Avro Shackleton WR963 - ongoing restoration work

How it all started.

In 1954 Avro's at Woodford, built Shackleton WR963. Nobody building it knew that it would turn out to be one of the last of the RAF's multi-engined piston bombers, the last front line descendent of the mighty Lancaster, and have a service career that lasted some 37 years.

In 1971 when most of the Shackleton fleet was looking at being retired, WR963 was selected with around a dozen others to be a stopgap, until the arrival of the Nimrod AEW. This stopgap lasted until the arrival of the Boeing E3 Sentry in 1991. Some people still reckoned that in certain conditions the old Shackleton still had the edge oover the E3, during workup there being at least once when the Shackleton saw something on its radar scope the E3 didn't.

The last four flying Shackleton's were sold at auction by the MOD in July 1991. WR963 and WL790 were bought for £42,000 each by the Shackleton Preservation Trust, and flown to Coventry airport, the other two were flown out to Paphos, Cyprus, where they still sit corroding in the sun.

In 1996 it was decided that a Shackleton would be returned to flight. WL790 was chosen, and WR963 became the parts 'christmas tree' to achieve this. Instruments, pumps, valves, all went to the other aircraft. In 1997 WL790 flew across the Atlantic where it was flown for another 10 years on the US airshow circuit. It was then retired to Pima Air Museum in Arizona.

WR963 sat for a year or so, and this was when I had my first encounter with her. I got left to my own devices with the old bomber one afternoon on a visit to the airport. By the time I had to leave I wanted to do anything I could to help. I found there was a group preparing to attempt a restoration and contacted them; unfortunately losing contact as shortly after that college, beer, and girls (though not necessarily in that order) took my attention.

A decade later and a chance conversation with a friend caused me to contact the group again, and on a cold grey November day I went to Coventry to join in the fun. I had a good mechanical background restoring old cars for fun, and felt I could transfer my skills.

The group looking after her was down to five men, and welcomed me enthusiastically. Wr963 was now wearing different colours having been painted in 2001, but that was starting to fade. At the height of the groups strength they had managed to get all four engines working, becoming a regular feature at airshows held at the airport, and in late 2008 had actually had WR963 out on the runway for a fast taxi run. It was hoped that a return to the air would happen but a feasibility study had found that while it could be done the costs were prohibitive. Think of how much cash the Vulcan takes in order to fly and that's the same kind of figure.

The no 2 engine had just been replaced with a new engine, the old one having gone to Dubai for use in a wind tunnel, the work involved being immense for a small group of retired aorcrew and engineers. One guy actually went out to Dubai with the old engine and set it up on a rig for them.

Shortly after getting reacquainted and I was straight in at the deep end, starting with some heavy graft to get flushing oil into the tanks. The wing was slippy, at an awfully steep angle, and there was no pump so everything went up on top using a jerry can. I despaired at the sight of the wing with all the paint and sealing tapes peeling.

Things weren't such a sad sight everywhere though.

Inspections by the group showed that 963 looked a lot worse than she actually was. Inside she was a time capsule, being exactly as the RAF left her on delivery. The maps, charts, diaries, all were left in place. All the interior equipment still worked on demand. It was obvious the important job was to keep the water out, so that was where we started.

The learning curve was going to be a very steep one.

Rich

Very interesting! I'd love to help out on something like this

How it all started.

 

In 1954 Avro's at Woodford, built Shackleton WR963. Nobody building it knew that it would turn out to be one of the last of the RAF's multi-engined piston bombers, the last front line descendent of the mighty Lancaster, and have a service career that lasted some 37 years.

 

Rich

With respect Rich, Shackleton was not built as a bomber but as a maritime patrol aircraft, the Lincoln was the last bomber descendant of the Lanc. Having said that my next door neighbour was a Shackleton captain and recounts tales of carrying live nuclear depth charges which were actually known as Lulu depth bombs during the Cuban missile crisis.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do with it.

With respect Rich, Shackleton was not built as a bomber but as a maritime patrol aircraft, the Lincoln was the last bomber descendant of the Lanc. Having said that my next door neighbour was a Shackleton captain and recounts tales of carrying live nuclear depth charges which were actually known as Lulu depth bombs during the Cuban missile crisis.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do with it.

radiomike7;

Thanks! We hope to have her taxying by the end of the year.

We'll have to agree to disagree on whether she is a bomber or not. It's a well debated topic... while the Shackleton was designed and built to be a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, it was also specified that it had to be capable of carrying the 12,000lb "Tallboy". It seems that was succesful as one point in the bomb bay is rated at that load. It was also used as a bomber for a while during its colonial policing years.

