Sea Vixen parts found buried

[Double Zero]

Front page of the 'West Sussex County Times ', 21st Dec' 07.

The tail section of a Sea Vixen, XJ607, has been discovered apparently deliberately buried on a farm near Billingshurst, West Sussex.

Apparently it was common knowledge that the nose section of this aircraft is in Australia - whether on display or whatever isn't stated.

The wierd thing is, this aircraft was restored at Dunsfold around 1990 NOT by BAe, but by a small outfit operating on the East side of the airfield.

I saw it, and from a few hundred yards it looked ' as new ' - though I have no idea as to how deep a level beyond paint the 'restoration' went.

One would have thought museums would have wanted a gleaming Sea Vixen ( I'm presuming it was only good for static use ) - so dismantling such an apparently good example and burying parts in a farm - Billingshurst is around seven miles from Dunsfold - seems a bizarre end.

The farmer professes to have no knowledge about it, and ironically is getting interest from museums. It's thought there are more buried parts being discovered, or is that conjectured about...

I'll post the newspaper photo' if anyone's interested ( and I remember how! ).
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee132/gvtol/SeaVixentail.jpg

[m5dnd]

Double Zero,

HI, Merry Christmas to You and Your Dad..

The Sea Vixen was one of a pair at Dunsfold. The one You saw restored was on Display at Brooklands and now is at Solent Sky. The other one was in such a state that a small team, including myself, spent a few days scrapping it. I helped to remove the nose section and I wonder if they found my drill bits when it arrived in Queensland? Cutting the tail off was to say the least interesting!
If I had a scanner that worked at this time I would post a few pictures.

Hope that helps? Catch up with You soon...

M5DND

[Double Zero]

Thanks m5dnd,

That makes much more sense now ! The paper states that this is the aircraft which was restored, which was the baffling bit.

I thought it must be true, to be in print !

Ta, DZ

[Fris B. Fairing]

What a fascinating development this is. The nose of XJ607 does indeed reside at the Queensland Air Museum in Caloundra, Australia although it does travel around the country a fair bit as a mobile display. Since QAM acquired it in Nov 96 it has made several appearances at the Avalon Air Show near Melbourne. It was our belief that the remainder of the airframe had been scrapped before QAM purchased the nose section. Hopefully someone can explain why it was buried and not sold for scrap.
m5dnd
I don't recall any drill bits but I will ask around. Sadly, the QAM member who arranged and funded the purchase passed away in Sept this year.
Any further info or images will be much appreciated by QAM.
This is XJ607 with XJ490 undergoing a repaint in the background.
http://www.adastron.com/aviation/vault/XJ607-trailer.jpg
This is the sign on the back of XJ607.
http://www.adastron.com/aviation/vault/XJ607-sorry.jpg
Regards

[sje9s]

Hiya I am the farmer you are all talking about:)

Well we moved into the property 7 months ago were digging for drains and wham we found the back end of a plane. We have both tail booms sitting in safe storage. They both seem in pretty good nick. Have some more photos will try to post in next couple of days. Please do ask any questions I will try to answer.

[m5dnd]

SJE9S,

Hi Welcome to PPRuNe,

Still strange that the last I saw fo the booms they were going off to be scrapped!. Sadly I stiil have not got around to scanning my pictures but should have them done this over the weekend so will post soon.

I, for one, Will be interested in seeing any more pictures of the booms and fins in their present state.

Cheer's
M5DND