Aircraft Exchange with IWM Duxford

Occasionally, an opportunity arises to acquire a new aircraft, causing the Museum to undergo a shuffle as we play musical aircraft to accommodate a new exhibit. In June 2025, such an opportunity presented itself to relocate aircraft when we exchanged the Sea Harrier (ZA175) for a Jaguar (XX108). The Sea Harrier is owned by IWM Duxford, which had entrusted the Flixton Museum to care for the aircraft in our main hangar for several years. The Jaguar now belongs to the Museum, as Gary S, the Museum Manager, bid for the aircraft in 2023, and the Museum successfully secured that bid. The Jaguar will now become a permanent resident at the Flixton Museum.

Gary, our Museum Manager, was responsible for ensuring that the exchange with IWM Duxford proceeded smoothly without any undue delay or issues. His report on the moves forms the main part of this blog.

Thanks go to Gary for the write-up and some of the photos, and to Barry and Joe for providing additional photos.

The video produced can also be found on our YouTube Channel (click on the button below).

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Project JAGHAR 2025

Preparation

After our successful winning bid for the Jaguar (XX108) from IWM Duxford I was very mindful that this would mean a lot of upheaval at our museum! After a few false starts it was finally agreed that our museum would take delivery of this aircraft in June of 2025.

As soon as I was made aware of this I started planning for the actual arrival of our new aircraft. After consultation with the Trustees it was decided that we should shut the museum for at least a week to allow enough time for the changeover to take place. After further consultation with the Conservation Team at IWM Duxford it was decided that we should allow at least two extra “buffer” days to allow for any perceived complications! It was therefore agreed that our museum would close from Monday 2^nd June until Tuesday 10^th June 2025. We started advertising this across all our platforms to ensure that our public were fully aware of what was happening and why the museum would be closed.

A large part of my personal preparation was to see exactly how we would get our new aircraft into the main hanger. The main reason that we won the bid for this aircraft in the first place was that we had agreed that it was to be kept undercover inside. Another large part of my preparation was to cobble together a suitably qualified team of individuals to carry out the necessary moves of aircraft and equipment in the main hanger.

Planning

I decided on the possibility of having two teams to assist me in the completion of Project JAGHAR. One team would be responsible for the movement of all aircraft and the other team would be responsible for the movement of any ancillary equipment.

The first thing that need addressing was to put together a team or teams to enable the completion of this project. I sent out an email asking for volunteers to join one of the teams. I received a solid response from across the museum. I ended up forming my two teams, one for aircraft movements and one for the movement of all ancillary equipment. The teams were broken down as follows:

Team One

John S
Brian J
Ivor D
Tony C
Roger B

Team Two

David D
Alan I
Graham B
Eddie W

Project Manager

Gary S

Once the teams had been decided it was time to look at the daunting challenge that faced us. We spent a lot of time looking at the diorama of the main hangar that Peter Willes had put together. Originally this had been conceived to allow planning for future museum builds through grant funding. This proved to be a very useful tool in that it allowed us to “play” with the aircraft located in the main hangar on a small scale (1/72 to be precise!). We also held a few meetings to discuss and formulate a plan for the actual movement of all the exhibits that would need to be moved, these took place at the museum on notified Tuesdays.

Day one

I had planned out what I felt that we needed to achieve by the end of day one a few weeks before we started this large-scale project. The first part of the project was to move Ian Hancock’s Hawker Hunter (XG254) which is located just outside the main hangar doors. Team, one moved this aircraft to its temporary location between the shop and Air Sea Rescue. Team two started work in the main hangar to move the Piston Provost (WV605) and the Vampire (XK624) to allow the maximum space to enable the Sea Harrier to be pulled out. We had planned to “stand” the Piston Provost on its nose to allow us to get the Sea Harrier out! Unfortunately, this plan proved to be plagued with issues let alone that we couldn’t get the Sea Harrier out if we moved both anyway! Plan B came into effect, this meant getting the Piston Provost outside to free up space. Whilst all this was going on the IWM Duxford Conservation Team were busy preparing the Sea Harrier for transport back to Duxford. This meant the removal of access panels and the wing pylons whilst she was still in the main hangar!

