Handley Page Victor - Survivor XL190
K.2 XL190 - RAF Manston History Museum, London Manston Airport, Kent
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Victor K.2 XL190 at Manston, 21st October 2017; Richard E Flagg
Delivered to RAF service in September 1961.
In the mid 1980s at Ascension Island, the nose gear failed to extend when on approaching the runway, the resulted in XL190 landing on it's radome. The radome was soon fixed and had a sharks mouth applied to it after along with several handwritten names all who were involved, "Them who bended it", "Them who lifted it" and "Them who mended it" - these markings didn't stay on the aircraft for too long.
XL190 retired into St Mawgan on the 19th October 1993 and was used for ground instructional use until 1998 as 9216M. By February 1998, the airframe was sold to the Imperial Aviation Group for a full restoration and supposedly to ground running condition but the directors of the group were arrested for fraud and the sale collapsed. In January 1999 the aircraft was bought by the scrappers, and in mid January the task of scrapping it began.
Thankfully the cockpit was saved and brought by the RAF Manston History Museum where to was placed on display the next month.
Restoration on the cockpit started straight away, fortunately the cockpit was already in fairly good condition with just a few missing instruments - far from gutted. A repaint was got underway which made it much more presentable externally.
XL190 is now permanently undercover and on display at the museum where it can be seen today.
In the mid 1980s at Ascension Island, the nose gear failed to extend when on approaching the runway, the resulted in XL190 landing on it's radome. The radome was soon fixed and had a sharks mouth applied to it after along with several handwritten names all who were involved, "Them who bended it", "Them who lifted it" and "Them who mended it" - these markings didn't stay on the aircraft for too long.
XL190 retired into St Mawgan on the 19th October 1993 and was used for ground instructional use until 1998 as 9216M. By February 1998, the airframe was sold to the Imperial Aviation Group for a full restoration and supposedly to ground running condition but the directors of the group were arrested for fraud and the sale collapsed. In January 1999 the aircraft was bought by the scrappers, and in mid January the task of scrapping it began.
Thankfully the cockpit was saved and brought by the RAF Manston History Museum where to was placed on display the next month.
Restoration on the cockpit started straight away, fortunately the cockpit was already in fairly good condition with just a few missing instruments - far from gutted. A repaint was got underway which made it much more presentable externally.
XL190 is now permanently undercover and on display at the museum where it can be seen today.
Information on this page current as of 07/08/2021, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XL190 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net