Port invites warship to visit as tourism project progresses

AN AIRCRAFT carrier has been invited to visit the Yorkshire city where civic leaders hope she will make a permanent home.

It follows the launch of a plan to make HMS Illustrious the centrepiece of a major new tourism venture in Hull, following her decommissioning next year.

A delegation including council leader Steve Brady and Professor Calie Pistorius, Vice-Chancellor of Hull University, whose brainchild the project is, spent a day on the vessel last week.

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Coun Brady said he hoped the aircraft carrier could visit the port next year: “We have given them an invitation to come and if at all possible they said they would like to. It would be very good for the public to see it.”

Coun Brady said “steady progress” was being made on the plans, but they needed assurances from the Government that their proposal was being taken seriously.

He said: “It’s a big project so you have to be really committed if you go for it. We need an early decision from the Government.”

Her sister ships, Invincible and Ark Royal, have already been sold for scrap.

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Illustrious would be the only aircraft carrier preserved as a museum and tourist attraction anywhere in Europe and could also be used for conferences and business meetings.

If their plans come to fruition, Coun Brady said aircraft manufactured at Brough, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, in its heyday the world’s most advanced low-level, high-speed strike aircraft, could once again be placed on her runway.