10/04/2021 – Update from NASAM …

Diary Dates – No Change

There have been no changes to the plans that were have put into place for reopening the museum.  The museum will be open weekly on a Sunday from Sunday the 18th of April until the 16th of May.  This includes the Bank Holiday Monday, the 3rd of May.  The dates are as follows:

• Sunday 18th April    
  
• Sunday 25th April
• Sunday 2nd May
• Monday 3rd May
• Sunday 9th May and
• Sunday 16th May

These dates are now on our Facebook Page and on both the main website @ Forthcoming Events and the blog @ Events at the Museum.  If the government unlock process continues as per plan, we should also be able to open up the buildings to the public from Monday 17th May.  We will publish these dates as soon as they are known.

We will be serving hot drinks on a takeaway basis, and weather permitting we will open the hangar doors fully so that people can see inside.  We will attempt to move some of the exhibits outside if we can.

The full restrictions around the opening can be found @  COVID Situation – OUTSIDE ONLY OPEN

Update from the Chairman

First Day Back 

Tuesday 29th March was the first day back for the volunteers. Around 40 turned up and an enormous amount was achieved.

The various trailers were moved outside, the Pundit Light and the Hunter mobile radar (Pundit Light and Hunter Radar) were moved to their usual spot by Bomber Command. The Civil Defence Trailer was moved to a temporary position near the 446th BG building. The reason for this is that the space by the Bomber Command building is needed for temporary exhibits to be placed outside.

Most of the aircraft on the front meadow were washed down ready for reopening. (Ed – See later update)

The main hangar doors were opened (Main Hangar Doors). Apart from one door, these have not been opened in many years. They proved pleasantly simple to open.

Initially, only the outdoor areas of the museum will be open so opening the doors will allow visitors to see much of what is inside. The Boulton Paul hangar doors are the next task.

A fence was started between the main gate and the new Visitor Reception Point. This fence will allow us to provide power to the VRP. (Ed – See later update)

The Eurowing Goldwing (01 and 02) and the  Skycraft/Flylight Super Scout were removed from storage in the Ken Wallis hall. They have been cleaned down and will be re-rigged over the next couple of weeks and displayed outside on open days, weather permitting.

 

Grants

The museum has been extremely lucky in terms of support during the pandemic. The government via East Suffolk Council were generous in making a grant last summer which enabled the museum to survive the lengthy closure last year, and have recently informed us that we will receive another grant in respect of the enforced closures late last year and early this.

We also received a grant from the National Lottery which enabled us to reopen last year on a limited basis and paid for the necessary signage and cleaning materials/equipment.

We have just heard that we will also receive a grant from Arts Council England to support our recovery from the closures, especially the way in which this affected volunteers being able to do non-critical maintenance. During the last 12 months, ordinary maintenance has been extremely limited. The grant awarded by ACE will allow us to catch up on some of that maintenance by using external equipment or personnel.

We are very grateful to all grant-giving bodies for the tremendous support that the museum has received during the pandemic.

Classic American

Back in August of 2019, a gentleman, Steve Warnes, brought his classic C1 Chevrolet Corvette along to the Museum.  The Classic American magazine featured this visit in an article written by Paul Bussy.  Finally, in March 2021, this article was published and Paul sent a couple of photos along with his note to Cliff at the Museum.  This note along with the photos are shown below in (Classic American 01 thru 03).

 

The Second Week

On an incredibly cold and snowy April day..

Who thought that was a sentence in East Anglia? (In fairness to the grammar purists it isn’t a sentence anywhere.)

Preparations for reopening the museum continued this week, including rolling back some of the hangar doors (Hangar Doors Open).

The microlights are now rigged, the plan had been to get them outside and washed down. Whilst the paint team were hardy enough to carry on jetwashing the rest of us were cowards by comparison, the microlights stayed inside and unwashed. Next week…

The Skyflash missiles were moved towards the Phantom. The aim is to present them underneath the aircraft on wheeled trolleys so that when open, we can move them forward to be more visible, then during closed periods move them underneath the aeroplane. They weren’t moved into place as the Phantom was being jetwashed ready for its audience (Skyflash 01).

