Also a big thanks to Northumbria Police for arranging the escort team (Cleveland and Durham Police bikes) from so early in the morning, and not charging us for this service. They made sure the roads were clear and that no problems were encountered. We appreciate it and couldn’t have done it without them.

Now that the dust has settled, here is a selection of pictures from the move day:

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This amounts to an extra £2000 in costs, which we just don’t have lying around!

In addition to this, the cost of the move is a little more than anticipated.

Can you help us with our costs? We are very grateful to everyone who has donated so far and it has ALL gone towards the project. However, time is running out and we want to ask if anyone can help us pay for this insurance? Every £1 counts.

We are planning to move the aircraft on 31st July, so we really need to hurry!

Also, if your company would be willing to sponsor us to help with our costs we’d love to hear from you. We offer great exposure and press opportunities for any company who helps. Please get in touch.

To donate to our project, please click this link where there are various different options http://www.savethetrident.org/donate/

The date set by our transport permit is Sunday 31st July.

We will begin on Saturday 30th by moving the aircraft from Serco’s fire training ground at Teesside and lifting it over the various gates that the load will be too wide to travel through.

Then, early on the Sunday morning the aircraft (spread over a couple of low-loaders) will proceed across to the A66 eastbound, then onto the A19 northbound all the way to Sunderland.

Here, it will be lifted over the fence into the museum and put into place – initially behind the hangars where we can work on it.

We will have an escort from the police and sponsor JDPL. Lifting and transport will be provided by MSD. We will also have a double extended trailer from Svenergods in scotland.

Please donate if you can spare any money. The move is very expensive and we have a big restoration ahead!

Over Thursday and Friday we worked on removing the wings from the aircraft so that she can be transported by road to the North East Aircraft Museum at Sunderland. We had worked out that it would be possible to cut outside of the main landing gear which would make reattaching the wings much easier, and also allow the aircraft to stand on its feet much earlier without reattaching the gear.

The first day proved quite laborious with the wing refusing to come away from the fuselage. Despite cutting and snapping all of the main spars, and the wing lying on on the ground, it still would not detach. However, this morning we got it free.

Work on the second wing was much quicker and that was removed after only two hours of cutting.

We are now at the stage of organising transport permits and the logistics of the move and should be able to announce something fairly soon.

Our thanks go out to all the sponsors who helped us this week: MSD Cranes, RES Teesdale Scaffold, JDPL, JParr (Mboro), St George Hotel, HSS Hire, Hire Station and of course Serco

The move is going to cost a lot of money, so please consider donating if you’re able to. Every £1 helps!

Here are some pictures from this week:

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First of all, the remaining #3 engine side pod was removed, leaving the rear of the aircraft clear for the move.

Then, after marking up the lines to cut along the wings, Stan (from MSD) and Neil began pre-cutting. They also opened up places to attach the crane lines when the wings are cut.

We meet again tomorrow to continue cutting the wings and will hopefully have some good news for you on here. Stay tuned!

As we move forward towards the final stages of dismantling Trident 1C G-ARPO ready to move to Sunderland, our costs have increased as we have to find £300 extra for costs of scaffolding. Can you help?

Everyone who donates to our project – even if it’s only a few pounds – is helping to preserve this aircraft for future generations to enjoy and look back on. It will be the only aircraft of its type preserved in one piece anywhere in the world. As well as being a museum exhibit open to the public, it will also be used to educate local children.

Our next milestone is to remove the wings from the aircraft, which will necessitate scaffolding being erected over each side. The cost of this will eat into the funds we have available, leaving us a few hundred pounds short of our target for transporting the aircraft.

Additionally, we need to transport the rudder and wingtips from the Trident 2E aircraft at Belfast to Sunderland in the near future, which will again cost extra money.

To help speed this project along, please consider donating. We are completely transparent with the money you give us and account fully for its use. If you have any questions, just ask

You can donate by clicking this link

If you are a former Trident pilot and have flights on G-ARPO in your logbook, we’d also love to hear from you.

The main focus of the day was to remove the tail fin and number 2 engine intake. This would require a lot of cutting inside the rear of the aircraft to remove the spars and metal that supported the structure and attached it to the fuselage. Stan from MSD got on with that, along with MSD’s crane who kept hold of the tail.

