Hawker Hunter - Survivor WT806
GA.11 WT806 - Classic British Jets Collection/Dave Thomas (runner), Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire
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Hunter GA.11 WT806 at Bruntingthorpe, 9th January 2022; Damien Burke
First flown in 1955 as an F.4, WT806 suffered an over trimming incident that maxed out her G meter while in service with 14 Squadron and had to be returned to Hawkers for a thorough strip-down and rebuild. Later converted to a GA.11 she served with FRADU and was part of the Blue Herons display team.
Retired to storage at RAF Shawbury, and then instructional use at Northbrook College in Shoreham, she moved in late December 2010 to Bruntingthorpe where she was restored to ground-running status. Since arrival at Bruntingthorpe, she's had a couple of repaints, the most recent which is shown here. I (Damien) am happy to say I've had a bit of minor involvement in that I've created and applied the markings (the experience of WN904 helped!). The lovely lady sitting on the nose is Millie Richardson, Miss Leicester, who happily agreed to re-enact the famous "Pilot's Pals" calendar photo from the 1980s!
In 2020, Cox Automotive leased the airfield for car storage, therefore WT806 was moved to the new museum site located next to the QRA sheds with the rest of the smaller aircraft based at Bruntingthorpe. The Classic British Jets Collection are still able to static run WT806 on the QRA apron but unfortunately there will be no taxiing due to the lack of room and no access to the runway.
After a lot of effort and hard work by the CBJC team, WT806 is now running pretty smoothly with no issues! The new museum site is not yet open to the public, but the volunteers are hoping to open it all up in Spring 2022 with the occasional anti-det event.
You can keep up with developments with WT806 on Facebook - on the Classic British Jets and Classic British Jets Collection Supporters Facebook groups.
Retired to storage at RAF Shawbury, and then instructional use at Northbrook College in Shoreham, she moved in late December 2010 to Bruntingthorpe where she was restored to ground-running status. Since arrival at Bruntingthorpe, she's had a couple of repaints, the most recent which is shown here. I (Damien) am happy to say I've had a bit of minor involvement in that I've created and applied the markings (the experience of WN904 helped!). The lovely lady sitting on the nose is Millie Richardson, Miss Leicester, who happily agreed to re-enact the famous "Pilot's Pals" calendar photo from the 1980s!
In 2020, Cox Automotive leased the airfield for car storage, therefore WT806 was moved to the new museum site located next to the QRA sheds with the rest of the smaller aircraft based at Bruntingthorpe. The Classic British Jets Collection are still able to static run WT806 on the QRA apron but unfortunately there will be no taxiing due to the lack of room and no access to the runway.
After a lot of effort and hard work by the CBJC team, WT806 is now running pretty smoothly with no issues! The new museum site is not yet open to the public, but the volunteers are hoping to open it all up in Spring 2022 with the occasional anti-det event.
You can keep up with developments with WT806 on Facebook - on the Classic British Jets and Classic British Jets Collection Supporters Facebook groups.
Information on this page current as of 09/01/2022, last updated by Damien |
Find other photos of WT806 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net