Day Two

The plan for day two was to get the Piston Provost out of the main hangar and place it over by Air Sea Rescue! The previous afternoon we identified a spot that we could place this aircraft taking due account of its large wingspan. Getting it out of the hangar was going to prove tricky as with the hangar doors fully open, we were short on space by about 1 metre! This meant that we would need to take the aircraft out of the doors sideways using a method whereby we would “dog leg” her out of the door by hand. On paper this proved to be a straightforward affair! However, it proved to be more time consuming than we envisaged. After much huffing and puffing we got her out and over by Air Sea Rescue. Shortly afterwards we pulled the Sea Harrier out of the hangar using our trusty “yellow peril” This allowed the IWM team the opportunity to continue with preparations to remove the wing in readiness for transport on day three. Tuesday also threw up a strange request from the team back at IWM Duxford. I was asked if I had an instrument that could measure radioactivity! Fortunately, we do have such a device at our museum. I was told that someone needed to measure the radioactivity of the cockpit instruments! Apparently, old cockpit instruments contain Tritium which is a radioactive reflective paint. I told them that when the team arrived the next day, I would carry out this task with cooperation from the team on the ground. I received a telephone call on my way home to say that this was not necessary as the “offending” instruments had been removed from this aircraft may years ago!

Day Three

Everything seemed fine when I arrived, it was a nice dry and sunny day. I was in for a shock, shortly after Welch’s arrived, I noticed that they were taking a very keen interest in proceedings! I was advised that there had been problem, apparently the measurements that they were given were wrong!! It transpired that the aircraft would be too tall and too wide to transport on the road. Basically, the tail fin and tail plane would both be too high and wide when the fuselage was loaded onto the lorry taking it back. I asked the Welch’s team what the impact of this would mean, I was told that unless the tail plane and tail fin could be removed the aircraft was going nowhere! The plan had been to ship it back on day three! The IWM Conservation Team were consulted and as a result started work straight away to remove the “offending articles”. This was to prove to be a major setback!! The team started work to get the tail fin off, the tail planes would prove to be much more difficult. Two of the pivot bolts holding the tail plane in place appeared to be seized in place. I asked Welch’s if they had a plan B and was told that if they could not be removed then “special” permission would need to be sought to allow them to transport a wide load from Flixton to Duxford. As a result, project operations were stopped for the day.

Day four

Work started first thing on the removal of the tail fin which was removed in short order. After this the IWM Conservation Team started working on the removal of the tail plane and those seized bolts. I cannot recall when it happened but at some point, we were made aware that it was now unnecessary to remove the tail plane as Welch’s had been given the special permission to transport the aircraft with them still fitted! The team then started to prepare the aircraft for lifting. The aircraft was lifted using soft strops and placed on the waiting trailer. The Sea Harrier is unusual in that to remove the wing; the fuselage must be supported on trestles to prevent the aircraft from falling over! The trestles had been placed on the lorry in readiness. The team then proceeded to remove the wing section and load it onto a special frame, and here started the next major issue! To get the wing section out of the gate she needed to have her “outrigger legs” folded up and out of the way. One of the legs moved freely, the other one would not budge! This put an end to project operations for the day. The wing section was left on its frame looking rather sad and sorry for itself. The IWM Conservation Team started work to move the offending leg into the correct position. Very late in the afternoon they managed to remove the lower hinge pin and move the outrigger leg, by this time Welch’s had called it a day and so the wing stayed at Flixton for another day.

