2007 News Archive
This page contains archived Concorde Project news from 2007. See the News page for current news about the project or either the 2005 News Archive or 2006 News Archive for news from 2005 and 2006 respectively.
October-December 2007
The last few months of 2007 were comparatively quiet in terms of work on Delta Golf. October saw work begin on applying some of the many decals on DG's fuselage - primarily those on access doors/panels and on the static ports. This work will continue in 2008 once the weather is rather warmer and drier.
Halogen spot lights have been fitted inside DG's main and nose gear bays to provide night lighting under the aircraft during the winter months. This has primarily been done with corporate events in my mind but they will also be used as required during normal opening times.
Work to renovate the acoustics chamber is almost complete in preparation for the Concorde simulator to be moved inside early in 2008. This work has mainly been carried out by volunteers from the University of Surrey and consisted of plastering and painting the extensive walls and ceiling in this very large room.
August-September 2007
After spending the last couple of months sanding and priming the underside of Delta Golf's wings, volunteers spent several Saturdays during September applying the white gloss paint finish. In all, three coats have been applied and DG now gleams underneath! Each of the twenty or so oval-shaped fuel tank access panels from the underside of the wings were removed prior to sanding and are being worked on separtely. These will be re-fitted once they have been restored over the coming weeks.
Another small group of volunteers have been continuing their work to re-wire some of the instruments lights in the cockpit. Recent work has seen lights on the electrical and hydraulic panels being illuminated.
May-July 2007
The last few months at Brooklands has seen the Concorde volunteer team concentrating on two areas. The first priority was the completion of the re-build of G-CONC in time for the museum's centennary celebrations in June. The main task here was the re-attatchment of the wings and this was carried out after several weeks of preparation work on 26th May with the help of the Brooklands crane known as 'Millie'. The first wing proved to be rather fiddly in getting it correctly aligned but the lessons learned with this helped make the job of fitting the second wing rather quicker and more straight forward.
The second job currently being worked on by the team has been the sanding down of the underside of the wings ready for them to be repainted in a few weeks time. This has at times been an awkward and time consuming job due to the complications of having to sand upside down for extended periods. However, the task is now almost complete and priming will start very soon.
March/April 2007
In March it was announced that the 80ft Concorde model at Heathrow Airport (known as G-CONC) was to be donated to Brooklands by British Airways. The model was no longer required by the airline and has been given to the museum for restoration and display. Having been dismantled and transported to Brooklands at the end of March the first few weeks of April have seen volunteers getting stuck into restoring G-CONC ahead of it being rebuilt in the coming weeks. Initial work has involved removing corroded wing supports and giving the model a good clean. It is hoped to have the G-CONC ready for display in time for the Brooklands Museum Centenary celebrations in June.
March itself proved to a busy month with the fitting a several pieces and components of DG, those being: a) the ram air turbine (a.k.a. RAT - a device used for generating hydraulic power in the event of engine failure), b) the secondary main landing gear doors doors (restored by volunteers from BA engineering), c) the final two thrust reverse buckets, and d) the MLG bay access panels from the tops of the wings.
The final weekend in March saw volunteers giving DG her first clean of 2007 and the chance to remove all of the dirt accumulated during the winter months.
February 2007
DG only had one remaining TSN bucket vane so volunteers have manufactured and fitted some new ones to replace those that were missing.
In attempt to stop the tyres from developing flat spots, each of DG's 10 wheels have been jacked up and rotated. At the same the nitrogen level in each tyre was topped up.
Work has now been completed to fit replacement taxi and landing lights. The lights that have been fitted are lower voltage and wattage than the originals but still look the part.
Delta Golf was shut to visitors at the end of the month to allow for essential maintenance work to be carrried out inside the aircraft. Among the jobs completed was the fitting of extra support batons behind the exhibition display panels, repairs to luggage bins and ceiling panels, cleaning of all the dsplay cases and the shampooing of the rear cabin carpet. This maintenance work will be carried out several times a year to ensure the aircraft remains in good condition.
Blanking covers have been fitted inside DG's engine nozzles to protect the inside of the engine bays. Along with the covers that were fitted at the rear of the engine intakes early last year, the news covers have the effect of sealing off the engine bays.
Following on from the fitting of the new port side taxi light last week, a new unit has now been fitted to the starboard side of DG's nose.
Having been thought to be lost forever, the original fuel panel from DG's flight engineers panel has arrived at Brooklands this week having turned up on eBay just before Christmas. The panel has been robbed of most of its switched and indicator panels and will require a large amount of restoration work before it can be refitted inside the cockpit.
The modified fixings for locking the elevons in position have been fitted to DG this week and should now prevent any further damage being caused by high winds. The elevon that received minor damage during last month's storms has also now been repaired and refitted to the aircraft.
January 2007
After verifying that the existing wiring was sound, volunteers have powered up Delta Golf's taxi lights for the first time in over 25 years. As a result of making sure everything is fully operational after all that time, a new brighter and lower voltage light has now been fitted on the port side. The starboard side light should be fitted in the next week or so. This is the first step in a plan to get DG's external lights working over the coming months. This work will initially concentrate on taxi and landing lights and will then move onto navigation and position lights.Technicians at Farnborough College of Technology have manufactured a replacement elevon bracket for the one damaged by the recent strong winds. Work to fit this and to strengthen the fixings that lock the elevons in position will be carried out by ex-BA engineers over the next couple of weeks.
The beginning of 2007 has seen several days of strong winds in South East England and Delta Golf has not escaped entirely unscathed. On a couple of occasions the wind has caused some of the elevons to flip upwards to the 90 degree position (not something they were designed to do!) doing some minor damage to a bracket on one of the elevons. This is now being repaired by former BA engineers who are also now developing a much stronger method of fixing the elevons in position.
Continuing from their work in December, volunteers have now fitted the upper two thrust reverse buckets to the starboard TSN (Twin Secondary Nozzle). The two lower buckets will be the last to be fitted when they return from restoration at Farnborough College of Technology in the next few weeks.
An ex-British Airways bus has been delivered to Brooklands in the last few days to be used as a waiting room for visitors waiting to board Delta Golf. The bus will soon be positioned next to DG and will enable visitors to escape from the elements while they wait for their tour of the aircraft to begin.
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