Newark Air Museum – Page 13

Jaguar Update

Sepecat Jaguar Newark Air Museum

Earlier in the year volunteers at Newark Air Museum undertook an ‘armament upgrade’ on their Sea Harrier airframe.

In recent weeks this excellent programme of work that allows their airframes to take on a more authentic ‘in-service’ feel has moved on to SEPECAT Jaguar T2A XX829.

The museum’s resident ex-armourer has completed work that has allowed external tanks to be fitted to the inboard pylons on XX829.

This work has given the airframe more of an operational appearance and the aircraft will feature as part of the museum’s Fleet & Foreign Aircraft Days on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September 2016.

www.newarkairmuseum.org

Major Shackleton Repaint Now Underway

Newark Air Museum Shackleton

The major repaint of Avro Shackleton WR977 is now underway at Newark Air Museum.

Scaffolding started to be erected around the whole of the sixty (60) year old aircraft on Monday 4th April and the scaffold installation was completed and officially handed over to the museum on Thursday 7th April.

Some initial pressure washing work was undertaken on the airframe on Friday 8th April. After a short induction session on Saturday 9th April from the museum’s Restoration Manager the first restoration team went on to the airframe later that day. In reasonably benign weather conditions some excellent progress was made by nine members of the newly established WR977 Painting Team, who travelled to the museum from around the UK.

This project will involve cleaning, de-corrosion and repainting work and will be carried out with major support of the aircraft’s owners, the Lincolnshire’s Lancaster Association.

Opportunities still exist to support this work programme, which is running seven days a week, as and weather allows. Details of this volunteer appeal can be found in the News & Events section of the Newark Air Museum website www.newarkairmuseum.org

Avro Shackleton WR977 was moved from RAF Finningley in spring 1977, just prior to Her Majesty the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Review of the Royal Air Force. WR977 is believed to be the longest serving Shackleton Mk3 Phase 3 airframe to have flown with the RAF.

Major Shackleton Repaint Being Planned

Shackleton

It has been announced by the Newark Air Museum that at the beginning of April it will be embarking on one of the most ambitious repainting projects it has ever undertaken; on Avro Shackleton WR977. This will be carried out with major support of the aircraft’s owners, the Lincolnshire’s Lancaster Association’

Unlike previous repainting work on museum aircraft, scaffolding work platforms will be installed around the Shackleton. This will allow the de-corroding, rubbing down and repainting to be carried out is a safe and efficient manner.

The current plan is to install scaffolding around half of the Shackleton and to focus the work effort on this section of the aircraft. Once the work has been completed the scaffolding will be repositioned on the other side of the aircraft, where the balance of the work will be completed.

To support this work programme and to minimise the length of time that the scaffolding is on hire, the museum has launched an appeal for volunteers; with the aim of working on the project as and when the weather allows, seven days a week. Details of the appeal can be found in the News & Events section of the Newark Air Museum website www.newarkairmuseum.org

TriStar Simulator Acquired

TriStar Simulator Newark Air Museum

During the week commencing 15th February 2016 the Newark Air Museum took delivered of its latest exhibit, a Lockheed TriStar Simulator at its site in eastern Nottinghamshire, close to the border with Lincolnshire.

The museum was first made aware of the possible disposal of this Lockheed TriStar simulator from the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, back in autumn 2015. This potential acquisition was to be in the form of a gift. After gathering more details about the simulator, the museum trustees decided to register the museum’s interest in the former crew-training aid.

It was just before Christmas 2015 that Newark Air Museum was notified that, out of several other groups who had registered interest in the simulator, that it had been selected to receive the item.

Initially it had been anticipated that the simulator would arrive in one piece, but this was not the case as the simulator had already been disassembled. An assessment of the move requirements was made and the first of several loads arrived at Newark on Monday 15th February.

The TriStar simulator has been placed into temporary storage in Display Hangar 2 at the museum and is not currently on display. It is understood that the museum’s mainly volunteer workforce will start to reassemble the simulator after the Spring Indoor Aero boot sale event on 5th March.

Various display locations in Display Hangar 2 are currently being evaluated and at this time it is not known to what extent the simulator will be returned to an operational condition. This latest acquisition complements the museum’s growing collection of ‘synthetic’ trainers and adds part of a notable airliner cockpit to the museum collection.

