Vickers Valiant - Survivor XD816
BK.1 XD816 - Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey
Valiant BK.1 XD816 at Brooklands, 25th November 2017; Richard E Flagg
XD816 was delivered to the RAF in 1956, and was the last Valiant to fly, with her last flight being in 1968 to Abingdon. Sadly, in 1970 she was reduced to a cockpit section and was moved into storage at Henlow.
Owned by the RAF Museum, she was put on loan to Brooklands in 1988 and was displayed in the Vickers-Supermarine stratospheric test chamber (designed by Barnes Wallis) for many years. While it was an imaginative and hugely impressive display, unfortunately, it was also very dark and surrounded the nose on most sides which made photography tricky, to say the least. In April 2013 she was removed from the chamber to the main hangar at Brooklands and mounted on a cradle to receive some refurbishment while the stratospheric test chamber also gets some serious restoration work carried out on it. She's seen here mid-move - watch the video here!.
She has since received much TLC and a repaint into silver colours which does look smart!
Owned by the RAF Museum, she was put on loan to Brooklands in 1988 and was displayed in the Vickers-Supermarine stratospheric test chamber (designed by Barnes Wallis) for many years. While it was an imaginative and hugely impressive display, unfortunately, it was also very dark and surrounded the nose on most sides which made photography tricky, to say the least. In April 2013 she was removed from the chamber to the main hangar at Brooklands and mounted on a cradle to receive some refurbishment while the stratospheric test chamber also gets some serious restoration work carried out on it. She's seen here mid-move - watch the video here!.
She has since received much TLC and a repaint into silver colours which does look smart!
Information on this page current as of 09/05/2022, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XD816 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net