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Shackleton WR963 Update by Graham Buckle

Yorkshire Air Museum is to be the new home for Avro Shackleton WR693, currently at Coventry Airport. Volunteer Engineer Graham Buckle brings us up to date on the painstaking work to dismantle this fantastic machine, ahead of it moving north (in pieces) for reassembly at Elvington (all images courtesy of Graham Buckle.)

 

The Shackleton dismantling process continues. Recently a YAM “Away Team” of myself, Tricia Room, John Best, Carolyn and Marcus Cordran, and Nimrod team electrical wizard Fletch headed south to join in with the resident Shack team for a cold January working weekend to get our hands dirty on ‘63.

The plan was to get the last two engines and hopefully the starboard tailfin disconnected and lifted off the aircraft, and anything else we could manage, such as continuing the war on the wing joint access panels. On the first day we had all the engine services disconnected, John had got the fin bolts all moving after a protracted battle, the aerials were down and stowed and the starboard inner engine nacelle had been dismantled enough to give good access to the wing main spar bolts. They look like such fun.

 

Day 2, and we were on site bright and early as was the Foden crane which would be doing the day’s heavy lifting. I say heavy lifting, Mark the owner of the truck said he’d replaced a couple of the hydraulic pipes on the crane during the week and decided he’d best test them, so he just lifted his Chieftain tank with it! So I don’t think our engines qualify as heavy by comparison, and at around 300lbs the fin and rudder assembly certainly doesn’t!

 

With the crane set up, we removed ‘63’s starboard fin first, a significant step for us as this is the first major airframe assembly to be removed from the aircraft during the dismantling process. The crane then moved round to the front of the aircraft and positioned itself to lift the port engines off the aircraft.

Much swearing at tapered engine bearing pins later, and the port engines were away by mid afternoon, leaving us with a 120ft wingspan glider! Sadly, many Jaffa Cakes and sweeties were harmed in the process. After a tidy round, we left the aircraft with one fin off, all four engines off, most of the starboard inner nacelle off, and inroads made into the stacks of wiring which must be meticulously annotated and then carefully disconnected in order to bring 63 back to life again in her new home.

 

The next “big weekend” should hopefully involve the removal of the outer wing sections; watch this space.

Thanks to the kindness of Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and Mike Davey for lending us a full set of Merlin/Griffon engine transport/storage stands between them, which means the engines can make their way to us very soon.

Also, thanks to David Bayliss at Luddite Engineering, for hauling the Shack MR.1/T.4 nose section to YAM before Christmas, the fourth engine stand to Coventry from Mike’s base in the deep dark North-West, and for fabricating various tools and the engine stand adaptors for us.

The Starboard fin being off the aircraft, and as long as this week’s storms haven’t blown it away there’s no reason it also can’t imminently head our way. Exciting times, as the arrival of major parts of ‘63 on site at YAM becomes imminent!  All the lifting off of heavy stuff was done by Mark and James Worrall with their fantastic ex-army Foden crane and they will continue to work with us on the dismantle, huge thanks to them for their time and skill.

If you are a journalist and require more info about this story don’t hesitate to email pr@yorkshireairmuseum.org

Blackburn Mercury Monoplane 1911 (Replica) AH (BAPC) 130 YAM Jan.1995

The Blackburn Mercury Monoplane is regarded as the first truly successful aircraft made by Blackburn at their factory in Leeds. The Mercury I, powered by a 50 hp Isaacson radial engine, was displayed at the Olympia Aero Show in March 1911 and made its debut flying from the beach at Filey with the newly formed Blackburn Flying School. In May 1911, it flew from Filey to Scarborough and back in 19 minutes at an average speed of 50 mph, reaching an altitude of 1200 feet.
This aircraft crashed the next day when the engine seized and the propeller flew off! The Mercury I was followed by two Mercury II aircraft powered by 50 hp Gnome engines, and six Mercury III aircraft, with a number of different engines. Sadly, a Renault powered Mercury crashed at Filey in December 1911, killing an instructor and passenger.
The Museum’s replica was built for Yorkshire Television in 1979 for the Edwardian drama series ‘Flambards’, and was taxied with a car engine. It came to YAM on 10th January 1995 and after a long period in storage it was painstakingly restored to a superb display standard, and was unveiled in June 2000 by Professor Robert Blackburn, grandson of Robert Blackburn, the aviation pioneer.

AVRO 504K ‘H1968’ (Replica) AH (BAPC) 42 YAM Oct. 1994

The Avro 504 first flew in 1913. In the opening phases of the First World War, it served with front-line squadrons in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service for bombing and reconnaissance, but from 1915 onwards the aircraft entered the training role for which it is most celebrated.

Over 8,000 Avro 504s were built. In 1918, the Royal Air Force had about 3,000, of which 2,276 were trainers.

The Avro 504 was stationed at many Yorkshire airfields, including Tadcaster near the A1/A64 junction, where a period hangar can still be seen.

The Yorkshire Air Museum’s replica was built by apprentices at RAF Halton and appeared at the Royal Tournament in 1968 to commemorate what was then fifty years since the end of the First World War. The aircraft was refurbished in early 2015 to be transported to Thiepval, Northern France, for the Somme Centenary commemoration event, on request of the British Government. In May 2018, it was also displayed at the impressive Hotel Les Invalides in central Paris for a joint RAF / French Air Force event to mark the Centenary of the Royal Air Force and over 100 years of British and French Air Force collaboration.