Please help! I have an urgent financial need!!!

[John Hill]

The collection on aircraft at Bruntingthorpe seem to be in danger of dispersal and/or dismemberment! Including I understand a Comet airliner!

Would someone with necessary means please secure the Comet and send her to NZ where we will strive to keep her warm and dry to the end of her days?

Thanks

[G-CPTN]

Will it fly?
Do you just need the cost of the fuel?
Would £3 from each of us do?

[John Hill]

Maybe just tow it down to the docks and strap it as deck cargo?

[TheGreenAnger]

Used and used car salesmen! Seems to sum up the state of Britain today! People who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

In March Cox Automotive UK acquired C Walton Ltd, the operating company behind Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome and Proving Ground.

According to the company latest statement (which can be read here) “the Aviation business and Cold War Jets Museum at the Bruntingthorpe site are now closed and will not re-open.”

Cox Automotive will be using the site to store brand-new unsold and lease-end cars on behalf of car manufacturers and fleet management companies.

Because of this sad news aviation enthusiast Oliver Burden launched a petition to prevent the loss of irreplaceable UK Aviation History currently preserved at Bruntingthorpe.

“Notice has now been issued to some of the historic aircraft preservation groups (including the Cold War Jets Collection, Lightning Preservation Group, the Buccaneer Aviation Group, Classic British Jets Collection, GJD AeroTech and others) based at the site that they must leave before the end of 2020. For many of these groups, this is effectively a death-knell for their aircraft as they cannot be flown and to move them by road would be prohibitively expensive (reportedly as much as £300,000 for one aircraft). The enthusiasts who have kept these aircraft in working condition now face this insurmountable funding hurdle to prevent their aircraft, all their hard work and an irreplaceable part of UK Aviation and industrial heritage from being cut up for scrap. Even in the unlikely event that funds were found to move them, this would require dismantling the aircraft and would likely prevent them from functioning ever again.

“Historically important aircraft in the Cold War Jets Collection such as the Vickers VC-10, de Havilland Comet, Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer, English Electric Lightning, Handley Page Victor and others are all potentially at risk.”

Burden explains in his petition that he simply asks that “Cox Automotive, C Walton Ltd and the other various stakeholders reconsider their approach and work with the groups representing these aircraft to broker a compromise that ensures that the aircraft can stay on site, even if it means a temporary halt to Cold War Jets fast taxi days to allow the site to be used for commercial car storage until such a time where these days can resume. I believe that such a solution would generate much positive PR for all involved parties with little impact on their commercial operation and save many unique aircraft from being scrapped.

“The historic British aircraft based at this site represent some of the last working and best preserved examples of their kind and present a unique opportunity to witness a wide variety of historic jet aircraft moving under their own power in one place.

“As an Aircraft Engineering Apprentice, I, like many of my colleagues in the sector were inspired by the museums and airshows we visited as children, many of which sadly no longer exist due to the safety restrictions placed on the UK airshow scene in the wake of the Shoreham Airshow Crash in 2015.

“The museum and fast taxi events by the Cold War Jets Collection at Bruntingthorpe represent a unique and safe way to enjoy these historic aircraft on the ground whilst still preserving them in working condition for future generations.

“We must act now to prevent further irreversible loss of our nation’s proud industrial heritage.”

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/savebru ... aerodrome/

[John Hill]

Yeabut where is the Comet now?

[TheGreenAnger]

Yeabut where is the Comet now?

Still at Bruntingthorpe!

Set up a Go-Fund me campaign. Contact your PM and your MP, and get your local press on the case. I would be happy for the aircraft to be saved and going to NZ, and would be delighted to make a donation as well.

[John Hill]

Weeeellllll....this fellow is trying to repatriate significant airliners to NZ. His fund me page does not have an encouraging figure. https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/bringourbirdshome

I heard the aircraft at Bruntingthorpe are in condition of 'ready-to-go', some of them anyway. So please pop over to there and see if you can jump start her and I am assuming you would be able to drive her if we could collect enough fuel vouchers from the supermarket.

[John Hill]

Regarding NZ significant airliners, there are a few DH89 Rapide/Dominie around with at least one in flying order, one of NZ's first 'airliners' (discounting the Fox Moth that ran a service to Jackson's Bay, worth a Google). I do not think we have a Lockheed Electra (the twin type) but we do have a Solent in a museum at Orkland, not many people have a Solent.

