entitled and do claim 80% rebate on rates for the building that we occupy, all of our staff are unpaid volunteers. The bottom line is that we have a commercial company whose profit is to be used to ensure that the museum stays financially viable for the next 79 years (the remaining life of the trust).
For those who are interested, we are in contact with the local planning dept and expect to submit a new application in the next few months.
I would like to thank those that understood both the implications of the post and my initial response, one or two may have misread or misinterpreted the words used, as may I.
The museum re-opens on Saturday the 5th of April and I can assure everyone that you will be welcome and will find a bunch of friendly and knowledgeable people, all are welcome even our detractors. (we have much local experience in that area!).
Peter MillsJ31,
the answer is no, it is not dismantled fully. With the bad weather we were uable to get our heavy machinery close enought to complete the job. Now that the weather has relented (we were flooded three times in a couple of weeks) and we have the equipment in place it will re-commence in the next few days.
I am impressd that John Green is so familiar with the financial arrangements at the museum, perhaps he could enlighten me, as a museum trustee I would be facinated to know where this info can be found. I’ll give you a clue, Peter Vallance left all of his estate to the museum.
Peter MillsHi,
“the yard at Charlwood” is Aerospace Logistics, they had another yard at Faygate a couple of miles away, that has been cleared and the owner has built a house on it.
Planning permission to build houses at the Charlwood location was given a short while ago and I understand that will go ahead.
Gatwick Aviation Museum was offered the Hawk on permanent loan or to purchase for £80,000. We don’t take permy loans and didn’t feel that the price reflected the value. We did ask about the Jag XX121 but that has been promised somewhere else. As far as I know there have been no movements out of the site in the past few months, we can presume that eventually the airframes there will be disposed of fairly soon since they only have three years to commence building.
Peter MillsThe plans are new and this version basically replaces an existing building with another that fits on the footprint of the original building. It is a three stage building that accomodates the remaining (bar one) collection in one of the units depending upon the airframe height. All units are interconnected to appear as a single unit. These plans have not yet been submited, in the past few days we have been carrying out public consulation exercises, interacting with the local poplace and Parsh Councillors. We posted a leaflet in every house, property in the parish inviting the occupants to view and comment on the plans. This, we felt, was essential to gather reactions, comments, suggestions etc to carry the local residents with us. Of those who attended our open days the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. The museums trustees will now decide on the next step. On that note the Board of Trustees has been re-inforced by the appointment of two of the engineering volunteers to the board, Andy Scrase and Peter Mills are now trustees of the museum.
Peter MillsFor the progress on ZF579 at Gatwick see the following links:-
http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk/news/news.html
http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk/lightning/latest_news.htm
Since being fitted most of the engine connects have been completed and two major items remain to be fitted, the No.1 reheat unit and the No.2 engine. Both are ready to go when time and resources are availalble (time and peeps!).
Peter MillsOn Thursday the 29th August Gannet XL472 was loaded onto a low loader ready for her journey to S.Wales.
If all goes to plan she should leave the museum at about 7 p.m. today (Fri) and make her way across country to arrive at St. Athan in the early hours of Saturday.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]220294[/ATTACH]
Also, Sea Prince WF118 is also just about ready to make the same journey.
Peter MillsFor those who are interested I have just updated the website with the latest information.
http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk/news/news.html
PM
Peter MillsIt sounds like the same installation that used to be on the Shackleton, that was deleted in the mid sixties as a part of the phase 3 update.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]217264[/ATTACH]
Is this the unit?
Peter MillsThe extra yoke is for the nose wheel steering, only the first pilot has the control.
Peter MillsOK, as a member of Gatwick Aviation Museum with nearly 20 years under my belt perhaps I can offer to give the facts in this matter.
Firstly, NO airframes are destined to be scrapped and all of those that are going, are going to secure homes. For some years we have recognized that given the numbers of museum members that regularly attend the museum we simply had too many airframes to look after. The choices are simple, do a little on many or a lot on a few. Those that know what we do will recognize that approach, thank you Bruce by the way. Naturally we are saddened to see airframes go but better that than see them deteriorate to a position where they cannot be recovered and then the only course open is to call in the scrap man. Had the collection been housed under cover then none of the issues that bedevil aircraft kept outside would have caused this action to be taken.
Perhaps it will be of interest to know that even Peter Vallance before he passed away acknowledged and accepted that we had to dispose of some airframes, that was a very hard decision for him to make.
The airframes chosen as possible disposals was actually decided at the end of last year so this is not knee jerk reaction but part of a planned re-alignment of our collection and the resources that we have at our disposal. What it will do is allow us to put more effort into the remaining aircraft, the result of this will become evident as the number of “runners” steadily increases over the next months and years. We expect to restart public runs, as we bring more aircraft into a live state we are confident that this will appeal to aviation enthusiasts and the general public alike.
We certainly do not see this as the beginning of the end but as the start of a more dynamic era where we can at last make headway with the local populace and authorities and put the museum and its artifacts into a position where we can do more that just survive but move ahead.
I can also give advance notice that some other items may be sold in the next few months (not airframes) this all a part of the plan. For instance, we have a large collection of spares for aircraft that we have never owned! The conversion of these items into cash reflects the more businesslike approach being taken to running a living, dynamic museum and not a private collection. This does not represent the closing or running down of the museum, doom merchants take note please.
Peter MillsThe advice from one of our number who spends his working life doing minor and major airframe repairs to large airliners is to remove the damaged skin complete with artwork back to suitable frame areas. Then you can do an almost invisible repair and you have preserved the original artwork albeit damaged. This then gives you the choice to put it into white B2 (like that a lot!) or hemp and reproduce the artwork.
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