The next task was to move two of the ejector seats into a restoration area ready for attention. It is hoped that by the time we are able to open the inside of the museum at least one will be pristine and back on display.

The electricians have started the work to provide electricity to the Visitor Reception Point, which should be ready for our first day open just in case the unseasonal weather continues.

Three new volunteers spent their first day at the museum, they were taken around and introduced to the “gang”. Hopefully, we will see them all again next week. That was on top of the two new volunteers who joined us last week.

All in all a busy day at the museum, we are looking forward to the visitors returning on Sunday 18th.

Steve Bell

Brain Teaser

In this edition, we have another set of anagram brain teaser puzzles. Whilst we still have a few aircraft names that we have not covered, the subject is still “Aircraft in the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum“.  The clue, as before, the number of words in both anagram and aircraft name is the same.

1. wrought domiciling glowering
2. fripperies ruminates
3. elevator groovier nugatory
4. submariners earn port ache
5. harvest cloakon

Solutions are at the foot of the blog, and you can use the green button below to go there and a button link is at the solution to bring you back.  Good luck.

Go To Solution

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No Ordinary Joe – Audio Drama

INK has commissioned playwright, Martyn Wade to tell the dramatic and tragic story of Joe Kennedy Jnr, the elder brother of JFK, who as a young man seemed destined to become President of the United States – until, that is, the Second World War intervened. No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy examines Joe’s complex character, and traces events which led Joe to volunteering for a top-secret and highly dangerous mission, in which he was required to fly a Liberator plane packed with explosives and bail out before it crossed the Channel. Tragically his plane exploded over Blythburgh, Suffolk killing him and his co-pilot, Lt. Wilford John Willy (Bud). This play is to honour them both and all those who flew and lost their lives during WWII.

Originally planned last year to tour Suffolk airfields including the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum,  No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy will now be performed as an audio drama and will be released from 8^th April (the planned start date for INK Festival 2021). An optional small donation will be suggested to help raise funds for INK and The Halesworth Museum.  Full details are at the foot of this blog and the link to the page containing the audio drama can be found @ No Ordinary Joe

General Updates

Now that the Volunteers are allowed to travel and work in the Museum other than to carry out the essential work.  We have some news of work that has been going on in the last two weeks.  That in addition to the time-consuming work of scanning photos, documents, stickers and other items suitable to record on a photographic database.

Paint Team Out and About

Barry, from the paint team, reports that the team were out and about during this last two weeks, making a start on the multitude of tasks that need doing, some more urgent than others.  The first of those tasks was to pressure wash some of the aircraft that are looking a little untidy.  He sent in seven photos of the team working, mainly in the lower compound, (Paint Team 01 thru 07), and said also that the tally as at the end of Tuesday this week was:

• F100
• Mystere
• T33
• Sea Vixen
• Javelin
• MiG and
• (about half a) Phantom.

Scanning Continues

Before and After

Paul R, who is scanning in photos sent the following two photos into the blog to show what is possible using simple photoshop tools.  The first picture, Before 01, is how he found it in the album, badly marked and looking a little rough.  After a quick photoshop, the final picture scanned into the archive is much more acceptable, After 02.

Stickers

Paul M provided the following update along with five photos (Stickers 01 thru 05).  “I do not know what you are looking for to use in the next blog but as well as photographs I have been copying Aviation Stickers. Now I do not know who collected these and even what they were used for, but the museum has an Album with about 32 pages of these all now digitised by me. So I am sure any extra information will be welcomed by the museum”

Chippies Update

Michael also sent an update from the Chippies Workshop who are now back at work doing the maintenance and project work needed, as well as helping others complete tasks around the Museum. 

“The carpenters are in full swing now we are back in the Museum. We have installed posts and a  rail between the new VRP and the electricity point next to the main gate so the electricians can wire up the VRP (VRP Improvements).

We upgraded the newspaper stand so that papers can lie flat on the shelves (Newspapers).

And we helped Dave D put the wings on the Eurowing Golding that will be on display when we reopen (Eurowing Goldwing 03).

All in a varied days work… “

MMU Update

In an update from the Model Maintenance Unit, shown in the three photos below, Malcolm reports that he has several aircraft in for repair. 

