News

The faithful few have been hard at work this weekend preparing our Vulcan XJ823 for a complete repaint. Lots of scraping of surface preparation on the underside of the wings and fuselage – not an easy job – you try working upside down for an hour or two with a scraper, an angle grinder or even a paint brush. Anyway it’s looking good down there but with some more work to be done. Frank Hilton our tame Vulcan pilot came all the way from Manchester with his wife and stayed overnight so that he could work on both days – now that’s dedication!! Hope it rubs off to a few others. The blinding bit was the reflection from the new jet pipe fairings that are being fabricated by, I think, Duncan Turner and Dougie Kerr. This is Tin bashing of the highest order and proof that this dying trade is alive and well here ! The aluminium sheet was supplied completely free of charge by Bendles Engineering and they even allowed the use of their workshop rolling machine to put a nice round shape on the flat sheets. Once the new fairings are all in place we will fabricate new wing joint fairings from fibreglass and once painted it will look a “proper job” but that’s a couple or three weeks away yet.

Shiny new aluminium - blinding in sunlight.

Paul Paxton from the BBC  spent a morning at the Museum last week filming a mini-documentary about the Museum’s work.  Paul was director and cameraman for this production and the weather on the day could not have been better.  The REAL workers were filmed going about their everyday tasks ably directed by Paul who knew exactly what he wanted and what he wanted them to say.  The filming went well and contrary to initial reservations the lads were very relaxed and spoke their lines in an easy manner – almost like they’d done it a million times before.  The outside filming centered around the “bird proofing” of the Hunter’s tailpipe by Duncan Turner and Dave Sowden – a favourite nesting site and a short piece to camera by Ken Burns who was responsible for restoring the Vampire’s fuselage.  Later there was more filming in the Vulcan, Canberra and Sea Prince starring Dougie Kerr and we managed to just about keep him away from every other shot, although if you watch carefully I wouldn’t be surprised if he sneaks in to some more.   There was more filming inside the Museum and in the workshop where there is a hugely dramatic shot of skillful hands working on a Hercules engine restoration – yours truly supplied the hands but not necessarily the know how. The director commented that it was the best bit of miming he’d seen in years !!

Dougie Kerr's Vulcan shoot

If you’re up here inj the north have a look at BBC1 at 18.30 hrs. next Wednesday 28th April on the local news programme Look North – lets hope it’s a slow news day and we don’t get chopped.

Terry Jones brought his newly restored Bristol Hercules Engine to our car park last week for it’s first run. Ran perfectly, no oil leaks even and testament to Terry’s engineering skills and the many months spent lovingly restoring this masterpiece of British engine design. This powerful 14 cylinder engine, designed by Sir Roy Fedden and first manaufactured in 1939, powered many aircraft including the MK 2 Lancaster, Bristol Beaufighter and the Short Solent Flying boat plus many others. Renowned for it’s reliability and loved by pilots and ground crews alike.

Terry apprehensively advances the throttle

Terry apprehensively advances the throttle

The TVR Car Clubs from North Cumbria, Southern Scotland and the North East converged on the Solway Aviation Museum last weekend for a drive-in and a social gathering. The weather was perfect, blue skies and temperatures in the low 60s (16 C ) just the excuse needed for everybody to have a little hood down motoring.  Our car park was crammed with cars of all colours but they all had one thing in common, the TVR badge on the front – an iconic British sports car that every petrol head has longed to own at one time or another.  Les Leroux the regional organiser for the TVR Club remarked ” It was a brilliant day for a friendly outing at an outstanding venue”

TVR Sports Cars at the Museum

Following on from Saturday, Sunday was a very busy day again washing the rest of the aircraft, ready for the opening on the 2nd April. Some vital statistics from the crewroom – consumed 28 cups of tea or coffee, 48, yes 48, Jaffa Cakes, 8 chocolate digestives and most of a large cake loaf which I never even got a bit of. And that was between three of them – no I jest, had a good turn out today of the faithful few. It was the Phantom’s turn for wash and brush up this afternnon – just look at all the energy those Jaffa Cakes produced!

Nimrod MK2 at RAF Kinloss

The Museum have been offered an RAF Nimrod complete, for display at Carlisle.  The aircraft would be a MK2, they are currently being decommissioned by a team at RAF Kinloss. There is no doubt that this would be a significant acquisition for the Museum and the North West as we were one of only three Museums to have been offered an aircraft complete.  The main factors involved in choosing our Museum was our record in aircraft preservation despite the fact that we have no hangers, and direct access to a suitable runway. The decommissioning team at Kinloss were impressed by the repair state of our Vulcan, 27 years outside, and our Meteor, 35 years outside and were happy to deliver the aircraft to our safekeeping.  The Nimrod would be a rare exhibit of an aircraft that can count the De-Havilland Comet Airliner as its direct ancestor and would explain to visitors the use of the different electronic systems on board the aircraft and their varied use from detecting submarines, sea rescue work to anti-terrorism surveillance.

We hope that we can persuade Stobarts to allow this historic and significant British aircraft to join our collection.

The museum re-opens April 2nd for the 2010 season.