Beverley

[GotTheTshirt]

What happened to the Beverley that Court Line had in Luton?

They bought it to transport Tristar engines but were not able to get a Civilian C. of A.
I remember it was flown to Hull and someone recently mentioned that it had been dismantled, transported and rebuilt somewhere??

[Tiger_mate]

The last Beverley in existance resides at Fort Paul, Humberside, having been moved there from the defunct Army Transport Museum at Beverley.

There are Beverley cockpits at Duxford and Newark Air Museums. The Duxford one is ex RAF Museum exhibit, the Newark one is ex Southend Museum exhibit.

[Moondance]

Had a few hours to kill in Hull in September as junior & mates were at a Hull University open day. Went to Fort Paull to see the Beverley....looking in pretty good condition.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/001XB259.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/005XB259.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/021XB259.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/034XB259.jpg

[chevvron]

Re-painted I see; it was originally RAE colours being ex Farnborough

[Tiger_mate]

Ref: RAE Colours. Are you thinking of this one at Newark?
http://www.flyingzone.co.uk/images/channel4/beverleyhangar.jpg

XB261

[Duchess_Driver]

...there was one of these at Hendon many years ago.

Some bright spark know what became of that one?

[Jhieminga]

Scrapped. There has been a lot of discussion about that one as it was demolished on the doorstep of the RAF museum but the aircraft was just too far gone.

[Moondance]

The other surviving cockpit section is from XL149, broken up at Finningley to clear the airfield for the Royal Review. That WAS at Newark (first pic), now at Aeroventure, Doncaster (second pic)....pic 3 the late XH124 at Hendon
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/XL149.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/023XL149.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h78/Moondance1/XH124.jpg

[Steve Bond]

To answer the original question, the surviving Beverley and the Court Line aeroplane are one and the same.

[Nimman]

Chevron - you are correct. It was at one time painted white with RAE markings.

It was also the last Bev (XB 259) that we had in for a Major servicing at 75 Hangar 32 MU St Athan, early 1966. At least I didn't have to clear sand out from under the freight bay floor on that one. We started Majors on the Vulcan B2s after that Bev left.

[Fareastdriver]

I knew the pilot who delivered XH 124 to Hendon. The airfield was three parts housing estate under construction and there was just enough runway left for it to land. It's short life at Hendon suggest that it would have been better off somewhere else where they could have looked after the airframe properly.
Not knocking the staff at Hendon but they probably didn't have the expertise or the resources.

[Groundloop]

Not knocking the staff at Hendon but they probably didn't have the expertise or the resources.

I doubt if lack of expertise was the problem!

[chevvron]

It was an RAE crew that ferried it to Paull after Court Line went bust.

[tail wheel]

Wow! :ok:

An AW650 Argosy on steroids?????

:} :}

[LowNSlow]

I remember going to RAF Hendon in the late 70's and, after seeing the Beverly with the cockpit side windows open, thinking that she wasn't going to last long. There appears to have been absolutely NO attempt to preserve her. Disgraceful.

chevvron surely the BAE crew ferried her to Beverly?

[Jhieminga]

I remember going to RAF Hendon in the late 70's and, after seeing the Beverly with the cockpit side windows open, thinking that she wasn't going to last long. There appears to have been absolutely NO attempt to preserve her. Disgraceful.
The Hendon Beverly story is not a pretty one indeed. Basically the RAF retained ownership of the aircraft after it landed at Hendon and didn't offer it to the museum until it was completely rotten and beyond saving. The museum therefore got a corroded airframe which had been sitting on their doorstep for quite a while and it was a choice of scrapping or a multi-million $ restoration for which there were no funds. An understandable decision but a shame nonetheless.

[chevvron]

No there was an airfield at Paull from about '71, don't know exact location, can't see any trace on flashearth, but it was about 800m long oriented NW - SE. ( It was in a Pooley Guide for 1971) The Beverley was intended to be their clubhouse; it was moved to Leconfield when Paull closed. (late 70s/early 80s?).

[windriver]

Re Location.... 53.708443 , -0.1569199 (decimal lat/long format) is what I have listed for the runway - looks promising in Virtual Earth.

