Fleet Air Arm Museum RNAS Yeovilton

[T0M4ever]

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[T0M4ever]

That's the last of them! Some of them didn't come out too well - partly because it was fairly dark in the flight deck hangar and partly my incompetence :D

The whole album is here if people want to see larger images: http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb116/T...useum%20Sept09/

[Wolf_el_Real]

Great pictures, many thanks for sharing

[Jinxter13]

Very, very good shots........Thanx for giving us the tour.

[GreyGhost]

What a Great Museum !

Thank You for sharing your wonderful photos !

Gregg

[Cloggy]

The FAAM is an excellent museum with some unique aircraft. It also hosts two superb model shows every year, the earlier of which (held in February) is one of the best shows in the UK.

Great photos - looking forward to being again there next Feb!

[BAM'n'IVM]

I really like the fact that the aircraft haven't been "prettied up" for display - they've got dings, dirt, and chipped paint just like when they were active. The way airplanes really look.

[T0M4ever]

They have a policy of trying to keep their aircraft in as close to original condition as possible. This is taken from their website:

"The Fleet Air Arm Museum houses 94 aircraft in its collection. Mostly complete and in sound condition, many of these aircraft could, potentially, be engineered back into flying condition. To do so would be financially costly but, more significantly, would remove a great deal of historically valuable evidence from the aircraft.

To fly them or even start the engines would require original material and components to be replaced or altered permanently. At a stroke the originality of the aircraft would be lost forever. Fittings, pipe-work, rivets, wire locking would all need updating to meet flying requirements. Even the paintwork and markings might have to be altered. Such an approach is regarded as unacceptable by Curators of fine art and historic objects but is common for machinery and industrial objects. At the FAAM we seek to preserve our unique collection for the future. We aim to keep as much of their original fabric and identity intact to form, in many cases, a vital source of reference for historians and engineers and to truly represent their story to our visitors."

And some more info about the Corsair:

"Corsair KD 431 - A Ground Breaking Project

Aircraft Details

* Goodyear Built - FG1-A Type

* Serial Number - KD 431

* Bureau Number - 14862

* Build Date - July/August 1944

* U.S Contract Number - 1871

* Factory Build Number - 1871

Can an aircraft that was re-painted many years ago be returned to its original paintwork: presuming it survives beneath the later layers?

If the original paintwork can be revealed, is it a financially feasible exercise and what will it add to our understanding of the aircraft?

In 2000 it was decided to use the Museum's Corsair FG-1 to pioneer this "whole aircraft" method of paintwork conservation. We believe this ground breaking project to be the first of its kind in the aviation Museum world.

Using techniques familiar to archaeologists and forensic scientists this project has revealed, after three years of painstaking work, a unique, time capsule aircraft. Inch by inch, layer by layer, the entire aircraft has been scrutinised, researched and carefully stripped of the paint finish applied in 1963, when the aircraft was first presented to the Fleet air Arm Museum.

THE RESULT- A Corsair in as near to totally authentic and original condition from 1944 as it is possible to achieve. Paintwork, markings, stenciling, even the scratches and wear marks from the period are all original. Of the forty or so remaining Corsairs around the world (some in flying condition, some on display in Museums) there are no known examples in their truly original condition other than the Fleet Air Arm Museum's Corsair KD 431."

[Speedster]

Now that looks to be a very cool place to go.

[Aggressor Supporter]

Thanks for sharing these pics. Interesting they have a Concorde there.

[T0M4ever]

Thanks for sharing these pics. Interesting they have a Concorde there.

I never realised how tiny the inside of a Concorde actually is until I went inside the one they had there. To get a picture of the cockpit I had to kneel down there was that little headroom! I'm surprised they managed to fit two rows of two in there.

Does anyone know what the numbers along the wing were used to measure during testing?

[jimz66]

Nice shots thanks for sharing. What's that blue thing next to the Harrier and the grey one in front of that one? I really like the blue one that thing Rocks.

[T0M4ever]

Nice shots thanks for sharing. What's that blue thing next to the Harrier and the grey one in front of that one? I really like the blue one that thing Rocks.

The grey one is a Hawker Hunter T.8M and the blue one is a BAC 221 (modified Fairey Delta 2) to test certain aspects of the Concorde design (mostly the delta wing shape I think).