Day five

The weather was playing ball, the sun was shining, and I was ready and waiting for the actual arrival of our “new” Jaguar aircraft. The team from IWM Duxford arrived a short while before the lorries with the fuselage and wing sections on. The plan was simple unload the fuselage and place it in front of the main hanger. The Sea Harrier wing section which was now ready for loading and onward transport was placed on this lorry and secured. This lorry then drove out onto the road ready to allow the second lorry to move into place and unload the Jaguar wing. This was lifted off and put in place on top of the Jaguar fuselage. The IWM Conservation team then started the task of re-assembly. The team concentrated on getting the wing section bolted into place. This was necessary as they would be leaving it outside over the weekend, if a gust of wind had caught it when unbolted the result could have been catastrophic! Whilst this was going on the team from Welch’s were busy loading the second lorry with the remaining Sea Harrier items. The Rolls Royce Pegasus 104 engine and a Radar assembly in a frame and lastly the Sea Harrier tail fin.

Day six

The plan for today was to continue the re-assembly of the Jaguar with a view that we would attempt to move her inside to allow the tail fin to be fitted back on. Whilst the IWM Duxford team were busy with this task we started work on the final tidy up of the main hangar which meant moving the De Havilland Vampire back into place and the Lightning Cockpit section. Much sweeping, cleaning and mopping was done whilst the moves were in progress. We noted that getting the Jaguar tail fin on was going to prove tricky owing to such factors as height, available space and the shape and weight of this item. We looked at many options for doing this task, but to no avail. We decided in the end that using a suitable machine such as a Telehandler or something similar would give us the best opportunity for completing this task. The IWM Duxford team had to leave early, so this left me plenty of time to plan for this operation on day seven! I asked a local chap called Simon to come and have a look and see if he could assist us with this daunting task! We discussed this in detail using the actual items. Simon advised me that he was around 95% certain of mission success!

Day seven

The weather didn’t look particularly good as I drove into work, I thought that it would make the day’s proceedings difficult! I had previously engaged the services of Simon who turned up at 1000 sharp with his trusty JCB digger. The plan that we had conceived between us was to use the rear hydraulic arm to lift the tail fin into place. This was to prove trickier than we both envisaged! We could not obtain the correct reach or height from our position outside the hangar. The only option left open to us was to strategically place the JCB digger inside the hanger and execute the task. This proved to be an issue as with both the digger and the aircraft inside getting the digger back out was going to be difficult. The IWM Duxford Conservation Team managed to get the tail on and then we successfully extricated the digger by carefully moving the aircraft to allow the digger to move past it and back outside. Well done Simon a well thought out and executed plan. This left the IWM Conservation Team to fit the remaining items, the tail planes. These are tricky to fit as they need to be fitted at an angle. They came up with a plan using a special lift truck and lots of wooden pallets and some padding. Finally, we had a near complete aircraft. All that remained now was to put the aircraft into its final position for display. We opted to use manpower to achieve this as it would give us the best in terms of manoeuvrability and control over the actual movement of the aircraft. It moved smoothly and gently on the concrete surface of the main hangar floor. At last, we had our “new” Jaguar in place and ready for display to the public. This just left some minor works such as putting the barriers back in place and ensuring that everything was in place for our reopening on Saturday 14^th June at 1000.

Summary

Project JagHar was duly completed in the allocated timeframe. We now had a superb looking aircraft at the forefront of the main hangar. The endless planning had paid off; we executed the project without too much difficulty. As with every great plan we had to change a few things and buy some extra bits to ensure the satisfactory completion. We all learnt a lot across the week! Some things had to be looked at and done in a different way to that envisaged! Moreover, both Flixton teams performed admirably. Everyone who was involved in this rather gregarious task performed it to the very best of their ability., not bad for a volunteer run museum. Overall, our performance compared with that of the IWM Duxford team was nothing short of sensational. I would like to say a big personal thanks to all those in both teams, the IWM Duxford Conservation Team, Welch’s Transport Team, the management at IWM Duxford and lastly but by no means least all the other volunteers at our wonderful museum.

Gary S

(Video) Sea Harrier – Jaguar Exchange

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