The museum trustees are grateful to the RAF Museum for donating this exhibit to the Newark Air Museum.

www.newarkairmuseum.org

Sea Harrier at Newark Air Museum

Newark Air Museum Sea Harrier

Since the start of 2016 Sea Harrier FA.2, ZA176 at Newark Air Museum has been receiving an ‘armament upgrade’, which has given the airframe more of an operational appearance.

For several years the museum has been acquiring a selection of Sea Harrier compatible weapons fit, which, until now this has been displayed underneath the airframe. A new volunteer has recently joined the museum and he has been using his former skills as an Armourer to assist with fitting the weaponry to the aircraft.

Amongst the first items fitted were a set of CBLS (Carrier Bomb Light Stores) units. In service the CBLS units allows military aircraft to carry up to 4 light stores (or practice bombs) on each weapon station. The use of practice bombs during training helps reduce costs and minimises risks during aircrew weapons training. These units help illustrate the important training aspect of Sea Harrier operations and fits in with the museum’s own themes of flight training.

Two rare, ADEN 30 gun pods have also been fitted to ZA176 to replicate the units carried operationally by the Sea Harriers until they came out of service in 2006. These pods have been refurbished and repainted using a grey paint that has been carefully matched to the airframe colour.

Sea Harrier ZA176 joined the Newark Air Museum collection from RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, on Wednesday 21st July, 2004. ZA176 helped complete the V-STOL airframe lineage displayed at the museum. This started with the Meteor FR.9 flying test-bed and associated RB.108 vertical lift engine and now moves along to the Sea Harrier, which is complemented by a recently acquired Pegasus engine. ZA176 was also the seventh Fleet Air Arm aircraft to be displayed in the museum collection.

www.newarkairmuseum.org

Newark Air Museum Events for 2016

Newark Air Museum Vulcan

Here at Newark Air Museum, a registered charity, we’re have some exciting special events planned for our 2016 season:

5 March 2016 – Indoor Aeroboot / Aerojumble Table Top Sale 48 sellers tables all hosted inside Display Hangar 2 amongst the aircraft at the museum site in eastern Nottinghamshire. {Special discount admission rates apply, open to everyone to attend.}

6 March, 2016 – Ransome & Marles Commemorative Day throughout the day re-enactors will be participating in a variety of commemorative activities at the museum to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Newark bearing factory being bombed.

21 & 22 May, 2016 – Tribute to the V-Force event dedicated to the aircraft and personnel that flew Valiants, Victors and Vulcans. This slimmed down event includes a reunion of former V-Force personnel. Based around the museum’s Vulcan aircraft it will also feature many visiting displays and is open to the public. {Normal admission rates apply}

18 & 19 June 2016 – Cockpit-Fest 2015 & Aeroboot / Aerojumble; this regular two day event provides the perfect opportunity for the public to view a diverse range of visiting aircraft cockpits. {Normal admission rates apply}

15 October 2016 – Indoor Aeroboot / Aerojumble Table Top Sale 48 sellers tables all hosted inside Display Hangar 2 amongst the aircraft at the museum site in eastern Nottinghamshire. {Special discount admission rates apply, open to everyone to attend.}

Full details about these and other museum activities can be found on the news & event pages of the website, which are regularly updated www.newarkairmuseum.org

Harvard news round-up from Newark

Harvard at Newark Air Museum

The in-depth restoration of the North American Harvard II B in Newark Air Museum’s on site workshop continues and recently work has been undertaken on preparing to refit the front section of the engine to the fuselage.

A lack of significant engine part means that this part of the project will be a largely cosmetic exercise for display purposes, which will allow for the refitting of the restored engine cowlings.

The airframe being restored is 42-12417 (Dutch AF B-163 and RCAF FE930) and the restoration programme is now well underway; however the final choice of markings; either Dutch or Canadian still remains to be made.

www.newarkairmuseum.org

Monospar Update August 2015

Newark Monospar project

Work is now progressing well on applying fabric to the wing of the Monospar at Newark Air Museum.

This work is now taking place alongside the aircraft in Hangar 1 at the museum, where it is attracting a lot of attention and interest from those people visiting the museum from around the world. Two new recruits have been added to the restoration team, who are both now learning the ‘art’ of fabric application and rib-stitching.

The complex wing folding arrangements can be seen on the re-covered wings that have also recently been refitted to the fuselage.

The General Aircraft Monospar at Newark Air Museum is the only Monospar preserved in the United Kingdom. The aircraft type was designed by H. J. Stieger and VH-UTH was built at Croydon, Surrey in 1935. For over 20 years the aircraft operated as VH-UTH in Australia with both New England Airways (later Airlines of Australia) and Butler Air Transport. On 11th July 1936 whilst carrying the former Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes the aircraft crash landed, fortunately the occupants and the aircraft survived.

