Welcome To The Official Robertsbridge
Aviation Society Website
December 4th 2022 - Trevor
MUSEUM NEWS
We have been made aware of a second website using the Robertsbridge Aviation Society name. We would like to point out that this website is not administered to by our Society and that if you are reading this news article this website is our official website and contains the correct contact details. Once again we apologies for any confusion.
The Society and museum has had a good year and we have welcomed many visitors back to Bush Barn. Our fund raising events have been well supported raising much needed funds needed to maintain the museum buildings and grounds. Many thanks to everyone who has supported us and visited our museum collection in 2022.
Winter maintenance is now well under way, hedges and ditches are being attended to and we are also disposing of unwanted jumble and also furniture and building materials the we have acquired when we took possession of the remaining nissen huts at Bush Barn. We have also sorted through some of our surplus museum exhibits and have swapped them for new exhibits more relevant to our collection. Once we have disposed of any unwanted items we will commence the conversion of Hut 6 into a new museum building. We plan to have a large area dedicated to Lancaster LM650 and move some other bomber command associated exhibits to this building as well as displaying other parts held in storage.
June 5th 2021 - Trevor
MUSEUM NEWS
The museum has been invited to the Kent and East Sussex Railway 1940’s weekend on the weekend of the 11th and 12th September. We will be taking exhibits from the museum along for display and we are looking forward to once again being able to promote the museum and display a small selection of our exhibits.
Work still continues around the museum, the Society now owns the museum site and all the buildings on it. The additional buildings are being assessed and essential repairs carried out. Plans for these buildings are in place and they will be used for storage, workshops and fund raising activities. As more storage space is now available a sixth nissen hut will be made available for museum artefacts. Planning for this hut is in its early stages but a display centred around Avro Lancaster LM650 is high on the agenda.
In addition to building maintenance and ground keeping recently completed new displays include a display area for Hawker Typhoon artefacts, an aircraft wheel and tyre display, Focke Wulf 190 display and a Spitfire Mk. IX Merlin 66 engine.
Hawker Typhoon R8812 which crashed at Ashburnham, parts of which can be seen in our new Hawker Typhoon display
Rolls Royce Merlin 66 crankshaft
MUSEUM NEWS
All the Nissen hut doors have been sanded, repairs carried out, primed and gloss green top coat applied. Inside the Nissen huts we have moved exhibits in order to paint the walls behind them and taken the opportunity to clean, inspect and re-protect exhibits. Other exhibits around the museum are receiving attention and new displays are being completed. We have also been inspecting the many items we have in storage and have found some forgotten treasures which are now being prepared for display.
Rear view of our B-26 Marauder R2800 engine and its ‘Solar Anti Monoxide Exhaust Manifold’ exhaust system.
Rolls Royce Merlin 21 or 23 from a DH Mosquito receiving attention.
Sea Vixen XJ488 pulled out for cleaning.
Repaired and painted Nissen hut doors.
Additions to our 8th Air Force Display.
April 28th 2020 - Trevor
MUSEUM NEWS
In accordance with current Government guidelines the museum is temporarily closed and will reopen when it is safe to do so. All fund raising activities have been cancelled until further notice. We hope that all our members and supporters are safe and well and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Meanwhile, our Chairman, Roy Chrismas, is the only person regularly on site at the moment keeping a watch on the museum and its grounds. Thank you Roy, stay safe.
Museum Manager, Trevor Woodgate, is currently furloughed from his aircraft restoration job and in order to get his daily aircraft fix has been at home cleaning and identifying pieces of Lancaster III LM650.Parts of airframe have been cleaned and identified as well as parts of one of the Packard Merlin 38 engines.
