Old Hercs in Staffs?

[AircraftOperations]

Was on the West Coast Mainline train down to London on Saturday when I noticed 4 wingless Herc fuselages close to the tracks on the port side, about 15 mins after Stoke.
Was just interested what they were doing there, as it seemed to be a field with no obvious aerodrome close by. Small salvage yard maybe?

[Ian Brooks]

They have been there quite a while will try and find some more info on them

Ian B

[742-xx]

I think the place that you saw would be the former RAF Hixon.
It was on the news that the Hercs were going there, search the BBC News site, its probably still lurking somewhere. They arrived by road.
I flew over there a few weeks after it was on the news but there was no evidence of them at that time.

[Big Eric]

They were transported by road from Lyneham between 09/01/11 - 27/02/11 to a breakers called Air & Ground Ltd at Hixon.

They are XV197, XV217, XV220 and XV305.

I hope that helps.

[742-xx]

http://www.ukga.com/images/content/image21024.jpg
Not sure how well this will work, but here goes !!
Hixon from 1800 feet.

[TEEEJ]

Video of one of the C-130s being moved from RAF Lyneham.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqSrtKZPrJg

TJ

[Out Of Trim]

Oh.. I flew on XV197 around 1981. Not nice seeing them in pieces. And they look huge on a low loader!

[GANNET FAN]

Please excuse my ignorance, non flying, but are these aircraft so totally knackered/not viable that they have to be scrapped?

[Ian Brooks]

To be totally honest they were worked incredibly hard by the RAF and are
well past their sell by date

Ian B

[Gingie]

Taken in February 2011.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/Gingie28/IMG_0071.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/Gingie28/IMG_0082.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/Gingie28/IMG_0090.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/Gingie28/IMG_0104.jpg