On 22nd August 1961 VH-UTH piloted by Dr J Morris and B J Harrison took-off from Darwin, Australia on a 12,000 mile journey through 22 countries to Lympne airfield, England. The aircraft and crew survived monsoon, war, revolt and prison, the story of the flight was the subject of a book Two Men in a Flying Machine, written by Dr Morris.

After flying on to Biggin Hill, VH-UTH later spent a number of years at Panshangar, Herts. The aircraft was then bought by the Tiger Club and it was moved to Croydon. By 1967 VH-UTH was in open storage at Booker, and it was falling into bad repair. The aircraft was first moved to Newark and later in 1972 to the museum’s Winthorpe Airfield site.

A sad epitaph to the Monospar’s history was the death of pilot and author Dr J. Morris in a flying accident in the spring of 1981.

The restoration programme for VH-UTH commenced during the summer 1995, when its wings were taken to Innsworth, allowing work to be undertaken by members of the Cotswold Aircraft Restoration Group.

Since its return to Newark the restoration work has progressed steadily, with the work being undertaken without any working drawings or airframe plans. Work will soon commence on the ‘top hat’ longerons on the Monospar fuselage. Once this has been undertaken the fuselage fabric will also be applied.

www.newarkairmuseum.org

Cockpit-Fest 2015 – a wet but fascinating weekend

Newark Cockpit Fest

Cockpit-Fest 2015 proved to be another great event at the Newark Air Museum site in eastern Nottinghamshire, which taking into account the terrible weather on the Saturday was quite well attended by the public.

Last minute changes the layout on Saturday to get some displays inside provided a boost to exhibitors in Hangar 2 and the weather did not seen to dampen everyone’s enthusiasm for this ever popular gathering of cockpit owners from around the UK.

The museum trustees were particularly thankful to a host of people: all of the Cockpiteers and Exhibitors, their friends and families; the Aeroboot stall holders; the museum staff, aircraft openers and volunteers who helped during the build-up, during and after the event. A special thank you goes to everyone who stuck it out in the wet conditions on Saturday

For this year’s event they would also like to extend a big thank you to the following people and organisations:

Ken Ellis (‘Wrecks & Relics – Spirit of Cockpit-Fest’ Awards)

David Gledhill

Pen & Sword

The Museum Shop

Everyone who displayed at the event was a winner and a credit to this wonderfully diverse hobby, with some tremendous exhibits proudly displayed around the site; the 2015 results are as follows:

Grand Champion (Visitors Award) – de Havilland Hornet project – David Collins

Visitors Award Non-Cockpit – Lightning panel display – Darren Swinn

Cockpiteers Cockpit Award (Joint Winners) – Beagle Pup HB-NAV – Bill Fern; and Lightning F6 XR754 – Matt Buddle

Cockpiteers Award Non-Cockpit – Women in World War II – Karen Wilson

Wrecks & Relics Spirit of Cockpit-Fest Award (Ken Ellis) – HS125 G-AVAI – Andy Rawden

Wrecks & Relics Spirit of Cockpit-Fest Award (Ken Ellis) – Harrier AV8B – Robbie Burgess

Peter Green, Wrecks & Relics Spirit of Cockpit-Fest Award (Ken Ellis) – Sopwith Camel project – Tony Dyer

We would like to add a special thank you to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight for persevering with the weather to provide an excellent Spitfire flypast. Also thank you to Vulcan XH558 for the unexpected low level transit flight over Vulcan XM594.

We will be back with the 2016 event, which will take place on 18 & 19 June, 2016

www.newarkairmuseum.org

New exhibit at Newark Air Museum

Lightning XR757 cockpit

Newark Air Museum has entered into a loan agreement, which will see the cockpit of former English Electric Lightning F6, XR757 displayed at the museum’s Drove Lane site into summer 2016.

The wonderfully restored cockpit was moved from its former location at RAF Scampton on Thursday 12th June 2015 by its owner Trevor Garrod. It was displayed at the museum’s annual Cockpit-Fest event, where it was exhibited alongside two other Warton veterans the Canberra PR9 cockpit and the TSR2 cockpit.

The arrangement for the loan was finalised during recent weeks and the museum trustees were pleased to be able to provide accommodation for this particular trailer mounted cockpit section. The single Lighting cockpit will help illustrate the differences with the museum’s own two-seat training version.