BRITANNIA AIRCRAFT PRESERVATION TRUST
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New Home for Britannia Charlie Fox - 17th January 2007
Charlie Fox update - 2nd February 2007
Charlie Fox reaches Speke - 7th March 2007
PRESS RELEASE 17TH JANUARY 2007
New Home For Britannia Charlie Fox
The Britannia Aircraft Preservation Trust has today after a 12 month search, found a new home for its Britannia G-ANCF ''Charlie Fox.''
The aircraft is to leave Kemble, its home for the last 10 years and travel north to Liverpool Airport, where it will be reassembled and put on display on the apron outside the old terminal building at Speke.
Originally it had been hoped the aircraft would eventually become part of the Filton Aviation Heritage Centre, but with the termination of the loan agreement with the Bristol Aero Collection in December 2005 as a result of the forced downsizing of their display hangar at Kemble, this looked increasingly unlikely as time was to prove. It now appears there is little chance that the BAC's collection of historic Bristol Aircraft and Archives will be included in the proposed building to house Concorde.
With nowhere to go, Devonair and Kemble Airfield Management kindly offered the Trust outside storage for the dismantled aircraft, parts and equipment while the search for either long term temporary storage and a permanent home took place.
A number of options were looked at, but eventually it was decided the best option was for Charlie Fox to go on long term loan to the Jetstream Club at Speke, allowing the aircraft to return to the second spiritual home of British Eagle International Airlines with whom the aircraft saw service between 1964 and 1968.
The plan is for the aircraft to be moved by road to Speke over the next few weeks. Under the supervision of Mick Bates, the talented engineer who took the aircraft apart in 1987, the aircraft will gradually reassembled and painted in British Eagle livery.
Once this has been undertaken, the cockpit will then be restored and a decision made as to what to do with the cabin interior.
The Trust and the Jetstream Club will be actively seeking support and sponsorship for this immense undertaking along with volunteers to help with the re-assembly and restoration work. All this would not be possible without the support of the Marriott Hotel who own the apron and old terminal building at Speke, having converted the latter into an immersive five star hotel.
Two weeks of the announcement of a new home for Charlie Fox, a large number of components have already moved to Liverpool. The control surfaces, fin, nacelles, engines and various other parts left Kemble in several loads, from 30th January. It is planned to move the storage containers during next week, and the fuselage sections will hopefully move the week commencing 19th February.
Once preliminary restoration work has been done, the plan is to reunite the forward and rear fuselage sections with the large centre wing section.
Charlie Fox reaches Speke - 7th March 2007
On Wednesday 7th March, the remaining parts of Britannia Charlie Fox - the two fuselage sections and the centre wing section - reached their new home at Speke. The sections have been arranged as they fit together, the first time this has happened since she was dismantled in around 20 years ago.
G-ANCF after being unloaded at Speke - © Roy Coates
