A look at the recent activities by the volunteers at the Duxford Aviation Society and their efforts to keep the airliners of the British Airliner Collection in tip top shape. Today we can report on progress with the Herald, Hermes, Viscount and our annual aircraft cleaning project.
Herald
Since our last report the contractors have removed the outer wings, tailplane, fin and other panels. The wing centre section to fuselage join has been exposed and the fixing bolts loosened ready for removal. The plan now is for the fuselage and wing section to be lifted up with a crane to allow the undercarriage to be manually retracted and locked in place. The aircraft will then be lowered onto a wooden cradle fitted to a trailer and the wing bolts removed to allow the wing centre section to be craned off and lowered onto another trailer. All the other parts will then be strapped down on the trailers or loaded into another truck. A convoy of five vehicles will then make the journey north to her new home at Morayvia. The load will be fitted with a large banner so we hope if anybody sees the convoy en route they will send a picture to our British airliner Collection Facebook page. The planned date for the move is 21 March but check our Facebook page for confirmation as this could well change.
Hermes - Our New Museum Exhibits
By the time you read this we hope the Duxford Aviation Society Museum housed within the Hermes will be open to the public. Charting the history of British civil aviation and the part our airliner collection aircraft played, the story is described using models, display boards , exhibits, photos, and audio visual displays. All housed in the completely refurbished Hermes fuselage which now allows public access to the cockpit. Part of the museum is a display of passenger seats through the ages from York to Concorde. This new and exciting museum telling a most important story has been a long time coming and the project team are to be congratulated for overcoming many delays and frustrations to see this project through to completion. The new museum is free to enter and will be open every day. It can be found in the AirSpace hanger next to Concorde.By the time you read this we hope the Duxford Aviation Society Museum housed within the Hermes will be open to the public. Charting the history of British civil aviation and the part our airliner collection aircraft played, the story is described using models, display boards , exhibits, photos, and audio visual displays. All housed in the completely refurbished Hermes fuselage which now allows public access to the cockpit. Part of the museum is a display of passenger seats through the ages from York to Concorde. This new and exciting museum telling a most important story has been a long time coming and the project team are to be congratulated for overcoming many delays and frustrations to see this project through to completion. The new museum is free to enter and will be open every day. It can be found in the AirSpace hanger next to Concorde.
Viscount
Work continues on the seat and cabin refurbishment. All the seats have now been removed with repairs well in hand on armrests and side panels where required. Several sets have now been recovered and work continues in the cabin making new side panels and installing the CCTV and PA systems. Work has had to slow a little due to our contract cleaning of the IWM aircraft but will pick up again once the cleaning is complete.
The big clean
Each year we honour a contract with the IWM to clean a number of their aircraft in the AirSpace and American hangers and we also clean all our own aircraft in AirSpace. The operation is going well with the Lancaster, Sunderland, Vulcan and some smaller aircraft already complete. This week’s work started on the Hastings and our own Comet and York. Next in line is the Tornado and finally Concorde before the team moves up to the American museum. Come the better weather our outside aircraft will get a wash and spring clean ready for the summer season.
Trislander
Work continues to try and locate the sourde of the fuselage leak, we continue to reduce the size of the plastic covering until the leak reoccurs. We can then trackdown the actual site.
Work has also begun on removing areas of corrosion on the top and underside of the wings. This will be a long process as operating in a salt air environment has meant a large number of individual sites need to be tackled.
We have also acquired a lifting bar from Ebay, which although meant for a Lynx helicopter, has proved ideal for lifting the main undercarriage legs so that the main wheels can be rotated to spread the load and wear on the tyres.
That’s all the news for now, remember you can keep up to date with our twice-weekly Facebook posts, search British Airliner Collection. Our next website article will appear at the end of this month and will cover the wonderful era of the Dan-Air Comets.
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