[LowNSlow]

Jheiminga a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Very sad.

chevvron I see. As the Paull Beverly came from the Army Museum at Beverly I thought she had been flown into there. I recall that it had to be dismantled at Beverly and transported by road to it's current location at Fort Paull.

[chevvron]

Co-ordinates convert to 53 deg 42.5 min N 000 deg 09.41 min W.
There is what could be a hangar at 53 deg 42.1 min N 000 deg 10.1 min W.
NB: There could be a slight difference due to the change from OSGB 36 grid system to WGS 84 which occured about 5 years ago; I'm not sure which system google maps or microsoft use.

[Varipitch]

I clearly recall that my 'boss' at BAe Hatfield-Captain Peter Sedgwick telling me that during his time on the 'Bibley' (a term used by the loaders at Aden)
he had landed at An Air Show 'somewhere in England' and had been asked what the aircraft was like to fly.
"Like flying a block of council flats from the upstairs toilet window" was the graphic reply.

[diginagain]

LowNSlow, getting the Bev into the museum was done by road, as it was located in a former warehouse smack in the middle of Beverley. Sadly, the lack of visitor numbers lead to its closure some years ago.

As a youngster I visited Paull airfield frequently, and witnesed the aircraft's impressive arrival. ISTR Hull Aero Club had been promised sponsorship for long-term maintenance from Hull Brewery. A number of seats from the pax cabin found their way into the hands of 152 City of Hull Sqn, ATC.

Trivia alert - Paull Airfield was 6 feet below MSL.

[LowNSlow]

diginagain moving something like the Beverly fuselage and wings by road must have given somebody some sleepless nights!!

[diginagain]

I'm sure it did, and to do it twice was quite an achievement. At least it keeps the Beverley alive, and out of the clutches of the scrapman.

[Out Of Trim]

You can still see her when she was on display in Beverley prior to her new location..

See Here http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.839716&lon=-0.419528&z=18.8&r=0&src=ggl

[India Four Two]

In 1968, when I was earning my Budgie wings at Shawbury, 27 MU was asked to resurrect one of the Beverleys waiting for the scrapman and ferry it down to Abingdon for the RAF 50th Anniversay Display on 14th June.

So they worked on XH124 and made her airworthy. I happened to be at Shawbury on the day she left. Brian N-------, one of the UBAS instructors had been a Beverly captain at Changi and Abingdon and had promptly volunteered to fly her down. I remember him being really annoyed because another pilot with less experience, but more recent Beverley time, was selected to be the Captain and so Brian had to settle for the right seat.

We all went out watch the departure. After a short delay, while some hydraulic problems were fixed, they departed from 18. The plan was to do a couple of circuits and then fly VFR to Abingdon. We watched as they flew slowly around the circuit and came down final. It's hard to describe how slow she looked - a giant aircraft flying at not much more than Chipmunk speeds.

Brian described what happened next, in the bar the next weekend and had everyone in hysterics. The hold was empty except for a pallet of full engine-oil drums and the giant custom-made wooden chocks, which had all been tied down at the front. What they had forgotten about was that there were no seats in the tail boom, so the CG was "slightly forward"! Brian was watching the Captain pulling the yoke back to flare, when there was a cry of "Help me!" He said both of them were pulling back as hard as they could, with absolutely no effect.

From the outside, the sight was spectacular. The Beverley hit the runway nose wheel first, with absolutely no flare, and bounced back into the air again. A very strong aircraft.:) They opened the throttles and climbed away southwards. Brian said afterwards that they decided the next landing should be at Abingdon in case something fell off.

After the display, XH124 was ferried to Hendon, by a different crew. I remember newspaper reports describing how people all over north London phoned the police with reports of "a large aircraft crashing near Hendon".

Here's a link to photos of most of the aircraft at the display, including a glimpse of XH124 behind a Twin Pioneer: http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/airdays/raf50/index.htm

The heading page has a photo of 31 JPs :eek: in an E II R formation.

It was an amazing display. I have some slides somewhere, which I should dig out and scan.

[skua]

The Hendon Beverley was very regrettable, but the scrap merchant that eventually took her apart auctioned off the contents. Hence I am now the proud owner of the cockpit first aid box!

Skua