| Helicopter Museum News
Heritage Lottery Fund Grant for The Museum
The Museum announced, on 28th March 2007, that it had been awarded a
£290,500 grant, by the Heritage Lottery Fund, towards new education,
skills training and conservation facilities.
Part of the grant is being used to provide a new technical library and
housing for the archival collection. (more)
New Buildings for a Growing Collection
The Helicopter Museum announced, in November 2006, that work was under way to extend the existing Display Hangars in a
westerly direction. Museum Volunteers had cleared the site of sundry
aircraft and the Coles crane,
allowing excavation for foundations to begin at the end of October 2006.
|
|
|
|
The first phase followed the pattern of the existing hangars, providing a
670sq.m increase in floor area. The newly-created undercover space was used, initially, for storage of some of the helicopters which
had been out in the open air and to house three additional helicopters, which
were acquired in 2007. Additional conservation activity was also
started, notably on the Wessex HAS.3, XM328.
It is hoped that, eventually, all skills training, most of the
restoration work and some of the recently introduced regular maintenance and inspection, will be transferred to
this new
"west end" hangar bay. |
|
 |
|
The cost of the basic new building has been met from The Museum's own funds,
to which the Friends make a significant contribution. In March 2007 the
Heritage Lottery Fund awarded The Museum a substantial grant towards fitting out the interior for
training and transferring many of the existing conservation and
engineering facilities.
Although building started in October 2006, there was a short delay
before steel was delivered and started to be erected
after Christmas. Good weather then allowed work to
proceed rapidly and the structure was completed in April 2007 (right). |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
On 20th July 2007 the new Engineering Hangar was officially opened
by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, who was accompanied by Her
Majesty the Queen.
Two months later a small mezzanine floor was installed, at
one end of the new hangar, to provide much-needed extra floor space
for storage of spare parts and assemblies (right).
In January 2008 the first restoration work on Wessex 60 G-AVNE,
started in the new hangar, alongside Wessex HAS.3, XM328,
which had been transferred six months previously.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Planning
applications were approved by the local council, in June 2007, for two separate, single-storey extensions to the hangars, one of 200
sq.m (right), designed to
house an archive, film theatre and classroom, a second of 35
sq.m, for toilets. Construction of these new facilities was funded from the Heritage Lottery Fund grant,
with foundation work being finished in February, walls up in March
2008 and most of the internal plastering, air-conditioning, and
lighting, for the archive and education facilities, installed by
mid-May 2008.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Back
to Home Page |
|
Planning for Expansion -- Recent History
In 2002 the Museum announced proposals for
building a new £1 million Learning and Discovery Centre designed to
replace the existing wooden huts and caravans which have housed the cafe, retail shop,
offices, archives and some of the introductory exhibits, for many years. In addition a top
floor would contain classrooms/conference space and a new dedicated archive, with a
technical library and storage for films, tapes and other media, which
would have been partially
sponsored by Rolls-Royce. The new building was to be linked to the Main Display Hangars.
Plans for the development reached an advanced stage in 2003.
The design and layout of a new introductory exhibition area were to have
been sponsored by
Agusta-Westland.
Announcing the original
proposals, back in 2002, Chairman of the Museum Trustees Elfan Ap Rees said "It marks
the third and probably final major development for The Museum and is intended to be a
prestigious building to properly reflect The Museum's status as the keeper of a collection
now regarded as being of national importance".
|
 |
|
 |
North
Elevation |
|
East Elevation |
|
|
|
Also, in 2003, The Museum received planning permission for a 670sq.m extension to its existing
Display and Restoration Hangars. This was to allow a new and larger
conservation workshop to be built to the west of the existing Display Hangars. The
current restoration hangar (The Hafner Building) would then have become an additional, much
needed, covered display area. The extension would have required a separate funding effort to
complete although The Museum's share of the money raised at Helidays 2004
was allocated to the project.
In view of the inevitable delays ahead, work was
undertaken, in March and April 2004, to make the existing Museum buildings a bit more secure and
weatherproof for the next year or two. This work, largely completed in
April 2004, included new
exterior cladding (below) which gave a good colour and texture match with the
recently completed display hangars while providing good protection for the underlying
timber structures. A few weeks later all the windows and frames were replaced.
Another plan was to develop additional new displays charting the history of
aviation at Weston-super-Mare since the first visiting aeroplane landed on the beach in
August 1911. The existing Museum is situated on a corner of the old Weston Airport and
some of the surviving Airport buildings, including the wooden control tower, are only a few
metres away from the Display Hangars.
