Sunday, February 28, 2010

Bristol Bulldog comes home

In a surprise move, The RAF Museums Bristol Bulldog appeared at the BAC 100 launch party at Filton on 19th February 2010. The event marked the start of a year of activities to celebrate 100 years of aircraft production at Filton. The launch took place in the east bay of the Brabazon Hangar, and included the naming of an Easyjet Airbus A.319 after Sir George White, founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The Bulldog was the only Bristol aircraft, however there were several aircraft models, and other Bristol products - cars, buses and aero engines.

The Bulldog arrived at Filton a few days before the event, and was scheduled to return to Hendon soon after.

2009 updates

There were only a few movements in the Bristol Aircraft world to report in 2009. Keith Williams and Mike Thorn finished the restoration of their Bristol Scout replica, to a far higher standard than the 'original' airframe, built in 1962. It has gone on display with the Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden in Bedfordshire, pending the planned museum at Filton.

Elsewhere, steady progress has been made on the restorations of Britannia 'Charlie Fox' in Liverpool, the Helicopter Museum Belvedere at Weston-super-Mare, and the Blenheim Society's recreation of a Mark I Blenheim.

Concorde-wise, G-BOAC at Manchester has gone under cover in its purpose-built 'hangar', and G-BOAD has returned to Manhattan following the major renovation of the Intrepid Museum in New York.