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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This will enable us to take the parts from Trident 2E G-AVFE at Belfast International Airport and transport them back to the museum at Sunderland ready to become part of the restored Trident 1C G-ARPO at the North East Aircraft Museum.

We will be making the trip in May, taking members of our team.

We are naturally incredibly grateful to Stena Line for this gesture, which has solved a major headache for us and allows us to use our funds on restoring the aircraft rather than the necessary evil of travel costs. Stena Line are a great ferry company with routes all around the UK to Northern Ireland, Ireland and Holland. Please consider using them for your next crossing! http://www.stenaline.co.uk/