Blackburn Buccaneer - Survivor ZU-AVI (ex XW988)
S.2B ZU-AVI - Hangar 51 Aviation, (stored) Diemerskraal Airfield, South Africa
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Buccaneer S.2B ZU-AVI at Thunder City, 31st October 2012; Francis Wallace
---rudi-pack-20060528153042-tn200.jpg "Buccaneer S.2B ZU-AVI at George Airport, 28th May 2006; Rudi Pack")
Delivered on 16th May 1974 to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, XW988 spent her entire career with the RAE on various trials work, mostly weapons carriage and release work. She was painted in a patchwork yellow, black and white scheme to aid photographic interpretation and was modified with extra outboard pylons carrying cameras to record weapons release. Unusually, she retained her colour scheme unchanged throughout her active career. Based at various airfields including Boscombe Down and West Freugh, she retired in 1994.
XW988 was purchased by Mike Beachy Head in to join his growing collection of airworthy classic jet, called Thunder City. The airframe was given her civil registration, ZU-AVI, and arrived at Cape Town International Airport in 1996. She made a flight later in the year on May 6th before laying dormant until her sister XW987 arrived. The Thunder City operation was soon granted an operator's license by the South African CAA and for some years ZU-AVI tore up the skies of Cape Town regularly and appeared at airshows in South Africa.
Unfortunately, Thunder City was effectively shut down by the CAA after identifying various maintenance failings that cost pilot Dave Stock his life in the crash of their Lightning ZU-BEX. This resulted in ZU-AVI being grounded along with the rest of the airframes. Due to this, flying stopped for some time, but soon enough Thunder City was given the go-ahead again to carry out private flights, this meaning they were no longer allowed to advertise backseat flights in the Buccaneer to the public. However, ZU-AVI never returned to the skies, but her sister ZU-BCR did instead. She was put up for sale by auction in November 2011 but did not sell. The airframe then underwent some major restoration work to get her back in the air again, but this was never completed before Thunder City collapsed around 2016. The collection managed to keep safe and dry in the hangar for some time while they went up for sale, but unfortunately were pulled out of the hangar in February 2020 for outside storage until they could find new owners.
In late 2021, Hangar 51 Aviation purchased ZU-AVI and a few other airframes apart of the collection with the aim to restore them back to flying condition. In November 2022, ZU-AVI was moved by road to Diemerskraal Airfield alongside her sister ZU-ZIP (ex XW986) where they were placed on concrete pads for temporary storage before they embark on a second road move to Port Elizabeth International Airport in Gqeberha.
XW988 was purchased by Mike Beachy Head in to join his growing collection of airworthy classic jet, called Thunder City. The airframe was given her civil registration, ZU-AVI, and arrived at Cape Town International Airport in 1996. She made a flight later in the year on May 6th before laying dormant until her sister XW987 arrived. The Thunder City operation was soon granted an operator's license by the South African CAA and for some years ZU-AVI tore up the skies of Cape Town regularly and appeared at airshows in South Africa.
Unfortunately, Thunder City was effectively shut down by the CAA after identifying various maintenance failings that cost pilot Dave Stock his life in the crash of their Lightning ZU-BEX. This resulted in ZU-AVI being grounded along with the rest of the airframes. Due to this, flying stopped for some time, but soon enough Thunder City was given the go-ahead again to carry out private flights, this meaning they were no longer allowed to advertise backseat flights in the Buccaneer to the public. However, ZU-AVI never returned to the skies, but her sister ZU-BCR did instead. She was put up for sale by auction in November 2011 but did not sell. The airframe then underwent some major restoration work to get her back in the air again, but this was never completed before Thunder City collapsed around 2016. The collection managed to keep safe and dry in the hangar for some time while they went up for sale, but unfortunately were pulled out of the hangar in February 2020 for outside storage until they could find new owners.
In late 2021, Hangar 51 Aviation purchased ZU-AVI and a few other airframes apart of the collection with the aim to restore them back to flying condition. In November 2022, ZU-AVI was moved by road to Diemerskraal Airfield alongside her sister ZU-ZIP (ex XW986) where they were placed on concrete pads for temporary storage before they embark on a second road move to Port Elizabeth International Airport in Gqeberha.
Information on this page current as of 24/11/2022, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of ZU-AVI on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net