The only remaining example of one of the Royal Air Force’s maximum shipping aircraft, the Blackburn Beverley XB259, will pass under the hammer next week as a component of an online auction of the content of Yorkshire’s only Napoleonic fort, Paull Fort, near Hull.
Dr Robert Pleming of aviation charity Aviation Heritage UK said museums that have been interested in buying massive aircraft are “devastated” by the pandemic.
He said: “We were hoping one of the national museums would pick it up, the RAF Museum in Cosford (shropshire) or the National Museum of Flight in East Fortune, Scotland.
“One of the disorders with Covid is that those puts take care of his money very closely, so I think the only way to save him is for a philanthropist to come and save him.
Dr. Pleming said he could charge between 200,000 and 300,000 euros to move the 36-tonne aircraft, which was built in Brough, East Yorkshire, to a new location.
Dr. Pleming, co-chair of the Heritage Working Group of the Parliamentary Group of All Parties on General Aviation, said that if scrapped, he would be the first postwar British aircraft of which there are no more examples.
He said: “Beverley XB259 represents a component of the UK’s aviation heritage and deserves to be preserved in its entirety. “
The Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington, near York, has spoken out on the tender for the plane, which lately costs only 3,000 euros, with more than a week.
Spokesman Ian Richardson said they had won a series of flight-related calls and emails. “
They were outperformed through the fort Paull owner the last time it was put up for sale in 2004, but this time it’s “out of our reach, especially the moment we all face each other. “
Mr. Richardson said he heard through the vine that some of the panels were very corroded and that it would be difficult to move them.
He said: “We are all fighting for our survival. That’s all we imagine right now. “
However, auctioneer Andrew Baitson, whose grandfather Gilbert Baitson is guilty of selling the aircraft in 1983, is convinced that he will find a new home.
He said: “We had a guy from Switzerland who’s interested, and we also had an aviation company that’s interested. “
“I’ve talked to other people who will save you their willingness if possible. “
He was skeptical that he would charge so much to move out, with a client able to use the technical knowledge of the last opportunity.
When it entered service in 1955, it was the largest aircraft in the RAF.
With its huge shipping volume, the Beverley was designed to carry a lot of volume and operate on rough tracks or strips of dirt.
The main shipping leader can bring only 94 soldiers, with another 36 on the tail arm.
In RAF service, the XB259 served operationally with several squadrons, adding 47, 30, 34 and 53, with bases in Abingdon and Dishforth, but also deployed abroad in Aden (now Yemen), where two were lost to landmine operations, Bahrain, Kenya. and Singapore, the Indonesian confrontation of the mid-1960s.
The aircraft was also briefly operated in Vietnam for flood relief efforts.
The XB259 is also the last Beverley to fly: its last touchdown took place on the hull aero club grass court near Paull on March 30, 1974.
After serving worldwide, Beverley retired from RAF service in December 1967, replaced by the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
The timed online auction closes on Saturday, September 19 and will be held at the Fort from Monday on a first-come, first-served basis.
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James Mitchinson