Avro Shackleton: Final sections of 'The Growler' delivered to Yorkshire Air Museum
Work will now start at Yorkshire Air Museum on the Avro Shackleton – a submarine-hunter which developed from the wartime Lancaster bomber.
Avro Shackleton WR963, which was based at Coventry Airport for 31 years, can no longer fly but was maintained by a team of volunteers so it could still run its engines. The unmistakeable growl of its four Rolls Royce Griffon engines earned it the nickname of The Growler.
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Hide AdBut it lost its home when the airport closed, and its future was uncertain until a deal was struck to move it to the Yorkshire Air Museum. The plan was to break it into sections and transport it by road to the museum near York, with three of it four engines arriving back in October.


Now the remaining sections have arrived, including the fuselage, cockpit, wings and the remaining engine.
The work took place last weekend despite appalling weather conditions across the country.
Lorries shuttled back and forth between York and Coventry and the various parts of the Shackleton, nicknamed Zebedee, are now on the ground at the Yorkshire Air Museum.
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Hide AdThe next stage of the project will see work begin to reassemble the aircraft, with the ultimate aim of rebuilding it to ‘live’ condition, where the four engines will run. That is likely to take at least two years.


Yorkshire Air Museum Director, Jonathan Brewer, said: “It’s great to see all the sections of the Shackleton finally arrive. It’s taken a huge effort by the teams both at Coventry and here at Elvington to get to this point, particularly given the atrocious weather we had last week.
"They worked through freezing cold and soaking wet conditions to get huge chunks of the aircraft loaded, transported and unloaded.
"Now the work can start on restoring this magnificent machine to its former glory, with members of the Coventry crew coming onboard at Yorkshire Air Museum to help reassemble it."
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Hide AdWR693 was first flown in March 1954 and passed through a number of squadrons. It had a maximum speed of 300 mph, a range of 2,250 miles, and could carry 10,000 lb of bombs, torpedoes, or mines. It was used for maritime patrol until the 1970s, when it was replaced by the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod.