Cold War Jets at Bruntingthorpe

[nuuumannn]

This July it was announced that the Cold War Jets Museum at Bruntingthorpe in England was going to close. Almost exactly two years earlier I got to visit the bizarre world that is Bruntingthorpe and sample some of the aviation classics on site. Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome is a car storage facility with an active runway used not only for aircraft but vehicle test driving as well. The sheer number of cars on site is astonishing, but nestled within the amassed vehicles are examples of post war aircraft undergoing restoration, some to flying condition. There is also a large aircraft park where jets go for reconditioning and to die and my group was given the opportunity to wander around at leisure here. Some images from our visit, bearing in mind that access to the site at the time was by prior booking or special event day, but with the aviation side of things closed to the public indefinitely, these will probably cease.

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This is the Victor that got airborne a few years back during a high speed taxi run down Bruntingthorpe's runway.

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The RAF's former fleet of Tristars is being reconditioned for sale to a US organisation in support of the US armed forces.

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More to come.

 

[nuuumannn]

More from Bruntingthorpe... cars, cars and more cars. Note the random aircraft sitting amongst them, this is a part of the Cold War Jets Museum collection. Sadly we didn't get to see the runnable Lightnings that are stored on site.

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Bruntingthorpe's wartime watch tower from the bus as we left the site.

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At the entrance to the site is this gaudy Jaguar in Jaguar House colours. The picture is distored because it was taken from within a moving vehicle.

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More images here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/147661871@N04/albums/72157715389852713/with/50197327981/

 

[Snautzer01]

Love the Guppy to bits.
Must have been a French-Marsiaan design team.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Grant.

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Grant!

 

[nuuumannn]

You're right about the Guppy, snautzer; I'd never seen one before so the opportunity to get aboard was met with relish, by all of us. Although it is American; there used to be a saying floating around within Boeing before the advent of the Airbus Beluga that every Airbus had its first flight inside a Boeing!

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