I too have heard stories regarding the "Lulu". Apparently some crews were a little worried as to whether the Shackleton could outrun the blast to a safe distance after it went off!

Lewis;

If you're local to Coventry (or not too fussed about travelling) come help us with this one.

Regards,

Rich

Thanks Rich, we are only just down the road at Newport Pagnell.

I found this amusing quote on the Shackleton Association site:

Cuba Crisis: Emergency wills, leaving all debts to relatives and friends. Nasty weapons; all came to a halt, without any further problems.

My favourite story heard to date has to be this one:

In the 1980's Shackleton's were used for crew training for the BBMF Lancaster, due to similarities and to avoid stressing the Lancaster to much doing repeated take offs, landings and using valuable flying hours.

After the training was over, the Shackleton had to return to Lossiemouth, and set off north, battling against a headwind. A while after takeoff they were asked for an ETA. This they gave. "1600hrs". More time passed with the old grey lady growling sedately on. Another request for an ETA. Again they reply "1600hrs." After a short pause another request is heard.

"Is that 1600hrs today, or tomorrow?"

The longest recorded endurance flight for a Shackleton was 24hrs 21 minutes.

Regards,

Rich

Hi Rich,

I'd love to, I'm probably about an hour and a half away in the car so it's not too bad. Do all the volunteers meet up on specified dates? It would be absolutely great to get involved in this.

Regards, Lewis

It sounds like you're a similar distance away as me. We all meet on a Saturday to work on the aircraft.

Regards,

Rich

Hi Guys, what an interesting project... GOOD LUCK...

here some photos that maybe of interest to you, (not taken by me but by a friend). some from Paphos and a couple from Nicosia..

CRIKEY!! Those are awesome.

How did your friend get up that close to the Paphos pair? We've been trying to get the airport to talk to us for ages.

Rich

Allways had a soft spot for the shackleton ,in the late 60 early 70 my dad youst to take our caravan to Dimlington ,one of the regular sights was flights of shacs heading towards the ranges the other side of the humber, it youst to seem as if you were looking down on them ,the sound of 20 or more griffons is one i still remember, was also lookey to be at RAF Newton when a shac returning from London did a very inpresive display with a vulcan style clime out at the end .

Great pictures

Winter came around, but work carried on. We had got quite a bit of white paint done on the Shackleton but rain and snow wrecked it as fast as we sorted it out. We abandoned our efforts there and concentrated on trying to get life into a couple of engines.

The pre-oilers we had put som much work into stubbornly refused to work. Vital days were lost trying to find out why the oil was not getting into the delicate parts of the engine, finally being traced to some pipe fitting supplied with the wrong internal diameter acting as restrictors. The time lost meant we missed Coventry Airports Christmas night photgraphy event.

Perseverance pays off though, and on Feb 5 we borrowed a ground power unit from Classic Flight, and plugged it in. With a crew aboard, the checks were run through, and No 3 and No 4 engines started up. No 3 was a bit grumpy, but smoothed out and ran okay after a minut or so. No 4 surprised us all and fired up like it hadn't missed a day.

A plan was hatched and negotiations entered into... with stunning results. We could have use of a hangar for four days. It turned into one of the best weekends working on the old plane so far.

From the first e-mails 23rd March saying WR963 was in the hangar a day early, everything went nuts. Classic Flight at Coventry had very kindly let us use their Airbase hangar to progress the painting on our old Shackleton. It's something it desperately needed (you can see from previous photo's on here) and was looking a bit of a hopeless task to try and get done outdoors.

I loaded up the car with as much painting materials as I could Thursday morning and set off for Coventry, eager to see what was going on there. I couldn't believe how busy the place was... it seemed as if everything was being worked on at once. If what I've seen today is anything to go by, Airbase's second season is going to be a cracker.

Arriving to find everything sunny and bright I made my way over to where the Shackleton now wasn't, to drop the paint off. I'm sure this was where we left it?

Best go look inside then. There she is!! Asking around the place and a figure of 17 years was arrived at since she last saw the inside of a hangar.

Two of our guys were already hard at work starting to mask up the windows and cover the floor, as was requested of us. The team were all in good spirits, even when asked to unroll the plastic floor covering again (and again) for the camera.. It is all being documented.

Airbase have been kind enough to kick a lot of other stuff outside for this one weekend, so we were NOT going to make a mess. I have to compliment the ground handlers though, they put 963 in the hangar bang on the centre line with barely feet to spare on the wingtips. This is how close it is:

As you can see it's a snug fit.

