Wattisham Station Heritage Museum

Our first Open Day of August meant an extra early start for a few of the volunteers, as we had to retrieve our Phantom and Meteor from the main apron ready for our visitors.

Our trusty tractor and towing team assembled near the Control Tower, and proceeded to recover the jets back to the Museum Hardened Aircraft Shelter in the Northern HAS Site.

Once safely back in place, the jets were centre of attention for a large number of Cadets, as well as our usual and varied interesting visitors.

Thanks again to the aircraft towing team for their sterling early morning contributions in getting our valuable aircraft safely back.

Late July 2026 saw the Museum support the Station’s Families Day, as we always do.

The station had requested our Phantom and Meteor be displayed at the entrance to the static display area, and with us having just recently completed the first phase of our Phantom repaint, we were glad to have the opportunity to show off our efforts.

The Families Day was a great way of allowing the friends and families of the service personnel a chance to see the work that goes on at Wattisham.

With plenty of stalls, and refreshment stands, and static displays of aircraft and vehicles to entertain everyone, there was also a great flying display.

The whole day was a very relaxed and informal event, and of course our Phantom was the subject of much interest, with a stream of compliments from the visitors.

Our thanks go to the Station for their continued support, and to all our volunteers for their work on the day, and all the weeks and months of work so far this year.

Another weekend of work, and the great weather allowed us to complete the Phase 1 painting of Phantom XT914.

The Sargent Fletcher underwing fuel tanks that are fitted had always been painted in light grey colour overall, which was not correct.

So, our final Phase 1 tasks were to get the underwing fuel tanks correctly painted.

A few hours of rubbing down preparation work and some masking off allowed us to finally get these tanks painted correctly, and we think the finished result is pretty special.

Thanks go to all the team who helped where they could, much appreciated.

Another weekend had our small band of determined volunteers continue to progress the work tasks on our Phantom XT914.

To complete Phase One, we still had a few areas of Camouflage Grey (BS381C:626) to complete, as well as a couple of little touch-up repair areas too.

The starboard outer wing, and starboard tailplane and the brake-chute door were tackled and completed successfully, with judicious keying in and masking off, followed by painting.

In addition, we had a look at tyre pressures and other minor maintenance tasks.

In all, we had a very successful weekend, and can now make plans for Phase Two, the Medium Sea Grey (BS381C:637) areas including the upper inner-wings and the upper areas of the Sargent Fletcher underwing fuel tanks.

Another glorious Suffolk sunny day attracted a great variety of visitors to our Museum and HAS.

We started the day off by preparing the aircraft for display to the public, especially our recently painted Phantom, allowing the public to see the recent work that has been undertaken on it by our volunteers.

We used the morning to teach some aircraft towing and tractor driving techniques to some of our volunteers, getting the aircraft re-positioned to show off the recent work.

Plenty of interested and interesting visitors were shown round the exhibits, and many tales were regaled by them for our enjoyment. We are always pleased to learn new facts and tales from our visitors.

We are also pleased to welcome new volunteers into our ranks, we all get a great buzz helping out and giving something back, and are always welcoming to prospective new volunteers. If you fancy joining our ranks, please get in touch here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/contact-page

If you want to arrange to visit us to see our work, take a look here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit

We were very grateful to receive some very relevant donations to our Museum recently.

An aircraft panel from Phantom XV494 was kindly donated to us by Peter Cooper, and this will now be displayed in the Museum alongside the Phantom canopy from the very same aircraft.

Also, a fantastic Lightning painting which will be displayed for the public to see was also gratefully accepted.

Thanks again to all our visitors and generous donors.

Please check out or visit page to book yourself in to see us and our progress, https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit

Another glorious day allowed a keen group of volunteers to continue our ongoing program of work on Phantom XT914.

As always, preparation is the key, and complex masking is tedious but ultimately worthwhile.

Masking off first allows a much easier and better application of the final paintwork without making mistakes.

Our artist-in-chief worked on the more intricate details.

Debates raged about whether to leave out the “Chicken in a basket” markings.

Everyone got stuck in, gaining practice and experience for future ventures.

The reveal is always very satisfying.

This picture shows how faded the airframe actually had become over time.

Another gracious donation to us will be well used.

Come and visit us to see the progress for yourself…….

Another few hours spent over at the HAS to tidy up our Phantom XT914 to make it a bit less faded and patchy.

As usual, preparation is the key, and although the sanding and extensive masking takes a decent amount of time, this really pays off at the painting stage.

The finished result really does show that it is worth while taking the time.

Please visit us over the summer to see how our work is progressing. https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit