The story of this challenging salvage operation and the successful recovery on 18th-19th July of two Highballs from Loch Striven in Scotland in remarkably good condition is told in a detailed article by Iain Murray in the October 2017 issue of FlyPast magazine. The job of collecting this very rare exhibit was recently undertaken by Andy Lambert assisted by Steve Jacobs of Fareham-based Phoenix Systems, who also loaned a suitable van.
After an early start in Hampshire on Friday 8th September they arrived at the East Cheshire Sub Aqua Club’s premises in Macclesfield, where they met a driver from the Macclesfield-based recovery operators, the Mansfield Group, who kindly provided a forklift truck. Having drained the specially-treated water from the weapon’s temporary storage tank, the van was loaded and driven back to Phoenix’s storage compound in Fareham for the weekend and the tank was refilled with chemicals.
On Monday 11th September, the tank was emptied again and then driven the short distance to the Portsmouth Naval Base for delivery to the Mary Rose Trust. Unfortunately the Navy’s security staff had not yet received the Trust’s documentation about our special delivery and when told that a ‘bouncing bomb’ was being delivered, they went a little pale and sent for the Base Police and sniffer dogs to check the contents of the van! An hour later Andy and Steve were cleared to enter the site and off-loaded the Highball in the Trust’s conservation treatment room where it will be desalinated over the coming months before making its final journey to Brooklands. It will then complete our unique collection of Barnes Wallis’s special weapons –
The Beagle B.206X during loading at Farnborough on 3rd August (Julian Temple).
all developed in great secrecy by Vickers Experimental Department staff at the nearby Burhill and Foxwarren dispersal sites during World War Two.
Beagle B.206X G-ARRM has been owned by the Museum since 1990, after being rescued from Shoreham Airport by our late Chairman Sir Peter Masefield, but it was subsequently loaned, in succession, to the Bristol Aero Collection, the Shoreham Airport Historical Association (where it was lovingly restored by local volunteers including former Beagle company staff) and the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (who recently decided they needed the space for another aircraft). This historic British prototype was dismantled by FAST and Brooklands volunteers and returned to Brooklands by road in August – with particular thanks to Mike Cowan of the Cowan Motor Group, Bob Hunt of Langley Vale Recovery Group, Andy Lambert and Paul Swift. Largely reassembled on 23rd August, this exhibit currently awaits further work by a new volunteer team – anyone interested should please contact Sue Lewin or me.
Jim Pearce
I attended the funeral in Sussex on 10th August of the late aircraft recovery specialist Jim Pearce who died on 26th July aged 87 and without whom we would probably not have a Hawker Hurricane in our collection. The story of how Jim responded to an appeal from me over 20 years ago for help in acquiring a Hurricane for Brooklands from Russia deserves telling at a later date but for now we will be eternally grateful to him for enabling us to realise this ambition. An obituary appeared in the October issue of Aeroplane magazine. His funeral service featured
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