It was possible that, if these historic buildings,
with adjacent land, could be acquired and refurbished, they might be used to house the
proposed new exhibition and could, additionally, have offered an alternative site for a new
restoration and conservation workshop. This would, in turn, have freed the existing restoration
hangar for
covered display or storage. Unfortunately, negotiations with the owner
of the land appeared to be 'stalled' and this situation continues into
2008.
|
 |
|
 |
|
The
office space in the 1940s "Achilles" building had
become increasingly congested so, in early 2005, The Museum
acquired a second-hand mobile home, to provide additional
accommodation. In August 2005 the Simulator Building structure,
used for miscellaneous storage, was cleared, detached from its
concrete foundation, lifted, and swung over to the other side of the
"Achilles" (above left). A few days later the
mobile home arrived and was installed (above right) on
the vacant concrete base. Installation of water, electricity and
telephone services followed and the new offices were soon fully
occupied.
In September 2005 a 20-strong group of volunteers, drawn from Lloyds TSB staff,
renovated the exterior of the "Achilles" and
"Simulator" buildings, as part of a team-building
exercise. |
|
Museum Helicopters at RIAT 2003
The Helicopter Museum loaned four aircraft
to the Royal International Air Tattoo 2003 which took place at RAF
Fairford, in Gloucestershire UK, over the weekend of 19th-20th July 2003. In addition to
the traditional flying displays the Tattoo celebrated 100 Years of Manned, Powered and
Controlled Flight with an exhibition showing more than 100 of the world's most famous
aircraft.
page top
|
The Bölkow Bö.105 G-PASB
The Friends undertook the renovation of this helicopter, intending to bring it up to
a state in which it can be used as part of a mobile display unit. This unit could help
publicise The Museum and the Friends at appropriate events around the South-West of
England. Click for a report and pictures.
A Better (Electronic) Bulletin
Following an item in the
January 2005 Friends Bulletin at least ten
members expressed a wish to receive future Bulletins via the Internet
rather than on paper. We had originally proposed that Bulletins would be
available for downloading from this website but a majority of the
interested members expressed a preference for receiving their Bulletins
by email. In fact this method is a lot easier to implement because there
should be no need for passwords and everything can be administered by
the Bulletin's editor. It started, on a trial
basis, with an advance copy of the July 2005 issue (Issue 18) which was emailed to a number
of members on 2nd July 2005, for their comments. This was followed by a
much improved version, a few days later. Feedback has been very
favourable. Harold Spicer had a few more computer problems in early 2006 but
hoped to despatch electronic bulletins, for Autumn 2006, in .pdf format. We thank Friends member Stephen Tutton for his advice and help in
getting this enterprise back "on track". Harold Spicer retired from editing the Bulletin after the January
2007 issue. Another Museum Volunteer and Friends Member, Adrian
Brimson, volunteered to take over. He said that he hoped to
continue, and improve, the Electronic Bulletin but unfortunately he was
unable to continue as editor.
The project could result
in a significant saving, for The Friends, in the costs of printing and
postage, which could ultimately benefit the Museum.
We hope that, if a regular and dependable service can be established, at least another fifty members will "come aboard" and
enjoy colour pictures, faster delivery and possible additional benefits.
However a new Bulletin editor must first be recruited and become
established in the job.
What is this Website for ?
The Friends' site, launched in September 2001, is not intended to duplicate the Friends Bulletin, or the Museum's
official website, except to a very limited extent. We aim to supply members with
up-to-date news of Friends' activities as well as frequent looks at recent happenings,
with an emphasis on helicopter restoration, at the Museum. The
site is also intended to appeal to a wider audience who can keep in touch on a regular
basis and who may then be ready to join the Friends.
Although intended, primarily, as a service to the Friends, most of the site will always be
available to others with an interest in helicopters and to casual viewers. It will also,
therefore, summarise some of the activities and objectives of the Museum itself and explain
the advantages of Friends membership.
Feedback Please !
Whether you are a member or not we are still anxious to know whether you think this site is of
value to you, to the Museum and to the Friends, whether you have any comments on its
present form and content and whether you have any suggestions for its future development.
Please contact us at:-- hmfriends@lineone.net --- if only to confirm that you can access the site satisfactorily, or to
describe any problems. Its always good to know that you're there.
Keep up to date !
An excellent way to keep yourself up to date with the world of helicopters, is to make
regular visits to Shephard's Rotorhub
site which, in addition to world-wide news on all aspects of helicopters, carries regular
news from The Helicopter Museum, provides links to the official Museum site and links to
the Friends site. They have further helped the Friends by supplying us with historic
photographs for use on this site.
|
