Tale of a Sea Harrier's Assisted Vertical Take-off and Landing: The Last Flight of ZD610

[XV571]

Many of you may have seen coverage of the transfer of Concorde 216 G-BOAF, across Filton's now disused runway, from its resting place since 2003 to the new Aerospace Bristol collection. Last Wednesday a smaller member of the collection arrived to take up permanent residence. After missing out on capturing the Concorde moving in, one of my colleagues was given a heads up that on the 8th a Sea Harrier was going to be moved by Chinook from temporary storage in the Brabazon Hangar to the new Museum. Taking advantage of this bit of intel we waited at the end of the runway to capture the last flight of Sea Harrier FA2 ZD610. Just after 09:30 the remaining spots of morning rain started to clear and Chinook ZD575 arrived, made a quick circuit, landed behind the Brabazon Hangar then collected the Harrier and transported it down the runway to a spot near the new Concorde building. Here's a few samples of the pictures I took during the transfer:

 

Arrival in the drizzly morning:

 

Lift-off:

 

Travelling down the runway:

 

In its natural element for the final time:

 

We're going thataway:

 

Touchdown for the very last time:

 

Heading back to the Brabazon Hangar:

 

Off to the next task after a good job done:

 

Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed the photos.

 

Jonathan

[Alpha Delta 210]

That's a great record of a very unusual movement! Thanks for posting. 

[Latinbear]

Excellent shots and great that the Chinook could help.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Darth Vader]

Great shots cheers 

[F-32]

Very cool!