No it will not affect the Museum as that is sited on council land outside the boundary of the airport itself.

That said having a live airfield next door is a distinct bonus as it adds to the whole experience, it would be a huge dissappointment if flying was to stop here 🙁

And they were going to burn that ! :eek::eek:

Amazing in what is supposedly an ‘enlightened’ age of preservation and the power of the Internet to connect likeminded enthusiasts that stories such as this one can still occur.

Some moves now made public

Just seen posted to two well supported email groups, so its in the public domain now:

I was talking to the owner of the storage yard at Booker on Saturday.
He confirmed that the Lasham Museum is closing this week. He is
collecting the Sea Prince for storage at Booker. The Drover is going
to Salisbury Hall for display at the Mosquito Museum, and one of the
Meteors plus possibly the Starfighter are going to Poland.

History of XL500

A very quick google search gives the following:

Fairey Gannet AEW.3 XL500
XL500 has had an unusually active retirement; first used by the School of Aircraft Handling at Culdrose, she then moved onto Lee-on-Solent for a period of storage and was then actually brought back to airworthy status. Dowty-Rotol Propellors operated the aircraft for a short period on noise trials and then XL500 was grounded once more, finally becoming the mascot of 849 NAS, back at Culdrose.
She was put on display by the public viewing area at the airfield during the summer months (as pictured above) but in late March 2000 moved once more, having been donated to the Chatham Dockyard Museum.
From here she was purchased by Kennets for restoration to flight (now moved to Exeter)

Given this history I don’t see why it would necessarily have appeared on a Tender and I cannot see how you can accuse anyone of profiteering from this airframe since it appears to have been donated to Chatham, who then have disposed of it themselves.

Given the number of years this airframe was left on external display in lovely salty air at Culdrose and then Chatham, I would estimate the cost of returning this aircraft to flight will FAR out way any perceived financial windfall in obtaining it on the cheap, which appears to be your inference.

Thanks to the joy of BBC I Player finally watched this tonight, after several colleagues at work asked if I had seen it. I have to say – WOW, to have had ONE Ancestor with an illustrious history would have bee special to have TWO so involved in aviation history, plus one other so involved with yet another ‘infamous’ event is extra special. Never really warmed to Ms Humble, too ‘jolly hockey sticks’ as has been commented by others, but what a family history, truly a special episode well worth a viewing.

Thanks Guys

REF – PM sent

I would be interested to find out more ref the story behind the Canberra. The photograph shows what I assume is WJ640 leaving as a fairly intact fuselage section, is it known where it was taken to ?
There was a Canberra used in the film and is actually seen for a short duration during the movie – if you can bear to watch it !
Further info is on these threads

http://http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91355&highlight=wing+commander+film
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51444&highlight=wing+commander+film

N748D – fate ?

Can anyone confirm the current situation regarding N748D, formerly XW760. I read a report somewhwere its been scrapped, but seen nothing else to confirm this ?