Work has continued on various sections of the aircraft during the first half of 2008.

With considerable difficulty the broken and bent frames have been extracted from the Rear Fuselage. Using the wooden profile board and advice from other restoration organisations about softening the material by annealing, they have been straightened and rejoined using repairs similar to those used elsewhere on the aircraft. It was initially intended to cut away the distorted skin and replace but with expert advise it has been decide to anneal the material locally and knock out the bends and kinks against an outside skin master tool.

Damage to front of Rear Fuselage

One of the broken Rear Fuselage frames

The Nose Fuselage has been removed from the BAC Museum at Kemble and is now in a private workshop near Filton. In its 60 years lying in fields in Canada and USA it had sustained significant damage that was probably caused by moving it roughly by pushing with a vehicle. The extreme nose has been pushed in about 4 inches and much adjacent structure broken and bent. This has been dismantled and the nose is gradually being correctly reshaped and original material repaired. Using moulds borrowed from ARC at Duxford, GKN Aerospace Transparencies have begun to make a set of transparencies for the aircraft. With a substantially overall glazed nose, cockpit glazings and gun turret glazing, there are nearly 50 components, most of which are unique. The complex nose glazings have been delivered together with some of the cockpit glazings, and these are proving invaluable in the reshaping of the nose geometry.

Extreme nose components being reshaped and repaired

New control column and restored controls

Restored combined seat and control column structure

The original control column had been cut off at the base at some pointin the past (a trophy on somebody's wall no doubt). One of our BAC members has rebuilt it using photographs and dimensions from the aircraft at Duxford, and also refurbished the adjacent control pulleys and structure mounting in his home workshop.

A Centre Wing restoration work programme has been agreed for the trainee aircraft service engineers in the City of Bristol College at Filton, and removal of damaged skin areas around the fuel tank bays is underway. Dismantling so far shows almost no sign of the expected corrosion between the steel and aluminium alloys throughout the structure, and anti-corrosion protection is being applied to all steel parts. Tools are to be made for the missing fuel tank support ribs and adjacent skin panels.

The first Mercury engine has been fully restored in the workshop of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust at Patchway near Filton. They are now restoring the damaged engine mounting structure and firewall behind the engine. The second engine has been delivered, and after removing the transport framing it was found that the cylinders have been protected with anti-corrosion plugs. Its mounting structure, firewall and ancillary components have minimal damage and fewer missing components than on the first engine unit, so it is being used initially as a master reference for the repair to the first engine ancillaries.

First Mercury engine completed

Damaged firewall and adjacent structure

Messier Services at Cheltenham have fully integrated the Landing Gear restoration into their trainee programmes. One main landing gear unit has been completely stripped and the parts cleaned prior to being re-plated with cadmium.

Dismantling one of the Oleos

Removal of a wheel bearing

The Fin was missing from the aircraft when it was brought to the UK, but it is now going through the US military export process (although a WW2 aircraft, the Bolingbroke still comes under modern military export rules in the USA).

David Bradley, July 2008