Tiny Kent museum wins battle with US Military over rusty war planes

[Zarvan]

The damaged Vietnam War-era F-100 Super Sabre at the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum in Kent Photo: Courtesy Martin Philip Browne Photography


By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

5:55PM BST 12 Apr 2015


Taking on the might of the US Air Force might seem like a daunting prospect for all but the most bellicose superpowers.

But a tiny village museum in Kent has finally won an eight year battle with the American military to remove two abandoned warplanes which had been left to rust away on the airfield.

The Vietnam War-era F-100 Super Sabre and 1950s French Mystere were originally leased from the National Museum of the United States Air Force 30 years ago by aviation archaeologists.

When the archaeology leases expired the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum took on the planes and added them to its displays of vintage aircraft.

However the Super Sabre was badly damage in 2007 when a light aircraft carrying nine parachutists crashed into it on take-off, killing the pilot and injuring the passengers.

The crash damaged the nose and gear of the US fighter plane meaning it could no longer be removed without substantial repairs which the museum could not afford.

And to make matters worse, both the Super Sabre and Mystere were ruled by insurers to be too dangerous to move or scrap without US explosives experts checking them for radiation and unexploded shells.

But finally the ugly eyesores will be moved back across the Atlantic after the National Museum of the United States Air Force agreed to take them home to Ohio.

• Cambridge Ancient Greek sign backfires as academic spots errors
• Baby cinema screenings cancelled due to whinging, messy parents
• Church bells ding-dong 'resolved' by invention

Lashenden museum trustee Trevor Matthews said "After the Super Sabre was hit by a plane the loan spell for both planes was ended and the ownership went back to the United States Air Force.

"Ever since we have been trying to get rid of them.

"The USAF has decided the Sabre is not a radiation threat but has not yet carried out thesufficient explosive checks and the plane is therefore unsafe so we cannot go near it.

"We have finally been able to make contact with the director general of the Ohio museum and progress is being made.

"The end is in sight and hopefully they will be gone by the end of the year."

The Lashenden Air Warfare Museum, which is based at the Headcorn Aerodrome in Weald, Kent, is one of the longest running aviation museums in the country, having been established in 1970.

The museum collection was started by members of the Maidstone branch of Royal Air Forces Association in the late 1960’s.

It is the only non-national museum in the country to display 2 genuine World War 2 German aircraft including a Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg manned version of the V1 flying bomb for use on suicide missions.

Aviation enthusiast Freddie Clements, 65, from Ashford, Kent, said he was disappointed that the planes had been left to disintergrate.

He said: "It's a real shame that they are left there like that.

"They could be a great attraction if they were done up, but the museum staff can't do anything about it."

The National Museum of the United States Air Force did not wish to comment.
Tiny Kent museum wins battle with US Military over rusty war planes - Telegraph