Bristol Britannia at Kemble [Archive]

surely not

1st Jan 2006, 11:42

What is going on with the beautiful Bristol Britannia at Kemble? It seems to have been stripped down and put onto a low loader. Is it on the move? Where to? Please don't tell me that the Bristol Aero Collection are going to be minus the best airliner they ever built?

Does anyone know any answers?

Tiger_mate

1st Jan 2006, 12:25

Cut and pasted from the Bristol site:

Kemble Move Underway

Now that the Bristol Aero Collection has closed for the winter, the move to a new site is underway. Over the next few months, the entire contents of the hangar at Kemble will be packed up and transported the short distance to another hangar on the airfield. The move has come about because the lease on the current hangar, A1, is due to expire at the end of this year. The new hangar on E site has been rented by Airbus UK, who have very kindly made a large section of it available to us. Preparing the museums artefacts for the move is a complicated process, and as the new space will be smaller, the opportunity is being taken to review and rationalise the collection.

There is a great deal of work required to bring the new building up to the standard of a publicly open museum, but we are still aiming to open the collection up around Easter 2006. The new home is seen as a temporary one, as planning is still underway for a future museum at Filton. Securing a site and financing the project are still major issues.

If you would like to offer help or support with the move in any way, please telephone the Aero Collection on 01285 771204 on Mondays. During the winter period, the Concorde at Filton visitors centre is open as usual.

That may explain a few things. Was it the white one or GANCF which they have in bare metal? Would love to see that one on its feet in a British Eagle livery.