[G-CPTN]

Surviving aircraft


F-AZCA is preserved in France (Amicale Jean Baptiste Salis at La Ferté Alais) Used for a double transatlantic flight in the late 1980s as an advertising vehicle for Blueway cigarettes. It is scheduled for restoration.[72]
G-ACPP, on display at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum Fame in Wetaskiwin Alberta. The fifth D.H.89 built, and started its career with Railway Air Services Ltd of Croydon, UK on 2 Feb. 1935 with the name 'City of Bristol'. It is the oldest surviving D.H.89.[73]
G-ACYR, in Olley Air Service Livery, used to fly Franco from the Canary Islands in the first days of the Spanish Civil War, based at Museo del Aire (Madrid).[74]
G-ADAH, a DH89A in the livery of Allied Airways, is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England.[75]
G-ADDD (was G-ACZE, N1934D), a DH89A currently undergoing restoration to flying condition at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[76]
G-AEML / EC-AAY, a DH89A in the livery of Iberia, is airworthy and operated by the Fundación Infante de Orleans in Spain.[77]
G-AGJG, a DH89A, in the colours of Scottish Airways, is airworthy and in the hands of private owners at Duxford Airfield, Cambridge, England.[78]
G-AGSH, a DH89A, is airworthy with the Shuttleworth Collection in Old Warden, Bedfordshire. Was rebuilt and restored to her BEA colours by Cliff Lovell at Hants Light Plane Services.[79]
G-AGTM, a DH89A, is airworthy and was operated by the Classic Air Force before it closed in 2016.[80]
G-AHAG, a DH89A in the livery of Scillonia Airways, is airworthy and based at Membury airfield, Berkshire.[81]
G-AHXW, is under repair following its 2018 crash. Upon completion of will rejoin the Historic Flight Foundation Spokane, Washington.[82]
G-AIDL, a Mk 6, is airworthy and owned by Cirrus Aviation, painted as a Royal Air Force Dominie TX310, its former identity.[83]
G-AKIF and G-AIYR, a pair of DH89A Dragon Rapides, are airworthy and based at Duxford, England airfield for tourist flights.[84]
G-AKNV (last registration was OO-CNP), on display at the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels.[85]
NR695 / N2290F, a DH89A, is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio.[86]
TC-ERK, a DH89A, is on display at the Istanbul Aviation Museum.[87]
ZS-JGV (CN8931), a DH89A is airworthy and is based in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.[88][89]
C-FAYE, known as Lady Faye, is on display at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.[90]
V-3, DH89B (CN6740), on display at the Nationaal Militair Museum, The Netherlands[91]
2304, DH89A (CN6430), operated by Força Aérea Portuguesa on display at the Museu do Ar, Sintra Portugal[92]

[John Hill]

The airworthy one in NZ is ZK-AKY. I do not know where ZK-BCP is but she was being rebuilt just a few years ago.

[Archer]

The petition linked to above is over two years old. The sale to Cox Automotive was in late 2019/early 2020 and any rumblings have long since died down. The Tristars have been scrapped, as well as the two VC10s on site and the remaining large airframes that GJD had in storage. The Guppy has also succumbed to the scrapper, with the flight deck going to St. Athan. The large airframes owned by the Walton family (including the ex-AEE Comet) are stored in a corner of the site and are safe although not on view. There is a new site next to the Q-shed where all the smaller airframes live now.

If you want to save a museum, go and e-mail some Cornwall council members and/or sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-cornwall- ... age-centre

[TheGreenAnger]

The petition linked to above is over two years old. The sale to Cox Automotive was in late 2019/early 2020 and any rumblings have long since died down. The Tristars have been scrapped, as well as the two VC10s on site and the remaining large airframes that GJD had in storage. The Guppy has also succumbed to the scrapper, with the flight deck going to St. Athan. The large airframes owned by the Walton family (including the ex-AEE Comet) are stored in a corner of the site and are safe although not on view. There is a new site next to the Q-shed where all the smaller airframes live now.

If you want to save a museum, go and e-mail some Cornwall council members and/or sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-cornwall- ... age-centre

Thanks for the Bruntingthrorpe update Archer. Are any aircraft still stored there in taxying condition or has the place lapsed into being a big car and mothballed aircraft park? Last time I was at that airfield was probably 2015.

Will sign the Cornwall petition.

[Archer]

AFAIK the site itself is just a big car park. The Buccaneers have moved to Kemble and the Lightnings are still in the Q-shed, but unable to taxi. I'm sure the stored Victor, Nimrod and Comet could taxi or could be made ready to taxi but they are hiding in a corner and don't have access to the runway. If you look at Google Maps, you'll see what the site was like mid to late 2021 with the new 'museum' next to the Q-shed and the other three or four airframes hiding in a corner next to Mere Road. Ignore the six Tristars, two VC10s and two 747s, these have all been scrapped. The new users just want the airfield for the car business, they don't have any interest in aviation activities.