The South Wales Aircraft Museum, St.Athan, July 2022
Aug 1, 2022 13:39:28 GMT 1
Beemer, Samba, and 9 more like this
Post by viscount on Aug 1, 2022 13:39:28 GMT 1
SOUTH WALES AIRCRAFT MUSEUM, ST.ATHAN
Visited morning of Saturday, 16th July 2022
Visited morning of Saturday, 16th July 2022
A new aircraft collection, which I was keen to visit, although St.Athan is a distance from anywhere other than Cardiff or Swansea! Read the sparse instructions on their website and entered the provided a Sat Nav post code. The Sat Nav took me down ever smaller and narrower country lanes and dumped me at a field gate, some distance from the airfield and not a building in sight, tried various combinations of the address that only took me deeper into rural Wales. After some while extracted myself from tight lanes, and headed for St.Athan village, despite the website saying that the museum was not there. Called-in at the Coop shop. Asked for directions and the lady at till started giving me a highly complicated set of instructions. Part way through another customer joined the queue and enquired as to where I was going? He informed the assistant that she was actually guiding me to the old front gate, so proceeded to give me simpler directions in the opposite direction and partly back where I had come from. He was a delivery driver and not only was correct, but it was not all that far away! I probably wasted nearly an hour of a valuable Saturday due not having local knowledge, well I do live in Spain! Only at the very final turn was there a tourist brown sign, at a very new, rather grand, set of traffic lights. Talking later in the Museum, the brown signs cost 1,500 Pounds each to have erected. I feel the Museum should do more on their website to direct non-residents (perhaps giving directions commencing from St.Athan village shop's post code, and they really should provide a warning that some Sat Nav systems using the Museum's postcode end at an extremely rural location several fields away and not even insight of the hangar/airfield.
So after the moan, what about the Museum itself? Was it worth the long hunt to find it? Perhaps more of a collection than a museum (and I don't mean that unkindly), it is a large hangar isolated from St.Athan airfield itself. The hangar is packed with interesting aircraft, a few recognisably ex Bruntingthorpe. Few displays, no fancy high-tech IT (as at Filton), some interpretation, but basically (literally in some cases) still dripping oil aircraft! I wandered around and around, fascinated at the variety and not bound to pathways (as at JetAge or Duxford) so could get close-up-and-personal with the aircraft. Plans to fit in visiting the Helicopter Museum at Weston-super-Mare were abandoned (partly due to the time taken to find SWAM, partly because I found it so interesting so lingered), but did get to JetAge at Staverton later in the afternoon.
The place may well be way off the beaten track for all but locals, but it really is a great Museum to visit and deserves a far higher profile in aviation enthusiast circles than it currently has.
OUTSIDE THE HANGAR
(WR974)/K 8117M Shackleton MR.3/3 missing outer wings & tail feathers
54439/WI Lockheed T-33A French Air Force
XW320/71 9015M BAC Jet Provost T.5A
XW420/83 9194M BAC Jet Provost T.5A ex 1 FTS
XW436/68 9148M BAC Jet Provost T.5A ex 1 FTS
A.300 cockpit?
INSIDE THE HANGAR
G-BCTT Evans VP-1
G-BMMF FRED series 2
G-BTUS Whittaker MW.7 microlight
G-BVPM Evans VP-2 Coupé
G-BYMT Pegasus Quantum 15-912 flexiwing microlight
G-CHJO/DP Federov ME7 Mechta glider, dismantled (regn appears to be noted incorrectly?)
G-CHPT/HPT Federov ME7 Mechta glider, dismantled
(G-ELLE) Cameron N90 HAB Balloon canopy, draped off the hangar wall
G-MMNN Sherry Buzzard unfinished wood constructed homebuilt design
(WP321) P. Sea Prince T.1 RN, alloc G-BRFC, full service internal fit
(WZ869)/6 DHC.1 Chipmunk T.10 RAFC colours, full forward end, no wings or tail. Once 8019M.
(XE956) DH.115 Vampire T.11 RAF, active restoration, silver & primer - no markings
XK895 DH.104 Sea Devon C.20 RN, 781 Sqdn, alloc G-SDEV
XL500/CU F. Gannet AEW.3 RN, alloc G-KAEW, restoration to fly seems suspended
XL573 Hawker Hunter T.7 RAF, silver overall, alloc G-BVGH
(XM833) WS-58 Wessex HAS.3 RN, active restoration and repaint in progress
XP972/03 Hunting Jet Provost T.4 RAF, alloc G-RAFI, all grey, 79 Sqdn markings
"XR993" Folland Gnat T.1 RAF, Red Arrows scheme, really XP534, G-BVPP.
XV582/M F-4M Phantom FGR.2 RAF, all black, 111 Sqdn full colours
ZA195/710 BAe. Sea Harrier F/A.2 RN, trials markings
ZA326 PANAVIA Tornado GR.1 RAE, A&AEE, RAE 'raspberry ripple' colour scheme
ZA612 PANAVIA Tornado GR.4T RAF, RAF '100' anniversary markings
ZG822/WS WS-61 Commando HC.4 RN
COCKPITS, FLIGHT DECKS, FORWARD FUSELAGE etc
(G-APFG) Boeing 707-436 BOAC, flight deck
(A7-ABX) Airbus A.300B4 flight deck
(F-BTGV)/1 Super Guppy 201 flight deck and very front of the 'bulge'
(N858WL) Boeing 737-406 cockpit, once PH-BDW with KLM.
(WK128) Canberra B.2 RAE, 'raspberry ripple' scheme
Vickers VC-10, C.1K RAF, forward fuselage including nose & other panels
XX218 Hawk rear fuselage section, just the bit with the regn on!
Tucano cockpit systems trainer, with fancy 'sharks mouth' paintwork
plus another airliner flight deck
a large exhibition piece showing the flaps system on a BAe.146.
OUT OF SIGHT AROUND THE BACK
XL929 P.66 Pembroke C.1 fuselage tied-down onto road trailer
XN584/E Hunting Jet Provost T.3A RAFC, assembled
(XV254) HS.801 Nimrod MR.2 forward fuselage including nose. Ex Moravia
Boeing 737 cockpit only, yellow & blue, ex ASL Airlines
IN OTHER SECURE COMPOUNDS AROUND THE BACK
G-APSA Douglas DC-6B cut up into sections
G-SIXC Douglas DC-6C cut up into sections
Harrier GR fuselage and separately a complete wing section
Wessex
a myriad of other pieces and panels.