LANCASTER PARTS PRIOR TO CLEANING
MERLIN 38 PARTS INCLUDING:-
OIL SCAVENGE PUMP, STROMBERG CARBURETTOR ACCELERATOR PUMP, TACHO DRIVE ASSEMBLY, BOOST PRESSURE REGULATOR, STROMBERG CARBURETTOR FUEL REGULATOR AND FILTER, HAND CRANKINK UNIT
AIRFRAME PARTS INCLUDING:-
SIDE TUBE FORM RH SIDE OF PILOTS SEAT, MK.III BOMB CARRIER,
MAGNETIC RELAY, FUSELAGE ENGINE CONTROL SHAFT, PNEUMATIC SYSTEM REGULATOR, OIL/AIR TRAP, ENGINE CONTROL SPROCKET, GEE DISPLAY SCREEN,
PART OF UNDERCARRIAGE RETRACTION STRUT, FUEL TANK CONNECTOR
September 17th 2019 - Trevor
LIGHTNING COCKPIT
Work has just started on the cockpit section of Lightning XP701. Member Clive Hammond was a Lightning technician in the RAF and worked on this airframe whilst serving. The cockpit section has been located outside our headquarters for many years now and has become a bit of a landmark. It has always been the museums intention to restore the cockpit with instruments and a seat, many of these items are already in storage. First job was to remove the canopy to allow safe access to the cockpit. Now removed, work will commence-cleaning and assessing water damage and restoring the units still fitted such as throttle controls and sub instrument panels. It is hoped that when the canopy is refitted we will be able to raise and lower it using its hydraulic actuator. Clive also worked on RAF Phantoms and is also part of the team recovering an F4J from the fire dump at Manston for the British Phantom Aviation Group. Thanks to Clive and Peter for their efforts.
September 17th 2019 - Trevor
BATTLE OF BRITAIN FILM CELEBRATION
50 years ago the iconic film “Battle of Britain” was released. The film featured a host of famous actors and of course “real” aircraft. One scene from the film features Susannah York and Christopher Plummer at “The Jackdaw Inn”. The pub was actually called the “Red Lion” and is situated in Denton near Canterbury, the present Landlord has renamed the pub
“The Jackdaw” in honour of the film. On the weekend of the 14th and 15th September the pub celebrated the release of the film with a beer festival, screening of the film, plus military vehicles, re-enactors and a display of Battle of Britain relics from our collection. This was the first time the event has been held and the Landlord hopes to repeat the event next year.
KENT & EAST SUSSEX RAILWAY 1940’s WEEKEND
TORNADO CANOPY
December 19, 2018 - Trevor
BAC JET PROVOST T4 XR681 RESTORATION
Restoration commences
Following conversion of the storage building into a museum building, an area was set aside to enable restoration of the cockpit section when the museum is not open. With the lower fuselage sited work commenced on cleaning, removing rivet tails and preparing parts for reassembly. Rather than completely dismantle, repaint and reassemble everything the decision was been taken to clean, repair where necessary and reassemble, thus preserving the original internal paint application and colour.Rrivet heads and tails will be painted black by hand. When complete the exterior will be repainted in its red and white Flying Training School (FTS) scheme.
Front bulkhead after re-riveting
Rear bulkhead after reassembly and riveting
The first section to be tackled was the forward bulkhead. This was a relatively simple task as the bulkhead had been folded down after removal of its strengthening angles and channels. With everything secured using skin pins the bulkhead was riveted up.Next attention turned to the more complicated rear bulkhead. Firstly the left and right steel air intake structure was prepared and skin pinned into place. This enabled the rear bulkhead to be located and pinned into position to enable repair splice plates to be fabricated. The bulkhead was then removed and the steel air intake structure riveted into place. Now the rear bulkhead complete with upper decking and window frames was positioned and pinned into place, the repair splice plates fitted and riveted into place.
BAC JET PROVOST T4 XR681 SERVICE RECORD
04-07-1963 – First flight
19-07-1953 – Delivered to RAF College Cranwell and coded ‘94’
12-05-1971 – Delivered to 6 FTS Finningley and coded ‘Q’
30-07-1971 – Delivered to Central Air Traffic Control School, Shawbury
05-08-1971 – Delivered to 27 MU Shawbury
06-08-1971 – Declared non-effective
01-10-1971 – Struck off charge as CAT 5 (C) and broken up for spares. The fuselage was scrapped.
21-09-1971 – Nose section was transported to the RAF Exhibition Flight, Bicester and was re numbered 8588M.
03-09-1985 – Delivered to 1349 Sqn. ATC Woking but kept at Woking.
1993 – Delivered to 1216 Sqn. ATC Newhaven
2002 – Donated to Robertsbridge Aviation Society and moved to Robertsbridge.
Museum News
For many years we have had a small display of artefacts at Newhaven Fort. Recently the decision was taken to remove the display and bring the artefacts back to Robertsbridge. The display consisted of V1 flying bomb parts, wreckage from local crash sites, a propeller from a B17 Flying Fortress, a propeller boss from a Focke Wulf 190, the engine core from a B24 Liberator and a propeller from a World War 1 FE8. All these items are can now be seen at Bush Barn.
