June 4th update

Summer seemed to arrive a bit prematurely at Blackbushe during May and saw our volunteers working in almost tropical conditions on their usual Wednesday and Saturday turnouts, with temperatures well into the 30’s centigrade at times.

Work and progress has continued on many parts of “Vagabond” that will be familiar to those of you who’ve been following this story as it develops. The words and pictures below look to convey some of the most recent activity.

Before we look at that, and going back to the end of April, Euan Bentley, who regularly attends biker meets at Blackbushe, generously donated us the “English Wheel” seen in the picture below. These are used for metal forming, and it’s a great addition to the facilities we already have onsite for this type of work.

The “English Wheel” donated by Euan Bentley

In terms of the update on ongoing work, some of the highlights of recent activity have been as follows….

A potentially tricky job was the disassembly of the starboard propeller, so that the blades that were cut in Austria so that we could get them onto the transport back to the UK could be welded back together. A plan was made and, in the end, the job was perhaps not as problemmatic as expected!

The above pictures show:

The locking ring being removed using “BSF” (British Standard Fine) bolts
The backing ring having been removed
There was less corrosion than expected and blade removal was easier than expected
At the end of the job, the last 2 (still complete) blades almost “fell off”!

Moving to the inside of the fuselage, great progress continues at the front and rear, with the re-construction at the rear continuing to take shape, as is the forward bulkhead and cockpit rebuild, as shown below.

In terms of the wings and other flying surfaces, the next set of pictures show some of the recent work on those areas….

The pictures above show:

Drilling skin rivets on damaged wing section
Dent removal on the fin fairing
Contined work to refurbish and rebuild the rudder
Further work on the re-constructed tailplane spar

At an extra level of the detail on the work being done to refurbish the rudder, the 2 pictures below show a newly fabricated rudder rib, and how that fits into the rudder structure….

Finally for this update, we think that the picture below shows what we are all about at BHT, the experienced sharing their skills with the next generation of aspiring engineers….

5th May update

There’s been a lot going on over the period of just under a month since the last update, the key elements of which we again hope to convey to our growing readership in the words and pictures below.

Several areas of the aircraft have seen attention, including some where a lot of work has been done already, and others where it’s just starting. Examples of the former are the inside of the rear fuselage, where new ribs continue to be fabricated and fitted (as shown in the first picture below), the rudder, which has been completely stripped for refurbishment (see second pic) and the tailplane stubs which now have a new spar to hold them together through the rear fuselage (see third and fourth pics). This was completely missing when we brought the aircraft back from Austria, as MacDonalds had removed it in order to fit an air conditioning unit!

In terms of parts of the exterior of the aircraft where new work has started, these include the tail cone and the dorsal fin, both of which can be seen below with paint-stripping work underway.

The engine nacelles and the stub wings that join them to the fuselage continue to receive attention, with fairings being fabricated and fitted to the areas where they meet, and a trial fit of refurbished main landing gear doors being undertaken.

Back inside the aircraft, great strides are being made with the complete rebuild of the cockpit, mostly thanks to fantastic work by our volunteer Rich. Various parts of the instrument panels are being fabricated, fitted with the instruments that we’ve acquired and trial-fitted inside the cockpit. Shown below is the progress made with the centre instrument panel, the second picture below showing it trial-fitted into the cockpit. The third picture shows another of the acrylic templates that have been fabricated for us by Max Blood. We’re very grateful for his support.

Speaking of support, we are also grateful to Dom from “Public Enemy Customs” of Ewshot, who are helping us by welding back together the propeller blades that we had to cut in order to transport the engines back to the UK from Bad Voslau. The pictures below show an “after and before” view of a port propeller blade that’s been welded back together with the other one that hasn’t yet, and our Tech Lead and Trustee Paul accepting the first completed one back from Dom.

In order to re-attach the repaired blades to the propeller assemblies, we needed to remove them from each engine. The pictures below show that in progress on the starboard engine, and then the starboard propeller following removal, prior to the stubs of the 2 blades that were cut being removed for repair.

Finally for this update, on 25th April the starboard engine nacelle was raised and attached to the stub wing. As with the previous effort for the port one, some hours of effort was required, but barring some minor adjustments the task was completed!

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8th April update

With apologies for the break of around 7 weeks since the last update, we’re back in early April with a comprehensive update on the parts of “Vagabond” that have been the focus of work in the weeks since the end of February.

They have been as detailed below….

The rebuild of the rear of the fuselage, the fin and the horizontal stabilisers (tailplanes) was, as previous updates show, intended to be one of the main work areas of work during 2026, and that work has continued. The pictures below show the fabrication of various parts of the rear structure, as follows

Fabrication and trial fitment of rear fuselage repair pieces

The stubs of the horizontal stabilisers (also part of the tail section of the aircraft) continued to see more work….

