Missing Army helicopter

http://bit.ly/geQugh

See this link for information about a helicopter that has gone missing near China.

US Navy supports Japan

http://bit.ly/gPvH0o

Take a look at this YouTube video, it shows the US Navy supporting the recovery effort in Japan

FSC Weston 2011

http://www.virtualredarrows.com/

The Virtual Red Arrows are pleased to announce they have secured their first booking of the year for a live flight at the UK's biggest Flight Simulator Convention Weekend in May.

Some of the team will be at the event hosted at the Weston Super Mare Helicopter Museum in the UK., on 14th and 15th May. They will be flying a live 9 ship show displayed at the event (and possibly streamed).

The VEAO Typhoon will also be displaying live along with a demo of DCS:A-10C

Developing an Archive

Wow! How far we have come already. Martin and I have been working on our annual exhibition today, which will offer an insight into our progress in developing our archive. Looking at this picture, taken nearly 3 years ago, it is hard to believe how much we have done already. Intrigued...? Well, visit the museum from late April and you can see the exhibition for yourself. It will include many photographs from our archive, as well as document our progress so far.

A busy week ahead

Next week should prove an interesting week. I'm off to Derby on Thursday for training on our cataloguing database MODES. Here's hoping I'll come back armed with skills to allow cataloguing to resume...

Stars of Time

Sunday 31st July will see a movie themed event being held at the museum, involving helicopter flights, visiting aircraft including James Bond's Little Nellie, visiting exhibitions and some celebrity guests. Tickets are now available from the museum shop.  

Lynx restoration

Yesterday we said goodbye (temporarily) to our Navy Lynx prototype XX910 as it departed for RNAS Yeovilton, where it will be worked on by Lynx Helicopter Force Operational Support Team.

The plan is to have it ready to display later this year when Lynx celebrates its 40th year.

Fairey Ultralight project

After having been in storage in Gloucester for many years, we have recently taken redelivery of the Fairey Ultralight G-AOUJ.

This week a team of 3 new volunteers will begin the lengthly task of rebuilding the aircraft, which currently sits in our hangar in many, many pieces. We are currently seeking advice from anyone who may have information which could help the project along.

The first task will be to prepare an inventory to determine what we have and what we are missing.

Rotodyne blade conservation

Sheet metal and rivets due for delivery today, ready for use rebuilding parts of the test-rig blade for the Fairey Rotodyne.

Lynx restoration

I had a very exciting visit from a chap based at RNAS Yeovilton this week. He has offered to take away our Navy Lynx prototype (the blue one in this picture) to restore and display at the 40th anniversary of Lynx celebrations. What this picture doesn't reveal is that it is missing it's tail, amongst many other things (like engines!). Arrangements to make now...

New background pic!

I hope you enjoy the new background picture - it's the cockpit of our Mil-8 taken shortly after its arrival in 2010.

Welcome

Welcome to the HeliCollections blog. This is where you can follow our progress as we work to care for our unique and important collection.

We will endeavour to keep you up to date with general museum news as well as keeping you in the loop as we work to restore our helicopters and develop our archival collection.