“Vagabond’s” restoration….the story so far in words and pictures, Part 3 (2025, so far)
As winter progressed into 2025, so did work on various aspects of "Vagabond's" restoration, as shown in the following photos taken during the first few weeks of the New Year.
These show continuing work on wing access panels (replacement), baggage door surrounds, wing spars (including rebuild of parts previously removed/damaged) and side windows.
Repairs were also carried out to our hangar following some wind damage and further matting was added around our work area to improve underfoot conditions!
The “Tech Team” didn’t miss a scheduled workday despite frequently inhospitable conditions - a great effort!
As we moved towards spring, work continued in a similar vein, with the team progressing towards the day, hopefully during the coming months (with June’s Air Day at Blackbushe being the target), when “Vagabond’s” main spars were once in place within the fuselage, with the stub wings and main landing gear re-attached.
The next set of pictures show continued progress on window frames, spars, engine nacelles, inner (stub) wings and baggage door frames - this last part bringing the welcome sight (and sound within the hangar!) of a rivet gun in use.
The 6th March saw the arrival back at Blackbushe of "Vagabond's" main landing gear, which has been superbly restored by the apprentices at our supporters Safran Landing Systems.
It was stored away in a newly completed addition to our work area at Blackbushe, which will in due course become our spray shop. For that, thanks were also due to Trustee Paul Nicholls and his Team at JP Building & Design Ltd.
Other work on the aircraft had also continued during the previous weeks, including interior cleaning and further work to repair spars and baggage door areas.
At the end of April, we reached the anniversary of 2 years since the BHT Team had arrived in Bad Voslau to take “Vagabond” apart ready for her road journey back to Blackbushe. We were by now getting closer to the day when some key parts of the aircraft will be joined back together again. In addition, some new areas of work were getting underway.
The pictures below show, in order, the work-in-progress and how far we’d come at that 2 year point….
Main landing gear, immaculately restored by Safran, awaits re-installation
Stub wing spars being readied for re-attachment of engine nacelle
Re-manufactured starboard wing spar awaiting re-positioning back into fuselage
Repairs to baggage hold entrance
Baggage hold cleaned and refurbished
Re-manufactured port wing spar awaiting re-positioning back into fuselage
Newly manufactured trestles awaiting placement of wings for refurbishment
Rudder pedals and other cockpit parts taking shape
Refurbishment of wing fillet panel
More work on window trims - results can be seen above the work area
Undercarriage re-attachment fittings in place within engine nacelle
How "Vagabond" looks exactly 2 years after she left Bad Voslau
The 24th May was a bit of a landmark day, as the first major parts of "Vagabond" to come together again since she arrived back at Blackbushe at the beginning of May '23, the starboard stub wing and fuselage, were joined back together by the Team that morning.
Quite a bit of re-engineering and re-construction had to take place to get us to that point, and we were hopeful that the following week the port stub wing would be re-joined to the fuselage aswell (preparation for that is shown in the last of the photos below).
There was some really great work, ingenuity and improvisation at times by the Team to get us to that point!
As we had hoped, on 28th May, the hard work, ingenuity (and again, sometimes improvisation!) of the Team paid off as "Vagabond's" port stub wing was now also attached, both to the aircraft and also to the other stub wing, through the centre of the aircraft - as shown in the next group of photos below. As previously mentioned, we had set this as a target to be achieved in time for the Airport’s forthcoming Air Day on 14th June, and it was!
The 3rd June was also a busy day at the heritage hangar, as “Vagabond’s” outer wings were relocated onto their newly manufactured trestles in order to make space for another storage container for the Team.
The move of the wings also helped the Team to start the restoration process for them with much better access. Big thanks were due to Recovair Ltd and to Tim their driver for the use of the HIAB truck.
The Air Day itself on 14th June saw much better weather than 2024 and was a big success for both BHT and the Airport. It was great to see so many people coming to look at the great progress we’re making on “Vagabond’s” restoration, and helping with that progress by spending money on our sales stalls, and our Summer Raffle.
Note: There won’t be an Air Day in 2026, due to the much-anticipated building development work that should be well underway on the airfield by then.
Many members of the BHT volunteering Team at the 2025 Air Day
3 weeks on from the Air Day in early July, and routine operations had resumed for the Team, every Wednesday and Saturday. Among the activities underway at the time, as shown in the pictures below, were….
Paint stripping of the outer wings had started, as had restoration work on flaps and ailerons
Work continued on the temporary repairs to the side windows
The stub wings were being prepared for the day when the next part of the structure (engine nacelles) would be re-attached
Wing-to-fuselage fillets were being either restored or re-manufactured and re-fitted. Work also continued on landing gear doors
The restored main landing gear was being re-fitted inside the engine nacelles
Into late Summer, and the (mostly) very good weather had certainly helped our progress. It was also great to see a few new faces joining us over the last few months. The next set of pictures hopefully tell the story of progress on some aspects we’d been working on for a while, and others that were just getting started, as follows.....
1. Rain doesn't stop play, work continues in the dry of the workshop
2. Outer wing flaps under restoration
3. Restored flap section
4. Wing fillet being readied for re-installation
5. Wing paint stripping continues!
6. Replacement spar bolts
7. The newly restored windows get a rain test
8. Cockpit rebuild underway (this was almost completely stripped when we acquired the aircraft).
In mid-September, there was also exciting news that we had been successful in our bid to acquire Vickers Valetta C.2 VX573 from the RAF Museum at Cosford (as covered in more detail in our September general news update - Edition 16, here https://www.blackbusheheritagetrust.com/news).
The hope is that this aircraft, as seen below in earlier times and which is in very good condition, will arrive at Blackbushe in the Spring of 2026. More details will be communicated about the associated involvement of the “Tech Team” as plans come together!
We’re now well into the autumn (early November at the time of writing), and work has continued on many familiar aspects of the Team’s work, with some of the more recently commenced tasks starting to take shape. In terms of things we’d been working on for a while, there was:
Continued engine nacelle repairs
Wing fillets now being fitted and looking good
Continued landing gear door work
Continued paint stripping, now on the horizontal stabilisers
Etch prime coating being applied to the outer wings
Aileron removal for refurbishment
Baggage door frame repairs continued
Among the more recently commenced tasks were:
Templates being made to repair the join to the rear fuselage
Rear fuselage renovation and preparatory work in progress
A work bench has been constructed for use inside the fuselage
Acrylic test pieces started for instrument panel rebuild and instruments tested for fit. Once all panels are cut they will be test fitted to “Vagabond” for any final corrections that may be necessary
A new gantry has been acquired and assembled. The first use for this will be when the engine nacelles and engines are re-mounted