Helping out with the masking, I had to take this shot, as it was too good to miss:

The DC3 was started up later in the afternoon outside, and made a really very pleasing amount of noise.

Being at the west end of the hangar meant we got the sunshine for longer, which was rather nice. 963 looked that happy in there it was rather tempting to let the tires down so we don't have to move out, squat in the aircraft, or just paint a line on the floor that's Shackleton shaped with a "reserved" sign on it...

During a quiet momnet I was given access to a place that I could have spent hours in (not the pub!)the 'Shackleton Design Office'. In a small room off the hangar is every drawing that exists for the Shackleton, all the mod details, and God knows what else. It's a treasure trove. Apparently we hold the design rights to the aircraft now, having all the master copies of the drawings and prints. There is a phenomenal amount of information in there.

In terms of numbers this weekend, we've had around 20 people working on the Shackleton, which is kind of a record for us. Even the elder members of the group can't remember seeing that many people working on her in the 12 years that she has been in their care.

Various gremlins crept into things though... While for the most part 963 has been well behaved during her hangar time, she has tried marking her spot when one of the bomb bay hydraulic rams started leaking. Even so, the hydraulics have held pressure for just over a week with the doors only just starting to creep open. This and various other small leaks caused problems with contaminating paint.

Then the paint we had for the roundels/fin flashes started reacting, so they'll get redone next weekend. Luckily we noticed it after the first fin flash, so we didn't have to worry about any large areas. We overestimated the need for some colours, and underestimated others, but on the whole she's about 90% done.

These last two were taken right before we left, Sunday afternoon, after 4 days at it.

More good news on the horizon too regarding undercarraige servicing, propellers, and all sorts of other things that are lined up over the next few months... but you'll just have to wait and see for now.

Kind regards

Rich

Shackleton Preservation Trust

Diary dates (engine runs): .... for those that are interested!

Sat 16 April - Friends of WR963 gathering

Fri 22 April - Airbase re-opening

It's amazing what difference some hard work and a coat of paint makes - well done!

Andy

We're working harder than ever now. We found out a couple of weeks ago that WR963 is the LAST Shackleton still running.

well done, good to see such a great effort being put into preserving the old girl.

Some years ago there was rumour of a crated Griffin engine in a scrap yard at Chelsfeild Kent. Unfortunatley the yard is now under a load of expensive houses. What wa sthe old description? A million parts rattling in close formation. Love the old ladies, they were a regular sight over the Channel Islands when I was kid.

Hi Rich,

The Shackleton looks great, the work has gone a long way. My apologies for having not made the effort to come up recently, I've been desperately trying to forge myself a career along with keeping up with the maintenance on our own vehicles :-D. Fingers crossed next month I can come up for the day, it'd be nice to come up on the friends gathering to see what it's all about.

Regards, Lewis

Wonderful job. Well done.

very very nice!!!!

Mark

As said hats off for the all out efforts to save and protect the aircraft . I m guessing you as in the group have or will be producing a dvd of the Shackletons history as a fund raising tool?

Such a shame that some hanger space can not be found for longer periods , She /it does take a lot of space!! any indoor time can only help as you well know . Keep Up the good work it seems you have a number of helpers and more new supporters .

Hi,

Thanks for all the compliments, they are conveyed to the rest of the crew and it does wonders for their enthusiasm.

As the group is more or less a new one over the past year, we're starting fund-raising efforts and merchandising from a standing start - which is something of a task! There are efforts under way to bring things out (like DVD's, T-shirts, car stickers) , but it takes a bit of time. Everything we do is filmed!

We're also looking after the ex-Strathallen MR1 nose section, with a view to restoring that. It got heavily vandalised in storage at Duxford, but once it's done we'll be taking it around airshows again.

If we can create a good source of income, we may be able to get WR963 indoors more often, maybe permanently. While she's outside we can't even think about a return to flight as was talked about in the press a few years back. There is plenty of room at Coventry, but it costs a packet... this last stint we had came courtesy of Air Atlantique Classic Flight, so its largely thanks to them that the aircraft looks as good as she does.

We found out recently that WR963 is the last running Shackleton in the world - neither the South African example or Gatwick's have run in a couple of years and are unlikely to do so again. We have a bit more work to do to get all four running, but on 16th and 22nd April we'll be running at least two engines.

Regards,

Rich

Very impressive, that's ne mean feat by any stretch of the imagination! Thankyou for looking after a much neglected part of our nations heritage. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade and have worked on numerous interesting old airframes. In fact, my favourite, D.H. Comet XS235, is now up at Bruntingthorpe in taxiable condition despite being sat outside for 14 years this year.

I wish you all the best with your endevours.

Smiler.