Over the past weekend we tried filling a few of the tires (including those on the donated Trident 1E leg) to check their condition ahead of the planned moving of the aircraft in the near future. This was fairly promising, but the condition of some tires and wheels means more attention is needed.

Given the weather we spent most time working inside. We plan to make a lot of progress on restoring the forward cabin as a priority, making it presentable. To do this, many of the window frames have been cleaned (ready to be re-sprayed). Dave has also been cleaning the PSU units (the panels above passengers heads)

This weekend we fitted new wall coverings on some of the dividers at the front of the cabin, which instantly give it a clean look which we are very pleased with.

If anyone would like to sponsor carpeting or seat covers (remember, you can sponsor a seat on this link), please get in touch or donate.

With only a handful of aircraft preserved, and our own G-ARPO being the last complete Trident 1C anywhere in the world, let’s make 2012 – this significant 50th year – the one in which we secure this aircraft’s future here at the North East Aircraft Museum.

We still need donations to help us achieve all there is left to do. Our Christmas present sales are still running, so please consider donating a product by clicking here, or alternatively just sending a regular donation to the project here.

Thanks for all your support so far, and Happy Birthday Trident!

Here are some of the things she’s put on her Christmas list to Santa that will help the team through the coming year:

- 1 sq metre of new carpet – £4.99 – Click to buy
- 1 section of paint for the exterior – £9.99 – Click to buy
- Cleaning products for the cabin – £3.99 – Click to buy
- 1 Year of hosting for our website – £14.99 – Click to buy
- Crane hire for reattaching tail fin – £300 – Click to buy
- Sponsor 1 fully restored seat and have your name on it – £149 – Click to buy

And don’t forget you can purchase a variety of Save The Trident items at our online store. Click here

* Please note, all money received through this page will be earmarked to fund the gift you pay for, however in some circumstances it will go to the general fund which pays for all work on the Trident. No money will be used outside of the project.

Purchasing these items will not result in any stake in ownership of the aircraft or products bought

It proved quite fruitful and we managed to get the front cabin scrubbed thoroughly with chemical film remover as used by professional valet and road maintenance companies. This stuff worked through 28 years of smoke damage and dirt that had accumulated on the ceiling, walls and panels, and scrubbed parts very clean, ready for painting in the future.

We also put back in place the window and ceiling panels, which will be cleaned by team member Dave Matthews as he visits regularly to work on the aircraft.

In the cockpit, Neil spent the day working on the centre pedestal, sanding and flatting, and then painting it.

First up, we’ve put together a new flyer which will be available soon from the museum and various other places. They’re also going to be working on our website and information board at the aircraft.

I think you’ll notice the changes because Wright Angle are so good at what they do. We can’t thank them enough for their sponsored help.

Wright Angle Design provides a wide range of marketing communications services to clients of various sizes in the UK and across the world. Based in Berkshire, their skills and experience can provide high-quality services that are designed to help produce positive results. For enquiries please contact john@wrightangledesign.com or visit www.wrightangledesign.com

Nevertheless, Flavell stepped up to the task and have inserted a strong steel plate to give it more than enough strength. They also did a bit more work around the place. We thank them for this sponsorship and their help.

Again, HSS Hire helped us out with the hire of the generator, giving it half price.

Internally, the team have begun to strip the cabin so that we can make a thorough job of cleaning and restoring it. As you can see in the photos below, the forward cabin is now stripped of seats and carpets and is already looking much better for it!

Please donate if you feel you can to ensure snags like this don’t stop us in our tracks in the future. Thank you to those who have left donations for us at the museum, too. We really appreciate it!

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As you may have read in our earlier post, we had a pristine main landing gear leg and wheels delivered up from Northbrook College’s Shoreham Airport base to use on our aircraft. As you can see from the picture, these are immaculate. Until we use them, the leg has been set up on its frame in the museum car park, and is quite an attraction in itself!

New member Dave Matthews has joined the team at the museum and has already been a great help.

Over the past week we’ve painted anti-corrosion paint onto all of the exposed cuts around the wings and where the tail section was. This will hopefully stop and corrosion setting in before we put the plane back together.

Please keep up the donations if you can. Funding is short and we have a lot of work to do still!

The leg and wheels are being transported up to the museum at a fantastic, discounted price by Transram Europe.

Transram Europe are a crane-assisted road transport company based in West Sussex. They can easily handle all sorts of road transport of heavy and bulky items around Southern England, the entire UK and into Europe.

We thank both of these sponsors very much for their help in pushing forward our project. Please visit their pages for more information.

Yesterday, we managed to move the starboard wing and the horizontal stabiliser. Today, the port wing and tail fin were moved, along with the remaining bits and pieces that had been removed (flaps, engine casings) and a set of aircraft steps.

A minor setback on the first day saw the tail unable to fit onto the trailer as it was too long. In a last minute stroke of luck, we were able to hire the assistance of an employee at Cobham, a company based on the airport site, to cut off two small sections of the tail. We thank Chris at Cobham for his help with this – it saved us another day delivering parts and hiring equipment.

The team are naturally overjoyed at reaching this stage. However, we realise we could not have reached this position without the help of all of our sponsors to date.

Over these two days, we have had extensive help from MSD Cranes. Their workers have shown great dedication to the work at hand, and have been on hand to help with whatever is needed. We’d particularly like to thank Stan, who has worked with us on behalf of MSD Cranes for the past year during most of the dismantling progress. He’s an honorary member of the team, and quite an expert on the Trident by now!

In addition to MSD, we couldn’t have completed the move if it wasn’t for JDPL and Colin Best. They planned the route and arranged the escort up to the museum over the three move days. A lot of background work went into this, which we really appreciate. They organised the police support, who have again been excellent over the past two days.

St George Hotel at Durham Tees Valley Airport has helped us out with accommodation many times over the course of the project so far. For us, it was always a pleasure to stay at such a nice hotel, and the bar was always a great place to meet up and debrief.

Serco have been incredibly helpful with this project. Today marks the end of our work with them, but we’d like to think we’ve made some good friends and colleagues at the International Fire Training Centre- particularly Chris and Sean, who have always been on hand to help us whilst working on site. We thank them all for this, and for giving us the opportunity to save this historic aircraft.

Today we also had support from Auto Recovery Services, and Mick from Palis Transport. We thank them very much.

G-ARPO is now at the North East Aircraft Museum. The fuselage is currently in the car park, so you can get a close view of her. Please also have a look at the other great exhibits at the museum, and speak to the various teams working on different restoration projects. It really is a treasure trove of amazing aircraft and military vehicles.

The team will now begin planning the next stage of the project, and we will hopefully be moving the fuselage alongside the other parts in the near future. From there, we can begin work on the restoration.

Here are some pictures from the wings and tail move. More will follow soon, so keep checking back!

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