Recovery Introduction

Our aircraft was recovered from the London Motor Museum in Hayes, West London and transported to Deptford in East London. At both locations a specialist firm had to be used with a long reach crane lorry to lift the aircraft on and off of the transport. The gearbox and main rotor shaft were removed for transport.

The initial restoration of Bird 18 was completed within a fairly short time scale thanks to a lot of work hours being put in, prior research and parts sourcing helped to speed up the work. The majority of parts had to come from America meaning all shipping had to be pre-planned in order to have the parts delivered and available to use on the next scheduled work day. 

Some items such as the overhead cabin windows proved impossible to source so the very talented 'Michael Whiteley London Ltd' moulded these from scratch. Lighting cable had to be layed, a replacement pilots door found and fitted, all of the instrument panel dials sourced and the internal roof insulation patched.

Bird 18 made its display debut at The War and Peace Revival Show 2017. Restoration work was only completed the week before so it went down to the wire in getting her to the show, in fact even on site several small jobs were completed to finish things off. 

There was a huge amount of interest over the shows 5 day duration with many not quite believing what they were seeing in front of them, some questioned if it was actually a real aircraft, others asked if it had been flown in! All were astounded by the level of restoration in such a short space of time. 

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 The following all provided outstanding support in a variety of functions towards the MAG36-UK project.

Michael Whiteley London Ltd, Simon Johnson, Phil Connolly and the Huey 509 Team, Richard Dowdell, Peter Greene, Rick Ault, Neil Whiteley, Polar Helicopters, Bradley Johnson, David Balentine, "MADDOG", Phil Fehrenbacher, Coyle Transport, Thomas Fromel, Ray Wilhite, Max Levell, Kevin at Dauntless Aviation, Karl Renz lll at the American Patriot Helicopter, Trevor McIntyre at Huey 446, John Allison and the War & Peace Revival Team, Lee Oldroyd at Sign Wizzard Graphics, Phil Hill, Bill Hembery, Peter Seal, Ken Beeney, Simon Cooper, IJM Restorations, Bill Gard, Wings and Rotors Museum, Eric Miller of Project Warbird Salvage and Restoration, Uncle Ho