• MMU 01 shows a collection of model aircraft across the years laid out for assessment.  On closer inspection, you can see that all of them have suffered damage or are missing vital components that would make them airworthy.
• MMU 02 and MMU 03 are boxes of WWI and WWII era models “carefully” packaged for shipment from the Museum to Malcolm.  

It is good to know that some of these will be returned to the Museum in pristine condition, fit for display in the various cabinets around the site.  Regrettably, those that do not make it back will donate their parts to keep others alive.

My thanks go to everyone who has provided updates enabling us to keep our readers up-to-date.

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Gallery Section

This has now been replaced by the photos appearing below the article to which they relate.  The photos having been provided in most cases by the people referenced. 

Coming In The Next Edition

Nothing in the pipeline as yet for the next edition.  It is however likely the April to be a very short blog next Friday or Saturday confirming the opening of the Museum on Sunday the 18th April 2021, and details of the restrictions that will be in place.

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Would You Like To Help

The museum continues to incur expenses for insurance, maintenance and some essential running costs, and I make no apologies for keeping this section in the blog.  Normally being part-funded mostly by visitor and membership donations, in these restricted times, we have been forced to rely on some grants from local and national authorities to help us meet some, but not all, of those costs.   

If you feel able to help the museum, there are several ways you can do this.  Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by donating to assist in our running costs.  To become a Museum Member or to Volunteer Member, please click on the appropriate button below to see the details on our main website.

      

To donate, please click the donate button below to be taken to our donations page.

 

For all other details on the museum, please go to our main web page by clicking on the picture below.  Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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Brain Teaser Anagram Solution

The solution to the anagram in this edition of the Online Flier:

1. EUROWING GOLDWING MICROLIGHT
2. SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE
3. LOVEGROVE AUTOGYRO TRAINER
4. NORTH AMERICAN SUPER SABRE
5. AVRO SHACKLETON

You can use the green button link below to return back to your place in the blog.

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Return to Blog

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INK Production

This section contains the full details on a new audio drama commissioned to honour the bravery of Joe Kennedy Jnr.  This is produced by the INK, more details below.

No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy

The flight that changed history

INK has commissioned playwright, Martyn Wade to tell the dramatic and tragic story of Joe Kennedy Jnr, the elder brother of JFK, who as a young man seemed destined to become President of the United States – until, that is, the Second World War intervened. No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy examines Joe’s complex character, and traces events which led Joe to volunteering for a top-secret and highly dangerous mission, in which he was required to fly a Liberator plane packed with explosives and bail out before it crossed the Channel. Tragically his plane exploded over Blythburgh, Suffolk killing him and his co-pilot, Lt. Wilford John Willy (Bud). This play is to honour them both and all those who flew and lost their lives during WW2.

Thanks to National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project will also gather and record local WW2 stories which will be then be presented and stored at The Halesworth Museum and an exhibition displaying parts of the crashed plane curated for the first time from different sources.

Originally planned last year to tour Suffolk airfields No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy will now be performed as an audio drama and will be released from 8^th April (the planned start date for INK Festival 2021) at www.inkfestival.org – an optional small donation will be suggested to help raise funds for INK and The Halesworth Museum.

No Ordinary Joe, No Ordinary Kennedy

Written by Martyn Wade

Cast:

Joe Jr: Charlie Field

Joe Sr: Andrew Wincott

Pat: Molly McGeachin

Bud: William Kempsell

Production:

Director: Kate Valentine

Sound Recordist: Lucinda Mason Brown

Sound Editor: David Chilton

Associate Producer for Digital Drama: Alison Ramsey

Commissioned by INK and produced by Digital Drama

About: INK

INK is a theatre company and registered charity, that sources, develops, and produces the best new short plays for stage, and radio, by writers from East Anglia and beyond. Each year we showcase the new work at The INK Festival which sadly has had to cancel in 2020 and 2021.

www.inkfestival.org

Follow: Facebook @weareinkfestival  Twitter @INK festival  and Instagram ink.festival 

About: The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.

Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund 

 

Follow us on Social Media, email us or visit our Main Website.

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