Naval engineers have completed the relocation of two vintage naval aircraft, Sea Harrier ZH801 and Lynx XZ725, to a museum in the Falkland Islands, according to a press release from the Royal Navy.
The aircraft were moved 8,000 miles from their previous location to the Falklands, with the final leg involving a 40-mile transit from Mare Harbour to the islands’ capital.
The relocation was managed by the Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Squadron (JARTS), a combined Royal Navy and Royal Air Force unit based in Boscombe Down, Wiltshire.
The press release states that Chief Petty Officer Stewart Wright led a team of six naval personnel to ensure the successful completion of the move. The team had previously prepared the aircraft for the journey south.
Commodore Michael Clapp and Commander Tim Gedge, veterans of the 1982 conflict, were present to welcome the aircraft. Commander Gedge noted, “They did a magnificent job in what was a potentially tricky operation and I was impressed with the way they handled everything that came their way in the best traditions of the Fleet Air Arm.”
The aircraft were displayed to the public for two days at the site designated for the Lookout Gallery and Exhibition Hall before being preserved by the JARTS team to protect them from the winter weather. The new exhibition hall is expected to be completed by spring next year.
The Sea Harrier ZH801 and Lynx XZ725 both have historical connections to the 1982 Falklands conflict. The Lynx saw action during the campaign, while the Sea Harrier was delivered to the Fleet Air Arm after the war and served until 2004.
According to the Royal Navy, the new exhibition hall aims to attract up to 100,000 visitors annually, significantly increasing the current figures and boosting tourism through the cruise ship trade.
A little bit easier than the last time a Harrier went to the Falklands. I’m not sure how they will attract 100,000 visitors each year when the island is about 4,000 people with roughly the same number of tourists. Unless every tourist goes once and each islander goes 24 times a year!
I think that you underestimate the number of cruise ships that now visit Port Stanley. The other interesting thing about Stanley is that the few thousand inhabitants are now increasingly wealthy on the strength of effective control of their waters and licences for taking squid, almost all of which end off in Spain as calamari..
That from memory has been hit by the Brexit deal.
Good they can ship it to the UK. I like calamari😀
Had to get hold of good quality calamari in the UK ATM!
I don’t think so – we were leaving Port Stanley 2 years ago after dark, and there were 2 Spanish freighters loading from large fishing boats under arc lights in the outer harbour.
But how do those income streams trickle down to the 4,000 islanders’ bank accounts?
They don’t have to; they result in the public services (school, hospital, care etc) being brilliant, despite being a spot on the ocean. But, in relation to the small population a lot of high value jobs in Stanley are provided by processing fish and seafood.
Thanks. Sounds like you have local and current knowledge. I went down there on a 6-monther in 1999/2000. Some wealth was showing even then – many new houses of Scandi-design on the outskirts of town beyond the cemetery – known as ‘Millionaires Row’.
Even in 2020 there were 72,000 cruise ship visitors per year…last year on it’s busiest day it had almost 6,000 tourists wandering around the island.
When I was in the Falklands in 1999/2000, there were a fair few cruise ships visiting then. Local shopowners often priced up stock in $ as well as £FI.
Mmmm, maybe we should keep her operational. Only saying.
Shssss … you will give the game away😀
Visitor numbers hoped for appear quite high.
It would be great if tourism to Falklands could be boosted to get to that figure.
Huge numbers of cruise ships now visit..on some days they have up to 6000 tourists wandering around..in 2020 they had 72,000 visitors.
Wow! Hadn’t realised it had reached so high.
Still believe they could do more to promote tourism by flight from Brize ( perhaps a large subsidy).
72000 people during COVID, that’s impressive considering the islands were locked down completely
It was for the 19/20 period…so covid only hit the very end.
Hmm, ZH801……. Subtlety not wasted. 😊🙃🕳️
Does anyone know how this was paid for ? This seems an incredibly time consuming and costly thing to do?
that Lynx crippled the Santa Fe in South Georgia
That Lynx was I think still on Brilliant when I joined her in early 83. I will check the photos tonight!
Pretty sure its also in my FDO Log book as one of the many I landed on.
I was lucky enough to have spent the new year 1999-2000.Onboard the F.I.P.V. Sailing round the Sub Antarctic Islands South Georgia,Elephant Island & the small unnamed islands.Loved taking a RIB ashore & discovering the penguins & seals in their thousands which were very trusting or nieve having never seen humans as a threat.They obviously stink of fish,Krill & their own discharges. “Never mentioned on TV documentaries.”
is the idiot running this page still trying to get you to buy a subscription, he blocked me on Facebook lol
Obviously I did, you’re rude and hostile, why would I want to deal with that?