“Vagabond’s” restoration….the story so far in words and pictures, Part 2 (2024)

In this part of the story we cover 2024, and in January despite it being mid-winter and often in inhospitable weather our dedicated band of "Tech Team" trustees and volunteers were hard at work, both at Blackbushe and behind the scenes, progressing various aspects of “Vagabond's” restoration. The photos below depict some of this activity, which included, in order:

• Removal of the tail-wheel in progress

• The tail wheel removed for refurbishment

• An air-conditioning unit that had been placed in the starboard engine nacelle by MacDonalds in Austria was removed

• Engineering equipment needed to progress the restoration was delivered, including the guillotine shown here

• The main undercarriage was removed and delivered to supporters Safran Landing Systems, where apprentices would work to restore it to static (ie, usable on the ground) condition

• Many hours stripping of several layers of paint (of the aircraft’s former colour schemes) from the fuselage was undertaken

At the end of the month, and as mentioned in Part 1 of the story, a recovery mission was undertaken by Trustee Pat Marchant and his business partner from RPM Aviation, Rich, to return some key parts of “Vagabond” that had to be left behind in Bad Voslau the previous April - these being the stub wings that connect the fuselage to the engine nacelles and main landing gear.

The pictures below show them being loaded in Bad Voslau, transported through the Channel Tunnel (a tight fit!) and unloaded on arrival at Blackbushe. Thanks are also due to the folks at The Austrian Aviation Museum and to the fire crew at Blackbushe for their help at each end of the journey.

In mid-February, the picture below shows the progress that was being made with paint stripping, and the start of repairs to the baggage hold entrances.

Into March, work continued on some familiar long-standing tasks - mainly more paint stripping! - but also with the next stages of the fuselage exterior preservation coming into view, amongst other work underway was the following:

- The Nose cone was repaired at a local car workshop, with all lumps and bumps removed and was then primed ready for painting

- The fuselage was being prepared and cleaned ready for top-section priming for when the ambient temperature rises.

- In addition, speakers and a sound generation system were fitted in the rear cabin wall opposite the freight doors so that audio (including recordings of cabin announcements from “Vagabond’s” period in passenger service) could be heard externally by anyone who can't manage the stairs. This is part of our accessibility plan which will develop further over the coming months and years

These activities are illustrated in the pictures below….

At the end of the month, we gathered to wish our Trustee and “Tech Team” lead Phil Johns the very best of luck as he emigrated to Australia.

Phil joined Eagle Aircraft Services as an apprentice at Blackbushe in the late 1950’s, where he worked on and flew in Vikings, and went on to a very varied career in aviation engineering all over the world. Phil is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a holder of The Queens Commendation for Valuable Services in The Air.

The picture below shows many BHT volunteers and supporters at Phil’s farewell gathering.

Phil Johns in the centre with the Eagle Viking print presented to him by BHT

Winter turned to Spring and at the end of May, we held a volunteers work day to smarten-up our hangar work area in preparation for Blackbushe’s Air Day in mid-June…..

Before the Air Day, in early June, the top layer of scaffolding was also removed, with the top half of the fuselage now painted and protected with primer. Grateful thanks are due again to our supporters at Vision Scaffolding Ltd, who were a big part of enabling us to make the progress we have been able to to-date.

The Air Day itself, despite at times challenging weather, was an enjoyable and successful one for BHT, with lots of interest being shown in “Vagabond” and the progress we’d made in the period of just over a year since she arrived back at Blackbushe.

As the summer continued, the work carried out included more paint stripping of the fuselage, which by now was nearly complete, followed by application of primer paint to most of the fuselage, and some fuselage skin repairs. Work also progressed on the side window apertures, the nose cone, which was to be painted offsite, and a base floor layer was being laid inside the fuselage.

During the course of the last week of July, the remaining scaffolding around the fuselage was removed, which meant that there was now room to move the stub wings undercover to commence their restoration. Trestles have been built ready to support them for that work.

The pictures below illustrate some of the work described above….

In early August, the stub wings were moved under cover into the hangar and placed onto the trestles shown above to enable better access for their renovation, as shown below.

We also took delivery of "Vagabond's" refurbished and re-painted nose. We give our thanks, again, to AeroCare Aviation Services and AkzoNobel for their help with the painting and the supply of the paint itself.

As we moved into autumn, the work ongoing or starting included the stripping, priming and re-skinning of parts of the stub wings, which included the fabrication of some new sections on-site. We also carried on with work to repair damaged ribs and dents in the fuselage, refurbish the baggage hold door areas and removed the landing gear doors from the nacelles for refurbishment. Work also started to strip paint from the nacelles themselves.

In late October, a bit of a milestone was achieved when after a few previous attempts the hub nuts which fasten the propellers to the engines were finally freed. This was acheived with invaluable assistance from our supporters Collard Ltd, and the use of some heavy impact equipment. We're very grateful for their continued support.

Removal of the propellers was needed in order to facilitate future repair of some blades that were sawn off to enable transport back from Austria, and to make movement of the engines within our hangar space easier and safer. It was another step in the right direction!

At around the same time, we visited another supporter Safran Landing Gear Systems who are overhauling “Vagabond's” undercarriage. This work is being carried out by their apprentices which fits with one of our strategies to support technical education in the community. The pictures below show the work underway and progress being made at Safran’s facility in Gloucester.

We were now moving into the part of the year when weather conditions can be a challenge, but the twice-a-week work gatherings by our dedicated (and hardy!) “Tech Team” continued, as illustrated by the descriptions and pictures (in order) below:

• The rudder and tailcone were temporarily moved outside to create more space

• The starboard stub wing was up-ended to enable more work

• Work continued on the port stub whilst on trestles

• A close up of geodetic internal wing structure, courtesy of Barnes Wallis

• Paint-stripping of the starboard stub wing was soon in progress

• Paint-stripping also now ongoing on the engine nacelles

• The next picture shows a trial inner assembly of window, surround and blind

• The trial window fit from the outside.

• The last 2 pictures show (with great thanks to supporter Barry Love) some genuine Vickers spar repair pieces that we were able to source. It’s likely they were intended to deal with battle/crash damage on Wellington bombers, from which the Vickers Viking was descended.

Great work was being done as we hope these pictures show.

Into December and similar work continued, the focus of the Team’s continued efforts being engine cowlings, window frames, baggage doors, landing gear doors and spars.

The Team also gathered, suitably attired, to wish all our followers and supporters a Happy Christmas!