Meanwhile, other members started the day by quickly removing the number 2 galley from inside the aircraft. This was in a fairly bad shape, and by removing it we now have a lot more space as you enter the aircraft. This will prove invaluable when open to the public as it gives a lot more room for people to pass through, and an area where we can greet visitors. Don’t worry though – the number 1 galley is still present and we’ll aim to restore it at a later date.

Some more progress was also made on the engine side pods thanks to our helper from Henderson Engineering.

As the day progressed, Neil joined Stan in the rear of the aircraft to cut the spars. And, with relative ease, we were able to lift the whole tail off. A hairy moment followed as the gusty wind caused the dangling fin to blow about, but all was OK. Then it was lowered safely down onto the ground.

We were very pleased with progress and now have just one major step left to get the aircraft ready to move – the removal of the wings.

You can view some pictures from the day below.

Due to the costs of hiring contractors, we are starting to run low on funds. Please do consider donating if you possible can as it will help ensure this historic aircraft is saved and preserved for future generations to enjoy. Please click on the donate link at the top.

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In tow we had MSD Cranes along with their cutter, Stan, SAS Access with their cherry picker and operator, and Henderson Engineering ready to cut the bolts. HSS Hire also brought along two scaffold towers for us.

After the break the stabiliser had settled a bit further down due to winds and snow, and a little bit of damage had been done to the spar above the rudder location.

We quickly set up the crane to hold the stabiliser, then it was only a matter of minutes to cut through the eight troublesome bolts with oxy-acetylene – each coming free with a satisfying ‘clunk’ and the sight of the stabiliser floating a little higher. Once the last bolt was out, it came free! As you can see from the pictures, it made quite a sight as it was placed gently on the ground, leaving G-ARPO looking a little bald on top!

Once it was removed we managed to straighten out the damaged spar. It will need strengthening later, but has not been lost.

The rest of the day was spent working on the side engine pods as these will have to come off due to width restrictions on the lorry up to Sunderland.

All in all, a very productive day and a great relief to get the stabiliser off finally.

Thanks go to Serco, HSS Hire, SAS Access (0800 138 1033), MSD Cranes and Henderson Engineering for all their help. Next stage is to remove the tail fin in a few weeks’ time.

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She had been laid up at London Heathrow in the BA maintenance area for a while, with her stablemates all being scrapped or sent to fire grounds around the country. Finally, the call came to send her up to Teesside Airport (as Durham Tees Valley was then known) on a cold December day in 1983. On the flight deck that day was Dick Boas  as Captain, Colin Rule as Engineer and a young First Officer named Chris Barnes. He was an aircraft enthusiast as well as a Trident pilot and had to ‘bid’ for the chance to be part of the crew for this historic flight.

As luck would have it, Chris documented the day in a series of photographs showing G-ARPO at Heathrow, flying up over the wintry countryside, then making its approach and landing at Teesside. On the ground there, he was marshalled into place by our own Peter Foster, who is today part of the Save The Trident team.

As if this stroke of luck wasn’t enough (we could never have dreamed of a better display of photographs of our aircraft than those covering its last flight), Chris also happened to have a number of items of cockpit instrumentation from G-ARPO. He has sent these to us to put back in their original place!

A big thanks go out to Chris Barnes for this kind gesture and for showing us his photographs of the day. You can be sure they’ll form part of the display when G-ARPO is restored at the museum. In the meantime, have a look below:

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We arrived at 8.30am, and thanks to Serco who assigned a member of staff to look after us and shepherd us to the fire ground, we spent over 7 hours working on the aircraft. Thanks also to our experienced former firefighters Peter and Phil, who set up high pressure hoses to blast the fuselage and tail.

27 years of grime came clean away in most places. After this we scrubbed whatever we could reach with some industrial detergent. We couldn’t believe how good the condition of the wing surfaces were, and much of the fuselage was gleaming (even reflective!) by the end of the day.

Inside the cockpit Neil and Julian spent time removing more panels to take away for restoration, and they also temporarily fitted what Neil had restored so far to see how it looked – the answer was impressive (see the gallery below). They also managed to clear the blackout paint from the windows, letting light into the cockpit again. We also had a good sweep of the cabin, removing a lot of loose rubbish.

It was a fantastic day spent in the sun, and we were pleased to welcome Julian to help us. We can really see how great this aircraft is going to look once restored, and every step we take brings it a little closer to move day.

Please donate if you can as we still need to raise money for the move itself. As you can see from the photos, there is great potential in this aircraft but we are still short of the money needed!

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