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Replacing the windscreen on
G-BOAC at Manchester
For many years the windscreen on
G-BOAC had been shattered. The windscreen broke prior to 2011 as one of the inner panes failed. This was a natural and unlucky event possibly caused by a weakness in the toughened glass.
It was not possible to replace the windscreen until the nose was lowered so once we had restored the nose to working order the next step was to replace the windscreen.
The replacement unit was kindly given to us by Brooklands museum and restored by GKN (See project flagship pages for detail)
Above: the shattered windscreen on G-BOAC
Discussions with the RVP (Runway visitor park) at Manchester on how to replace the windscreen were extremely productive and the RVP agreed to fund the scaffolding in order for us to gain access to the windscreen from outside the aircraft, a date was set, 24/09/2019 and the RVP agreed to ensure the scaffolding was set up before the Heritage Concorde team arrived.
The team on the day was John Dunlevy and Graham Cahill with the RVP being represented by John Hepple.
The scaffolding company did a great job of both protecting the aircraft and our team.
The first step was to remove the many screws that hold the frame to the aircraft and the windscreen wiper system.
Above; Scaffolding surrounding the nose on G-BOAC
Above: The view in from outside
Above: A view not often seen
Above: Windscreen wiper system removed
Above: John Dunlevy removes the many screws that hold the frame to the fuselage
Above: Windscreen frame is removed
Above: Windscreen frame is now removed and shows windscreen sitting in place
We push the old windscreen out of the fuselage, this takes some effort, The first part of the work is complete, now the heavy work, we have to get the VERY heavy old windscreen down and the new on up in one piece
Once all the screws are out the frame is carefully removed, John Dunlevy poses for a unique photograph, this image shows exactly how big the windscreen is
Above: Engineer John Dunlevy poses for a photo