Pilot – June 2018

pilotweb.aero | Pilot June 2018 | 89

Old TImers

back to Old Warden for display

appearances. Purchased using

Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane

Society funds, it is joining the

Shuttleworth Collection’s other

historic racers − the DH88

Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor

House and Mew Gull G-AEXF.

M3A Falcon Major G-AEEG

was among the 36 examples

of Miles’s first enclosed cabin

monoplane to be built. First

flown on 25 March 1936, it

was soon exported to Sweden.

From initial private operation,

registered SE-AFN, it was

pressed into Royal Swedish AF

service as Fv7001 and tasked

with liaison duties. Returned to

civilian use on 23 January 1944,

SE-AFN remained in Sweden

until considered structurally

unfit to continue flying, at which

point its last Swedish owner,

Ake Laurell, ferried it back to the

UK and into the care of F G Miles

Ltd at Shoreham.

Personal Plane Services,

which owned the M3A between

November 1962 and March 1964,

initiated its restoration. This

was continued by Brooklands

Aviation at Sywell, and on 15

April 1965 ’EG was flown

once more. On 9 September

1979, Ian Dalziel piloted it to

first place in the King’s Cup

Air Race. At this stage, ‘Echo

Gulf’ belonged to Shipping and

Airlines at Biggin Hill, company

owner Philip Mann having

purchased it in 1972. He sold it

in 1984 and by the end of the

1980s the aircraft was with

Skysport Engineering. A full

refurbishment and repaint into

the current blue and cream

scheme was carried out

before Peter Holloway acquired

the aircraft in July 2001.

Initially basing it at Turweston,

he moved it to Old Warden

shortly afterwards.

Report: Paul Fiddian

...while Falcon 3A G-AEEG has left to rejoin Shipping and Airlines at Biggin Hill

PHOTO: PAUL FIDDIAN

Yeovilton’s big day

The International Air Day (IAD) on 7 July at the

Fleet Air Arm’s (FAA’s) spiritual home, RNAS

Yeovilton, will be a significant event. Not only

will fourteen air arms participate but it will

also see the start of a major change in UK

historic naval aviation management.

The five-and-a-half-hour flying display

will include front-line combat aircraft and

helicopters from Canada to Greece. The RN’s

last Sea King variant in service, the ASaC7, will

make a farewell flypast accompanied by two

Yeovilton-based Wildcats and the RNHF Sea

Fury T20 VX281. The latter will also appear in

mock combat with the Norwegian Air Force

Historical Squadron’s MiG-15 in tribute to a

classic 1952 Korean War encounter. Extensive

French Navy support will include the UK debut

of the Cocardes Marine formation combining

today’s Rafale and Atlantique with the CM175

Zéphyr and MS760 Paris classic jets.

At 24 April’s press launch, the CEO of Fly

Navy Heritage Trust’s (FNHT) Navy Wings,

Jock Alexander, revealed that IAD2018

will include the last home display by the

RN Historic Flight (RNHF) since it is to be

disbanded by March 2019 when the MoD’s

partial funding is withdrawn. It is anticipated,

he said, that the RNHF’s aircraft (Swordfish

W5856, LS326 and stored NF389, Sea

Fury FB11 VR930, Chipmunks WK608 and

WB657 and the stored Sea Hawk WV908)

will be transferred to the ownership of Naval

Aviation Ltd (FNHT’s trading arm) and put

onto the UK civil register. They will join

Sea Fury T20 VX281/G-RNHF and Sea Vixen

XP924/G-CVIX already in the Navy Wings

collection. Jock Alexander explained that this

change will put heavy pressure on FNHT to

raise the necessary funds for the Swordfish

W5856 and the two-seat Sea Fury’s ongoing

operation and continue the long-term

engineering efforts to get Swordfish LS326,

Sea Fury VR930 and Sea Vixen XP924 back

in the air. Repairs to the latter, following

its wheels-up landing at Yeovilton after

hydraulic failure in May 2017, are now

estimated at £1.3m. Ultimately, it is hoped

to bring the Sea Hawk out of ‘dry storage’ at

Shawbury and add it to the flyers.

Navy Wings has numerous associates in

the shape of privately-owned former FAA

aircraft and plans to gather several of these,

including an Avro 504K, Bristol Scout, Stinson

Reliant, Westland Wasp and Gazelle in the

IAD static display on 7 July. It is also hoped

that Andrew Whitehouse’s Wessex HU5

XT761 will make its first public appearance

following restoration to fly at Crewkerne.

The Fleet Air Arm Museum (FAAM),

which has also suffered significant staffing

cuts in recent years, will be contributing

Phantom FG1 XT596 and Sea Harrier FA2

XZ499 to the historic line-up. However,

visitors wanting to see the FAAM’s long-

term restoration project, Fairey Barracuda

DP872, will need to go inside the museum

to view progress. On 6 February 2015, the

extensively restored tail section was brought

back from volunteers working in Newcastle.

Since then, the Barracuda has occupied much

of the museum’s own restoration facility.

The centre section has been completely

dismantled and Frame 6 (the start point of all

Barracuda fuselage builds) has been set in a

jig for alignment.

To see the FAAM’s other major restoration,

the sixty-foot, destroyer-towed Lighter T3 − the

world’s oldest surviving aircraft carrier −

requires a visit to Cobham Hall. In 2018 this

separate building housing the FAAM Reserve

Collection will be open to the public on the first

Thursdays of June, September and December.

Further details: http://www.fleetairarm.com

Report & photos: Peter R March

Sea Fury T20 VX281 will ‘tangle’ with the

NAFHS’s MiG-15UTI at Yeovilton’s Air Day

RNHF Swordfish W5856 is currently airworthy

Fairey Barracuda DP872 (Frame 6 in yellow jig

to rear) is a long-term FAAM rebuild project