page16

We started work in May 2006, and so far have managed to strip out the cockpit, remove the engine, main fuel tank and outer wings. (The booms and tail had already been taken off and stored before we started.) Everything has ben carefully photographed and "bagged & tagged" and is being restored piece by piece whenever help is available.

Currently I am finishing off the restoration of the main fuel tank bay and the firewall, prior to getting the inner wings off (hopefully in the next few weeks). The plan then is to turn the Fuselage Pod up on end so that it's sitting on the firewall, as this will make it easier to work on the rotted wood on the Pod, and will also save space in the working area. The wings will be stored, and the main areas of concern for the rest of this year will be the pod and the engine.

Although the aircraft is complete (aside from the radar), its time spent as a Gate Guardian at HMS Dryad in the 1970's did it no good at all, hence the need to replace a lot of the wood on the fuselage. However we're using a new 3-D laser scanning technique to capture the shape of the pod so that when we put the new wood on we can recreate the profiles and curves exactly. This should save us some time and produce a more accurate result.

We're two years into the work and I reckon there's at least another 5-6 years left to go! Visitors are always welcome - The Museum is open afternoons on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and all day Sundays and Bank Holidays. I'm usually there on Saturdays and occasionally on a Sunday.

The engine and outer wings are already removed and the cockpit is stripped out and the components are being restored individually. Currently we're working towards getting the inner wings removed, which will allow us to store them somewhere out of the way and concentrate on the Pod. Taking these off will be a complicated business as we haven't got a lot of room to work in, and getting a crane in means moving a lot of other aircraft out of the way first, which of course requires good weather (they have to go outdoors) and lots of helpers. Nonetheless I hope to achieve this by mid-summer at the latest. The other main activity is the stripping and cleaning of the engine, which we would hope to have completed by next year which is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Museum - so we would like to display the fully restored engine as our team's contribution to the festivities! Once the inner wings are removed, work can start in earnest on removing the rotted wood from the Pod. This will be a slow process, because to preserve some structural integrity the wood will need to be replaced just one section at a time. Eventually the cockpit floor will need to be replaced as this is rotted through in some places, but I would like to get the 'shell' of the Pod back to a sound condition before attempting that.

23.09.08

After a great deal of planning, the wings were finally removed from XG730 in August. Our original plans were to immediately mount them out of the way on a specially made storage frame, but this would have involved taking several other aircraft out of the main hangar to get a crane in, and guess what - the weather turned against us on the day so we had to try an alternative approach. One day, when the weather is kinder, we'll manage to finish the job!

So at present we have the two wings on trestles and the fuselage pod mounted on a support plinth that gives good access to the top and sides, so we can see what state it's in. A lot of the balsa will clearly have to be replaced, and there are also one or two repairs needed around the engine air intake apertures. Nothing too difficult though - it will all just take time. I have made a start on the intake areas, and am replacing the damaged plywood with laminations of thin Spruce planking. As reported before, the worst part of the pod is going to be the cockpit floor: I have now managed to put my Size 8 right through it on two occasions, and I am thinking that only the complete replacement of the floor will do, but I want to get the outer shell completely sound first.

We now have a 3-man engine team - alongside Harvey we have his brother-in-law Roger (ex-motor mechanic) and also Jason, who maintains Boeing 777's for British Airways for a living, and says he comes to the Museum because he enjoys the change! Engine stripping is going well (though de Havilland clearly never built the Ghost to be easily dismantled) and we have a comprehensive programme of restoration work planned - it will be the most comprehensive engine rebuild ever attempted by Museum volunteers. Meanwhile on the airframe, I am now assisted by Hadas (an Israeli Aerospace Engineering student in her final year at nearby Hertfordshire University) and Will (still at school but aspiring to a career in the aircraft industry). Progress may not be fast, but morale is high and with a little help from other Museum volunteers as required, we are achieving a high standard of restoration work.

Visits from any 894 squadron members are always welcome - the Museum closes for the season at the end of October, but your gallant XG730 restoration team will struggle on through the winter, even if the paint and the glue do take a little longer to dry at that time of year!

01.05.09

Well we managed to survive another winter, although progress was slowed down somewhat by the cold conditions. The main task of late has been the replacement of the balsawood structure on the Starboard side of the Fuselage pod: the problem was that temperatures were hovering around freezing point in the hangar for several weeks, and under those conditions the glue will not cure properly.

However I’m pleased to say that progress picked up rapidly once the weather improved, and at the Easter weekend I was able to complete the Starboard side woodwork and get it sanded down to the final profile. On to the Port side next, although this doesn’t appear to have been as badly damaged.

The wings are now in their ‘final resting place’, stowed vertically rather than sitting horizontally on trestles. This saves a lot of space in the working area, as the wings won’t be worked on for some time yet.

As for the engine, it’s completely stripped down and we’re awaiting our chance to blast-clean it now – this has been frustrated by the need to move the engine about the hangar to accommodate other work in the Museum, but hopefully this should be resolved very soon and we can get cracking.

We are also working to get everything ‘ship-shape’ for a distinguished visitor – the DH Heritage Trust’s new Patron HRH The Duke of Gloucester is going to pay us a visit shortly, and the team and I look forward to being able to show him the progress on XG730.

I’ll provide another update at the end of the summer, but meanwhile any ex 894 Squadron members are, as ever, always welcome to visit!

Below is a recent photo of the Starboard side of the pod, with replacement balsa sanded to shape

01/07/09

Work has progressed well with the warmer weather - the wood replacement on the Starboard side of the Pod is complete, although the change in weather conditions from winter to summer has caused some of the balsa wood to crack and split, which will require a bit of repair work sooner or later. Repairing the damage to the Port side is proving much simpler, as there was much less decay on this side and consequently there is less to do. Hopefully all will be complete by about the end of August and then the Pod can be turned up onto its back end (bulkhead 4) to allow us access underneath. We are also getting on with the engine, having decided not to do a complete strip and repaint of the main structure – too expensive and too messy! The enamelled finish is in good condition in general, so we will treat the corrosion, repaint and leave well alone.

Our big news is the visit of our royal patron, HRH the Duke of Gloucester on Friday 15th May. He came to unveil plans for the redevelopment of the Museum and to tour the exhibits, accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, the Countess of Verulam. He stopped by at XG730 and I was able to show him the work in progress and introduce him to the rest of the team. The attached photos show the Duke visiting our area – we were told beforehand that he would prefer to see some ‘action’ rather than just meeting people standing around in suits, hence my overalls....but I did wash them in honour of his visit!