Handley Page Victor - Survivor XL160
K.2 XL160 - Marham Aviation Heritage Centre, RAF Marham, Norfolk
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Victor K.2 XL160 at Flixton, 2013; Garry O'Keefe
XL160 was delivered to the RAF in January 1961 and was converted to K.2 standard in 1970. The airframe retired to RAF Marham in 1994 where she was reduced to a cockpit which was moved to the Blyth Valley Aviation Collection at Walpole.
After many years of being almost untouched, the cockpit was moved to the Norfolk and Suffolk Air Museum for restoration and display. After some initial trimming along her end sides, XL160 was finally mounted on a TSR2 engine stand in May 2010, with the Victor main U/C bogie placed on a splendid purpose-built stand designed by Ken Huckle. The HP Victor Association was very grateful to the staff at N&SAM for this and their ingenuity. XL160 was lowered further on the stand a year or so later. Her external restoration greatly accelerated in 2011 with major work undertaken which saw her exterior filled and finished, and with the major operation of her refueling probe being reinstated on 9th August. Again the V.A. owes a great debt of thanks to the great skill and perseverance of staff at Flixton and also for help from the Tornado Maintenance School at RAF Marham, who helped refit the probe to finally bring XL160 back to proper display standard for the V.A. XL160 was primed and repainted in hemp during September/October 2011 by museum painters Peter Nobbs & Gwen Jackson and this finally saw XL160 the first of the hemp-painted Victor K.2s - looking much more like her old self once more after many years of careful cover out in the elements in Suffolk. In April 2018, the cockpit was moved to the Marham Aviation Heritage Centre where it remains today.
After many years of being almost untouched, the cockpit was moved to the Norfolk and Suffolk Air Museum for restoration and display. After some initial trimming along her end sides, XL160 was finally mounted on a TSR2 engine stand in May 2010, with the Victor main U/C bogie placed on a splendid purpose-built stand designed by Ken Huckle. The HP Victor Association was very grateful to the staff at N&SAM for this and their ingenuity. XL160 was lowered further on the stand a year or so later. Her external restoration greatly accelerated in 2011 with major work undertaken which saw her exterior filled and finished, and with the major operation of her refueling probe being reinstated on 9th August. Again the V.A. owes a great debt of thanks to the great skill and perseverance of staff at Flixton and also for help from the Tornado Maintenance School at RAF Marham, who helped refit the probe to finally bring XL160 back to proper display standard for the V.A. XL160 was primed and repainted in hemp during September/October 2011 by museum painters Peter Nobbs & Gwen Jackson and this finally saw XL160 the first of the hemp-painted Victor K.2s - looking much more like her old self once more after many years of careful cover out in the elements in Suffolk. In April 2018, the cockpit was moved to the Marham Aviation Heritage Centre where it remains today.
Information on this page current as of 16/11/2021, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XL160 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net