Work also continued on building and then trial-fitting a jig on which to mount the fin. The first picture below shows the fuselage damage that needs to be repaired prior to final mounting of the fin jig. The following pictures show the fin jig itself, a bracket that will be used as part of attaching it on top of the fuselage, and a trial fit to where it will finally be located (the bracket from picture 3 can be seen in place in picture 5)….

Another area of continuing work has been the ailerons, which have seen more work on fabricating new pieces to replace damaged parts. Some of this work is shown below, with newly-fabricated parts that can be seen in the 3rd and 4th pictures below:

A new area of work within the interior was a front bulkhead (behind the cockpit) that has started to take shape….

….but probably the biggest achievement of the last month has been the final re-mounting of the port engine nacelle. Spar bolts were trial fitted….

….and then, after various trials (and tribulations), it was up….and on!

The port engine nacelle in it’s final position

Finally for this update, the first of the propellers that we had to saw off in order to transport the engines back from Bad Voslau has been pinned (or “dowelled”) together, ready for welding in a local workshop. You can see that it all looks to be in one piece (although the work on it is not yet complete) near to the bottom of the propeller in the picture below:

12th February update

Into February and despite the wettest start to a year that most of us can remember, work continues on a lot of familiar areas of the aircraft, along with some new ones as the scope of the team’s work expands and some areas (nacelles being a good example) are nearer completion.

Some examples of parts of the aircraft now receiving more attention are the engine cowlings, and a jig that has been constructed to mount the fin vertically for restoration….

As work continued on areas that have been in progress for some time, interesting details become more visible, such as the internal detail of the ailerons (which have now both been removed from the outer wings for restoration) and the rudder. The pictures below show the starboard aileron taken inside for repair and the skinless rudder showing de-icing pipes that would normally be hidden from view, followed by a more general view of the stripped-down rudder….

Other areas where work has continued include the following, as shown in the pictures below:

Nacelles, with replacement panels being added
The wing fillets see continued work
The same can be said of the horizontal stabiliser stubs, with skins being removed for refurbishment and to enable interior work
The rear fuselage, specifically forming a rib section in this case

We’ve also been continuing our collaboration with our friends who are restoring the other UK-based Viking, “Vagrant”, at Brooklands Museum. They’ve been to Blackbushe a few times to make use of our facilties, specifically our “spray shop” where they prepped and painted some interior ceiling duct sections for their aircraft, as shown below….

Finally for this update, a flashback 2 years to show how the main landing gear looked at the time, and how it looks more recently, having been fully refurbished by Safran Aerospace and installed into the nacelles. Just one example of the great progress the Team are making….

22nd January update

Further into the month, work continued, often in less than ideal (wet!) conditions, with similar continuing themes to the types of work being carried out. There’s more illustration of these activities in the following photos, as described below (photo credits: volunteers Phil and Nathaniel)….

Outside and inside, work progressed on the wings, and the vertical and horizontal stabilisers. The 4th picture below shows work on one of the horizontal stabiliser stubs.

The engine nacelles continued to receive attention. There’s been a lot of patching-up, which is now near to completion. The 2nd and 3rd pictures below show damage and how it’s been repaired, and the 4th work on a nacelle upper access panel.

As mentioned at the start of this 2026 blog, the rear fuselage is one of our focus areas of work for the coming year. The first photo below shows a rib trial fit and the second repair of the area where eventually the rear section will be re-fitted….

An elevator tip is shown below, firstly in dented condition, and in the second picture slightly less so!

Finally for this update, wing fillets, which were either in a poor condition or needed complete re-fabrication after the aircraft was dismantled in Bad Voslau, continue to receive attention…

8th January update

Undaunted by the winter chills, our “Tech Team” had already returned to carry on where 2025 left off and by the time of writing had completed a couple of sessions, with the focus of their efforts detailed in the words and pictures (credit: Phil) below….

Work on what will be one of the team’s major tasks for 2026, namely the repair of the rear fuselage, continued. A lot of re-fabrication of various parts is going to be needed as this progresses.
The painting with primer of flaps and other parts (including carburettor intake ducts, as shown in the 3rd picture) continued, with our “spray shop” being warmed-up to aid the hanging-out-to-dry process (4th picture)
Propeller stubs and sawn blades were cleaned and matched
Trial fit of instruments to the acrylic templates continued
The fin was moved inside where some heat was applied to aid the stripping process
Work continued on wingtips, ailerons and wing fillets
The additonal workshop now in place inside the fuselage saw rib-forming underway, another part of the rear fuselage rebuild
Finally, nacelle repairs saw some end results with the starboard nacelle now completed (last 3 pictures)