Shackleton WR963 move to Yorkshire Air Museum

Hi my name is Richard Woods, I've been the chap leading the team caring for Avro Shackleton WR963 for just over a decade.

And we really need YOUR help, to get her from Coventry Airport to Yorkshire Air Museum, into safe preservation.

Here's why we have to move...

In 1991 - after 40 years of frontline RAF service - our Shackleton flew into retirement at Coventry Airport, and it was hoped that it would be the place she would be preserved (and maybe fly from) for many years to come. We tried hard to get her in the air again over the years, but officialdom and financial hurdles meant she never really made it off the ground properly ever again.

Undeterred, we still kept the old Shackleton running, preserved and cared for - doing engine runs and short trips around the airport taxiways to delight visitors and photographers alike. By the beginning of 2020, she was one of only three of her type still running, out of the handful of survivors scattered throughout the world.

Things came to an unexpected and sudden halt. we had the Covid pandemic keep us all away for over 12 months, and then to add further misery to that, the owners of Coventry Airport announced their decision to redevelop the site into an EV battery factory - a situation that is still ongoing.

Rather than walk away, we looked for an alternative home for WR963, but it had to be an established museum, and one that would allow her to still continue to run her engines once there.

That place was Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, near York - a fantastic museum full of preserved, live, heritage aircraft. With such types as Buccaneer, Meteor, Victor... its a place the Shackleton could fit into like a missing puzzle piece in a Cold War history book.

In September we shut down the four Rolls Royce Griffon engines for the last time, and begain dismantling WR963 to move by road; as she is incapable of making the trip by air safely after 32 years on the ground. We're now battling against parts that haven't come off the aircraft since its last major overhaul in 1988, winter weather, and rapidly dwindling funds.

The total costs of transportion (dismantling, equipment, cranes, trucks etc) stands at just under £25,000.

We're asking for your help to raise just under half that amount to keep things moving forward, and get WR963 safely to Elvington.

Our progress can be followed at www.facebook.com/avro.shackleton/

Thanks for your support!

Richard