Urgent & unusual request !

[Double Zero]

Please excuse me for posting amongst the pro's, but you seem most likely to be able to help...

I am one of a surprisingly active & gregarious team of volunteers at Tangmere Military Aircraft Museum.

Among our 10,207 exhibits ( I know that figure as I'm trying to assist an audit during the shut-down until February ) is Shar FA2 ZA195 ( in fact the first reconfigured FRS2, now in FA2 format - a development aircraft from Dunsfold ).

We desperately need blanks for the intake side bleed / auxiliary doors - these were basially long strips of silver fabric with a foam plug for each sprung door.

In a perfect world, we also need dummy weapons, from AMRAAM, Matra, bombs, Gunpods to Sidewinders - if the Indians haven't had at least some of the latter away !!! - with all respect to the I.N, their guys I met were great .

Money is of course very tight, but maybe something - all legitimate ! - could be arranged please ?

At the moment the aircraft is vulnerable to the weather - though so far in quite good nick and seeing how warbirds are restored after being under glaciers & lakes, I would put money on her flying again in the mid / long term.

Any help / tips gratefully received.

DZ

[BluntM8]

DZ,

Off the top of my head, you could try DCAE Cosford (they may have SHARs in storage which could spare the blanks), Yeovilton (ditto), St Athan (I seem to remember seeing some SHAR airframes there once) or maybe Everett Aero (EVERETT AERO SALES & SUPPORT. (http://www.everettaero.com)). In the case of the military bases, I would address my request to somebody like the Engineering Wing Warrant Officer in the first case - the actual job title has changed to something like Depth Support Wg WO but that's close enough in 'old money' to do!

Best of luck!

Blunty

[airborne_artist]

Try a PM to FB11 - he's extremely well-connected to that part of the ship.

[dakkg651]

I believe the SHARS are still at Shawbury not Cosford.

[Art Field]

Having visited the Tangmere Museum twice recently I encourage All to give it full support. It has some excellent displays, some very interesting aircraft and enthusiastic and helpful staff, well done chaps and chapesses.

[scarecrow450]

SHAR'S are indeed still at Shawbury, Ext 7250 for storage flight, but I did'nt tell you :mad::mad:

[mantog]

Worth trying Jet Art - Home (http://www.jetartdesigns.co.uk/)
Just restored another SHAR so may have what u want or may have contacts

Cheers

Bob

[Double Zero]

Many thanks to all of you who have given leads to follow, I'll chase them all up for sure.

Thanks also for the kind comments about Tangmere Museum too which I'll pass on, I'm a newbie but I find everyone extremely friendly -even the resident ghost - to work with and just keen to ' listen to guests - then speak if required ' !

It's astounding the grin which appears on eyeryone's face when sat in a Hunter F4 cockpit, be they young school boy or girl, 'middle aged' or older lady...

I made the mistake of offering a chap a go in one of the 'simulators' the other day ( there are 2 which offer anything from Chipmunk at Tangmere to posting a Hunter through Tower Bridge - the chap who did it for real drops in occasionally, as do ex-SOE agents ) or a 3rd dedicated ' Hurricane in B of B' job -all adapted microsoft games really of course, albeit well set up with good controls.

The chap I was speaking to politely declined saying something about 'had enough of the things' - it was only when discussing the Hunter gunpack display that he mentioned he was a BA Captain - oops !

Thanks again,

Andy