1 December 2009
Restorations continue at Newark
 Newark Air Museum continues to make progress on a number of restoration projects.
Work is now well underway on the restoration of the Harvard cockpit section from airframe KF532 (left). Wherever possible the original structural framework is being retained, however new tubular structure has now been welded into the rear sections to provide increased rigidity. It is planned to highlight the difference between the original and new sections. The original sections will be de-corroded and then sealed with a clear varnish, whilst the news sections will be primed and painted.
Some assistance for this project is still required and the team working on KF532 are looking for: some additional canopy sections; another seat; and a control column for the rear cockpit. Anyone able to provide assistance is asked to contact the Curator or Restoration Manager via the museum website www.newarkairmuseum.org.
 This winter Newark Air Museum is undertaking several significant building refurbishments. Work is already underway on refurbishing the building constructed around the Argosy procedures trainer that was build by the RAF from the cockpit of XN819 (left). This project provided a recent rare glimpse of this Argosy cockpit section, which it is hoped can again be returned to an operational condition during the winter months.
As a further benefit of this particular building refurbishment, some additional spares storage space will be created. This will allow the museum to fully document its ‘large parts’ spares holding and then store the parts in a more accessible space.
Some additional refurbishment work is currently being planned for part of the roof of Display Hangar 1. This may result in some temporary closures to parts of this display space in the coming months. The museum staff and volunteers are working with the contractor to minimise the effects of any such temporary closures, which will be notified in advance on the news page of the museum website: www.newarkairmuseum.org.
Despite the cooling temperatures volunteers at Newark Air Museum have also taken on the challenging task of a major clean down of Handley Page Hastings TG517.
The airframes current location on the museum’s site on Winthorpe Showground is adjacent to a row of trees, which act as a windbreak for the site. Unfortunately a side effect of this location is the creation of a micro-climate around the Hastings, which leads to unusually high levels of algal growth on the airframe.
The current clean down, which started at the nose and will move aft along the fuselage aims to remove these growths before the winter weather sets in. The distinction between the cleaned nose section and the dirtier aft fuselage is evident in the attached photograph.
As future development of the museum’s Southfield Site progresses there are plans to move several airframes over onto the new site, which will hopefully create sufficient space to allow the Hastings to be repositioned away from the trees. Not only will it help to alleviate the algal growth problem but it will also make the Hastings more easily photographable.
Handley Page Hastings TG517 is a ‘Cold War’ veteran of the Berlin Airlift, where it operated with 47 Squadron and latterly served with 230 OCU Radar Training Flight at RAF Scampton, Lincs training Vulcan and Victor navigators. TG517 is listed as a Significant airframe on the National Aviation Heritage Register.
Photo: Howard Heeley - Down To Earth Promotions |
