Three RAF World War II 617 Squadron veterans beside the Tallboy bomb on 2nd September, left to right: John Bell, Benny Goodman and ‘Johnny’ Johnson (Julian Temple).


traditional wooden telegraph poles. This part of the scheme required Scheduled Monument Consent from Historic England.


Further improvements elsewhere on the site include deploying other contractors on priority repairs and maintenance to the Racing Lock-ups, ERA and McEvoy Sheds, as well as working on drains, fencing and general ‘wear and tear’.


Not previously mentioned in the Bulletin is the successful acquisition of the two Vickers VC10 flight simulators from the Ministry of Defence at RAF Brize Norton in late September. After protracted negotiations and preparations – expertly assisted by Gordon Roxburgh, Colin Durbridge and other volunteers – both simulators and all available spares and technical manuals were dismantled and transported by specialist contractors, Finch of Bookham, to our Bicester storage facility, where they will be kept until a suitable location can be found to restore one of them to working order at Brooklands.


Also worth mentioning here is the recent


purchase of a second-hand Harrier GR.3 wing from Selby-based Jet Art Aviation to replace the incorrect wing fitted to our P.1127 since 2010. Together with various essential Harrier spares purchased locally from ASL in Horsham, this new wing will give a significant boost to the on-going restoration of this unique Hawker aircraft.


Aviation events With so much else happening this summer and continuing investigations into last year’s Shoreham Hunter tragedy, we intentionally staged no flying activities at the Museum in 2016 apart from two nostalgic fly-pasts given by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Hawker Hurricane LF363 at our 1940s Relived and Double Twelve events.


Otherwise, we continue to use our helicopter landing site courtesy of Mercedes-Benz World and liaised closely with them on some most unusual helicopter activities associated with the launch of


59


a new AMG sports car on 23rd-24th June. This also involved British air-lifting specialists Helirig, who were tasked with managing a Swiss-operated Russian Kamov Ka-32 helicopter (registered HB- XBE and rarely seen in the UK) flying from nearby Fairoaks Airport to Brooklands to air-lift a five- ton shipping container (using an 80-metre long cable) from the top of the Finishing Straight to the south east corner of Mercedes-Benz World’s handling circuit, where it was quickly opened to release the new sports car for demonstration in front the world’s motoring media! This event was also filmed from another helicopter and on the ground with the resulting promotion being broadcast via the internet shortly afterwards.


On 2nd September another memorable event saw us host a unique visit by the three last surviving war-time 617 Squadron veterans – John Bell, Benny Goodman and ‘Johnny’ Johnson (sadly now the last of the famous ‘dam-busters’). All three attacked German targets on different occasions using special weapons designed by Sir Barnes Wallis and all are now in their 90s, but still with good powers of recall. They were accompa- nied by Mary Stopes-Roe (née Wallis) and interviews were filmed by aviation historians Andrew Panton and John Sweetman, with copies promised for the Museum archives.


On 19th November we hosted a British


Aviation Preservation Council meeting, with over 40 visitors from other museums and collections being suitably impressed by all of our develop- ments since their last visit in 2012.


Most recently, on 24th November, around 100 people came from far and wide to remember and pay tribute to the late aviation enthusiast and Museum supporter Roger Hargreaves (1951- 2016), who was instrumental in the creation of our post-war aircraft collection in the late 1980s and early 90s.


Julian Temple


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