WIX Archives

Re: Halifax question for Cees.

Posted by Cees Broere on Mon Nov 25, 2002 04:25:23 AM

In reply top Halifax question for Cees. posted by PeterA on Sun Nov 24, 2002 03:01:35 PM

Hi Peter,

That is Halifax Mk VII PN323 which was used for telecommunication trials and ended up in the strange configuration you mention. There are some photographs which show that the vertical fins are removed and replaced by a single vertical fin (probably from another aircraft type), a blanked off nose and its tail propped up with the fuselage level with the ground. At one point it was acquired by Graham Trant on behalf of the Skyfame Museum in the early sixties. It was intended to preserve the airframe but apparently the airframe was suffering from severe corrosion and only the nose and one undercarriage casting was removed. The rest was scrapped unfortunately(criminal if you ask me). When the Skyfame collection was taken over by IWM the nose went to IWM Lambeth after restoration. Don't know the extent of that one because the bombbay is very corroded if you look under it (I did). Otherwise it is very complete inside and as you know not acessible to the public at the moment. but I keep trying. Furthermore it was reported that the undercarriage casting ended up with the RAFM and it was used by YAM to make the moulds for the fibreglass undercarriage fairings to be fitted over a steel structure for their Halifax reconstruction. Later it was mentioned somewhere that it has now gone missing(?!).

Hope this helps

But you made me curious, do you have some juicy information regarding this airframe?

Cheers

Cees

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