After a decade of conservation work Vickers Wellington MF628 has been unveiled…
Vickers Wellington Mk.X MF628 has been placed on public display for the first time at Shropshire’s RAF Museum Midlands (formerly RAF Museum Cosford). The aircraft, one of just two ‘complete’ examples of the famed ‘Geodetic Giant’ in existence, will form the centrepiece of a new Bomber Command exhibition slated to open on May 16.
Transferred from the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre to its new spot in Hangar 3 on April 20 the RAFM Midlands announced: “The fuselage and inner wings section can now be viewed by visitors, while the remaining work of attaching the outer wings, engines, propellers and front turret to the aircraft will be carried out over the next few weeks. Members of the public will be able to view some of the final steps towards its completion as the Museum’s Conservation teamwork within the hangar.”
Ordered by the Air Ministry from Vickers-Armstrong on May 28, 1942, MF628 was one of 3,804 Mk.Xs produced across the firm’s facility at Broughton in Flintshire and Blackpool in Lancashire. Rolled out of the latter on May 9, 1944, ‘628 took to the air for the first time later that day before being assigned to 18 Maintenance Unit (MU) at RAF Tinwald Downs in Dumfries, Scotland. Placed into storage until 1948 soon after, the aircraft was one of 270 Mk.Xs converted to T.Mk.X by Boulton Paul post-war for navigation training. The work included removing the front turret, which was replaced by a fairing, and re-equipping the interior; the rear turret and bomb doors were retained.
Allocated to 1 Air Navigation School based at RAF Hullavington in Wiltshire, on the April 13, 1949, MF628 was transferred to the Glamorgan, RAF St Athan-based 19 MU on the October 28, 1952, as the type was gradually being replaced by Vickers Varsity T.1.
Again, placed in storage, the aircraft was displayed numerous times the following year, before being used in the making of the 1955 war epic The Dam Busters – both as a camera ship and as an ‘extra’ - between April and October 1954.
Grounded as “non-effective aircraft” soon after, MF628 was sold back to Vickers and ferried to the manufacturer’s airfield at Wisley in Surrey on January 24, 1955. This was the final time a Wellington took to the skies. Presented by Vickers to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Nash Collection the following year, the aircraft was transferred to London’s RAF Hendon in late 1957.
From there, the aeroplane – having undergone varying degrees of refurbishment, restoration, and conservation work – was acquired (along with the majority of the Nash Collection) by the Ministry of Defence in March 1992, by which time the airframe took pride and place within Hendon’s Bomber Command Hall. Allocated the RAF Maintenance serial 9210M, the aircraft was gifted to the to the Royal Air Force Museum in September 2004.
“After almost 40 years on display at the Museum’s site in London, the aircraft was transported by road to the Museum’s Conservation Centre in the Midlands in July 2010, for work treating corrosion to its structure and a complete replacement of its fragile Irish linen outer skin,” noted the RAFM in its April 24 announcement. The aircraft has been restored to its original B.X configuration.
It added “The extensive restoration of the Wellington is one of the largest aircraft projects to be undertaken by the Museum’s Conservation Centre team. Work has been carried out by technicians, apprentices, and a team of volunteers - including one volunteer who previously worked on Wellingtons during his RAF instructional airframes training more than half a century ago! During the conservation process the Wellington was regularly visited by the late Mary Stopes-Roe, daughter of the aircraft designer Barnes Wallis.
The final stages of the project will be completed within the next few weeks, in time for the Bomber Command exhibition.”
