PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Anyone want a Victor bomber, FREE to a good home
Old 6th Feb 2020, 00:03
  #11 (permalink)  
Tankertrashnav
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SW England
Age: 77
Posts: 3,896
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This has been much discussed on the "Victor, Valiant and Vulcan" page on Facebook. The aircraft is a K2 and is apparently in poor condition. I know the former chief tech who was in charge of dismantling the aircraft and moving it to its current position in front of SHQ on the old parade square back in the 80s and he is of the opinion that moving it again would be impractical. It's not even much use as a display cockpit as the interior was gutted at the time of the move. Andre Tempest who own one of the two taxiable K2s (at Elvington) has come up with a few figures for crane hire etc which any purchaser would have to come up with, and they are considerable.

To call the aircraft a "gate guardian" is a bit of a misnomer, as it is not visible to the public from outside of the base - a couple of years ago I had to get the MOD guard at the barrier to promise not to shoot me before he allowed me to walk a few yards onto the base before I could get a half decent photo!

As stated there are already two excellent survivors which do "fast taxis" (and in the case of the one at Bruntingthorpe a very short flight on one memorable occasion!) In addition there is a static display K2 at Cosford, and the IWM at Duxford are currently doing a very through restoration of the only surviving Victor Mk I which is in fact technically a B1K2P (two point tanker conversion). Frankly I don't see that getting rid of this heap of scrap would be any great loss - any money which would need to be spent would be far better going to the upkeep of the other survivors.
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