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Brooklands Museum Summer Project
The Museum
Project background
1998 Project
1999 Project
2000 Project
2001 Project
2002 Project
2003 and 2004 projects
The Museum
The Brooklands
Museum is situated on the site of the former Brooklands racetrack, which was
also the main development and production area of the British Aircraft
Corporation’s Weybridge Devision, formerly known as Vickers-Armstrong.
Between 1907 and 1939 the racetrack built by Hugh Locke-King was one of the
focal points of the British motorsport scene. The 3.5 mile long banked track
being the first of its kind to be built in Europe.
From 1908 on the area inside the track was seen as a perfect place to fly
aircraft from and apart from many other famous aviation names that flew from
Brooklands, it became the home of the Vickers Aircraft Factory. Famous in the
Second World War for the Wellington bomber, after the war the successful Viking,
Viscount and VC10 were built here. Next to this, after the consolidation of the
British Aircraft industry into BAC the site remained an important design office,
working amongst other projects on Concorde.
The Museum is located on a large area on the north side of the original racetrack,
and includes the original Member’s Banking and the 1930’s clubhouse as well
as several other buildings connected to either the motoring or the aviation
heritage of the site. In and around these buildings a large collection of cars,
aircraft and other items is displayed, including the only surviving Wellington
Bomber that actually saw service in the Second World War.
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The early 'racing days' at Brooklands: H.C. Tryon's
six-cylinder Napier after spinning several times and leaping from the
Member's Banking to the road below. January 2nd, 1908
Photo: Brooklands Museum
Collection
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| The
Brooklands racetrack seen from the air, probably before 1930. The airfield is at the top of the
picture inside the track. |
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Project background
The Brooklands Museum
summer project was conceived in early 1998 to achieve a double goal; firstly it
would provide European aeronautical engineering students with practical
engineering experience, and also it would provide the museum with a very
valuable workforce through which the life of the exhibits can be extended.
During
the project the students work in small groups around the museum on several
different tasks. They are supervised by museum volunteers who will usually be
retired licensed aircraft engineers or will otherwise have been connected to the
engineering environment.
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1998
Project
Participating
students: 8
Major goals achieved: VC10 horizontal stabiliser cleaned & painted, RH main
undercarriage cleaned & painted, survey carried out on the VC10. |
The
students involved in the 1998 project
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One of the major issues that needed some attention was the horizontal
stabilizer on the VC10. After almost 11 years the upper surface didn't
look as clean as when the aircraft arrived, as the photo on the right will
show. |
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So how to clean a VC10 tail? Remember it is 40 ft high!
Well, the basics are a high pressure cleaner and some high access
equipment that the museum rented for this purpose. |
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The results were promising, the tail now had the same colour as the rest
of the aircraft. |
Photo
K. Early |
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The next step was a bit of painting. Part of the painting crew is shown on
the right. |
Photo
G. Dovey |
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Obviously other parts of the aircraft needed some attention too. Corrosion
removal on the upper wing surfaces for example. |
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All photos J.
Hieminga except where noted |
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1999
Project
Participating
students: 18
Major goals achieved: VC10 wings and fuselage completely clean of corrosion,
Vanguard tail section cleaned & treated where necessary, Undercarriages
cleaned and painted on BAC 1-11, Hawker Hunter and Vickers Varsity.
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Some
of the students involved in the 1999 project
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If
you are going to use high access equipment on a Vanguard tail, you don't want
that tail to be sticking out over grass. So what do you do? Fire up two engines
and taxi her out of course. These pictures show G-APEP moving under her own
power. |
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And
the reason she was moved. Cleaning and corrosion removal on the tail
section.
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Painting
after corrosion removal on the VC10 fuselage. The access equipment in use
shows a variety of airline markings. |
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Remember that a VC10 is not a small aircraft. Even so the upper and lower
surfaces have been completely cleaned of corrosion during the 1999
project. |
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All photos J.
Hieminga |
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2000
Project
Participating
students: 11
Major goals achieved: Corrosion removal and treatment on Viscount G-APIM.
Preliminary restoration work carried out on Viscount XT575 cockpit section.
Painting of Vickers Varsity and several restoration tasks on BAC 1-11 and Hawker
Hunter. |
Some
of the students involved in the 2000 project in front of BAC 1-11 G-ASYD
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| The
2000 project started out with a lot of cleaning, on this picture the tail
of BAC 1-11 G-ASYD is getting some attention. |
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| Next
in line was the VC10 forward fuselage section. This is a static test
specimen that was used for water tank tests. |
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| Another
aircraft that was due for some TLC is Vickers Viscount G-APIM. Corrosion
treatment on the cockpit area was a major focus. |
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All photos J.
Hieminga
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2001 Project
Participating
students:
Major goals achieved: Corrosion
removal and treatment, cleaning, patch repairs, removal and installation
windows on BAC 1-11, inspection of tailplane Hawker Hunter, installation
rudder on Vickers Viking, drilling holes and installation bolts in center
wing section Hawker Hurricane. |
Some
of the students involved in the 2001 project next
to VC10 A4O-AB
Photo
via J. Brinksma
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2002 Project
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2003 and 2004 Projects
2003 is already gone by now, and unfortunately there never was a
2003 Summer Project, the available budget just didn't allow this. There are
several large projects pending at the museum some of which are the refurbishment
of the Wellington Hangar, a listed building from the WWII era, and the imminent
arrival of Concorde 202 G-BBDG which will be restored at the museum. Also the
resident Hawker Hurricane restoration is slowly progressing. There are many more
things going on at the museum and as an organisation largely driven by
volunteers and donations, money is always tight. For mainly the same reason the
2004 project will also not take place, however unfortunate this will be for the
students that would have liked to participate.
More student projects? Since 2002
the project has not been active in the form as described above, but the
restoration of Concorde G-BBDG has benefited a lot from the involvement of
students from a local university. It is therefore safe to say that the lessons
learned have not gone to waste. Even if economics are currently against running
any more student projects at the museum, there's no telling what the future will
hold and I'm sure that in time there will be more to report on this front! For more
information about what's going on at the museum have a look at their excellent
website: Brooklands
Museum.
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