Summary of 2024

2024 has been a significant year for XR724, its shelter and associated infrastructure.

After Completion of the construction of the Shelter throughout 2023 then getting ‘724 inside and starting its drying out process, several parallel work strands commenced which are highlighted as follows:

The Shelter

Throughout 2024 work on the shelter continued with installation of ceiling and wall mounted LED lighting by the electrical team. The result being that 724 reminds me of a 3rd Generation ‘Hardened Aircraft Shelter’ (HAS) as used during the cold war by the RAF which is also most apt for the Lightning, I guess.

All work has been carried out by certified team members and is fully compliant – it certainly makes working inside the shelter a more appropriate environment for both maintenance activities and the surface finish work she is undergoing. Furthermore, in the summer, ex-Lightning FLM; Jules Hart kindly donated and installed a professional PA system for open days and alike – thankyou Jules!

The GoFundMe page for the Shelter set up and managed by Josh has also proved to be a resounding success and a continued source of donations to help facilitate the overall goals of the project – thanks to all that have donated via this medium.

Outbuildings

The Team continued to develop the outbuildings around the shelter throughout 2024. Using ex Cold War RAF deployed operations ‘Portakabin’s’ that required de-militarising, completely rewiring and repainting they are now part of the integrated ring main and provide much needed storage for the project, moreover, one has been converted to a Crew Room akin to the original facilities used at Binbrook when the Squadrons went onto the dispersals during regular Station exercises known as ‘MinEval’, ‘MaxEval’ and ‘TacEval’ (Mini, Maximum and annual NATO Tactical Evaluation).

A huge number of unseen manhours have gone into developing this part of the capability on site and the project could not function as well without it. The crew room has also proved to be invaluable for the mini open days and Squadron Reunion’s staged on site during 2024.

The Aircraft Servicing Pan (ASP) in front of the shelter is actually the hardstanding that survives originally from of the fire section. As the Original ASP was all dug up this area is where 724 is parked for ground runs and associated maintenance, this too has had to be modified to allow 724 to smoothly transition in and out of the shelter – more ground works and more volunteer manhours!

The Douglas Tractor

Our Tractor – originally based on a David Brown (DB) design has also undergone extensive restoration throughout 2024. As well as commencement of it repaint, the brakes were fully overhauled – sounds simple but getting 5-year-old parts and ‘fettling’ a system that’s not been worked on for 30 years adds its own complexities. She’s soaked up many hours of TLC and is now running (and feeling) much better – still very much a ‘work-in-progress’ project for the team as a whole.

Events & Media

2024 was a significant year for both public events and media coverage, as well as being featured on Radio Humberside ‘724 made it onto regional television via BBC ‘Look North’ in August. in parallel, a 724 U-Tube channel has been a major success as well as out Facebook page with some posts achieving 10K views.

Thanks to Aviation Freelance Journalist; Chris Frear, 724 was also featured in the July edition of ‘Aeroplane Monthly’ – 5 pages of PR and a 2000-word article!

In the Summer, we also hosted both the annual 11 Squadron and 5 Squadron reunion events as well as the ‘Crash Gate 3 Facebook group – all three bringing in significant donations to the project helping us to move forward. These all required Project Management, preparation and staging by the whole team and proved to be a resounding success!

‘724 Surface Finish Project

The surface finish team have made significant progress during the year to date with both sides the upper fuselage and fin areas completed. Bearing in mind that this is largely weather and temperature dependant; the team have achieved an outstanding result with that original satin Dark Sea Grey colour scheme restored to as she flew in with in 1992. Work will continue in 2025 to complete the wings, ventral tanks and 100’s of external markings she requires.

724 Engineering

After much preparation with regard to Fire Integrity, refitting of the Radar Bullet and No1 Reheat Pipe in 2023. Systems work up began in early 2024 to prepare the aircraft for its first ground run of the No1 (lower) engine. This required functional testing of the starter system in ‘safe mode’ as well as ensuring that all of the associated fuel cocks and fuel pumps were serviceable. As a result of being stored outside for many years; niggling problems with things like fuel gauging became apparent all of which required trouble shooting and ongoing rectification.

This culminated in April with completion of a ‘Dry-Start’ of the starter system to prove its integrity as well as repriming the engines oil pathways.



In May we successfully started the No1 engine with a ‘wet-start’ – the first time after 17 years – in turn, identifying some additional snags that of course cannot be fully envisaged until you run her. These were addressed and she has been run two times more at both Idle speed and fast idle (65% RPM) as we build confidence in the engine and the associated systems throughout the airframe.

She has soaked up many, many manhours’ hours of work throughout this process – this is just a brief summary of milestone events and work will continue to preserve and conserve the airframe and its associated systems moving into 2025.

Thank you for all your continuing support throughout 2024.