Aircraft Conservation at the Royal Air Force Museum

The Royal Air Force Museum has 2 places available for Heritage Aircraft Engineering Advanced Apprenticeships this year. The apprenticeships are based at the award winning Michael Beetham Conservation Centre (MBCC) located adjacent to the Museums Cosford Site in the West Midlands.  The MBCC was awarded 2010 National Small Employer of the Year by the National Apprenticeship Service and was Highly Commended in 2011 it is also placed in the countries Top 100 Apprentice Employer list.

The Recruitment is being controlled, in the initial stages, by Wolverhampton College and to apply you must register with the National Apprenticeship Service at the following web address: http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk

Once you have registered you can search for vacancies, there are currently around 5 pages of apprenticeship vacancies in the West Midlands region alone. The RAF Museum Vacancies have the following Reference Number VAC000153976  and, once registered and logged on you should find it using the “refine search” function and the vacancy number.

You must register and apply through this route. During the application process you will find information on contacting Wolverhampton College to make an appointment to sit the entry tests associated with these vacancies. The vacancies will close on 20 Apr 2012. It is important that you realise that we do not guarantee a job at the end of our apprenticeships.  Our apprenticeships normally start in mid September (dependent on College term start dates) and last around 4 years. Anyone contemplating an apprenticeship can find good information on the following website: http://www.anapprenticeship.co.uk/

The Michael Beetham Conservation Centre (MBCC) at Royal Air Force Museum Cosford is delighted to welcome the arrival of two new apprentices, who will join the growing conservation team and award winning Apprenticeship Programme. The new appointments are part of the Museum’s Apprentice Scheme now in its sixth successful year, which, for the second year in a row was awarded the West Midlands Regional Winner of the ‘Small Employer of the Year Award’, at The National Apprenticeship Awards 2011.

Ella Middleton aged 18 from Walsall and Bethany Colburn aged 17 from Gosport in Hampshire recently joined the team of seven Advanced Apprentices at the Museum.

MBCC Training Manager, Mick Shepherd says:

“The Royal Air Force Museum Apprentices undertake all their hands-on heritage skills training in-house at the Museum’s Conservation Centre, where they each work side by side with a Master Craftsman who mentors them through their daily tasks. Many of our aircraft are “sole survivors” and supporting documentation and procedures don’t exist; our apprentices are encouraged to use their own initiative to develop, in consultation with their mentor, novel ways around complex and unusual engineering issues. This has proved to make them extremely capable, competent and self-confident individuals. Once deemed competent they are each given a specialist project. Like those before them Bethany and Ella will work on a wide variety of aircraft including the long term restoration and conservation of the Museum’s Vickers Wellington and Handley Page Hampden Bombers.

In each of the six years our apprentice programme has been running we have adjusted what we do to ensure our youngsters get the very best practical training and the associated support they need to give them the best possible start in their chosen careers. This year our two new Advanced Apprentices will attend Wolverhampton College where they will receive training in Welding and Fabrication before moving on to a BTEC Extended Diploma in Engineering Manufacture as well as an associated level 3 Vocational Qualification in Aeronautical Engineering”

After being with us for a few weeks Ella had the following comments:

My name is Ella Middleton, I’m 18 years old and I have recently started working at the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre as an Apprentice. My week includes four days a week at the MBCC and day release at Wolverhampton College where I study BTEC Level 2 Welding and Fabrication.  I had never done welding before and it was quite an experience the first time I had a go myself.

I am enjoying my apprenticeship and I have already learnt lots of new skills, I have also learnt about lots of different aircraft. You get excellent help you get when you are stuck with something and you are shown many ways in which to complete a task.

I started off making a photo frame to get to grips using different tools learning the basic steps and getting used to different tools, I made two photo frames using different techniques on each of them. I was then given a worn operating handle from one of the aircraft which need replicating as it was beyond repair, this was my first repair on aircraft, so using the worn handle I copied the shape and measurements and made a new one learning to use more equipment such as the pillar drill and also learning the importance of getting sizing for holes and dimensions right.

Another part of my job includes corrosion control. I have been working on the Handley Page Hampden-P1344.  Inside the aircraft is heavily corroded which means a lot of work needs to be done, this includes removing flakey paint and white powdery corrosion. This takes a lot of time and patience to scrape off the corrosion. Once the corrosion has been dealt with the metal has to be treated to prevent further corrosion then primed ready for painting. Although it is a hard job you get great satisfaction seeing the job done and part of the aircraft looking a lot better. I really like hearing the history of the aircraft and how they got in the state they are in.     

Recently I have been working on a model spitfire as a community project, my job was to strengthen the wing structure and re-skin the wing ready for painting, I was working with Martin (one of the other apprentices), who worked on the other wing. He showed me how to make the strips to strengthen the wing and he also showed me how to make the skins out of sheet metal. It is coming along really well and working with Martin was really helpful because if I had a problem he would show me to solve it in an efficient way.

In between these jobs I have been involved with aircraft moves, moving most of the aircraft out of hanger 3 ready for the annual dance, with the aircraft being so big every corner and point of the aircraft has to be watched carefully when maneuvering past other aircraft and through the hanger doors. I have learnt the different signals to the driver of the tug or the person managing the move so they know if there is a problem or the size of gap between the aircraft and another object. It was a great experience seeing everyone work together to move a huge aircraft, there is a job for everyone to do.

I have visited RAF Hendon museum in London, which was a great experience to see what that museum is like and to see the wide variety of aircraft they have there. I am looking forward to the rest of my apprenticeship and learning more skills.

Day 21: Orlando Time!

We left DC to go to Orlando.  This was another part of the part trip I was really excited for because we would be visiting the Kennedy Space  Center.  Mick and I sat together on the flight, meaning I got another window seat.  On arriving in Orlando, we thought it couldn’t get hotter than in Washington, and boy weren’t we wrong!  It was absolutely roasting, in just the airport alone!

After about a 1 hour drive, we found the Hampton Inn Hotel. It was a really cool hotel as it was just next to the beach!

Day 22: The Kennedy Center

Today we headed to Cape Canaveral.  I was incredible excited about going on this tour as it has been something I wanted to do for a very long time.  We met our fantastic hosts LaDonna Neterer from Boeing and John Tribe an Ex Pat British engineer who played a very significant role throughout the manned space program who is now a very knowlegeable Docent (Google him you will be very very impressed), in the passes and permits area. Once we had done that we visited the Space Station Processing Facility. This building was a little empty, for the obvious reasons being that they have ended the shuttle programme. Nevertheless it was still enjoyable looking around the building, learning about how they drive the shuttle around, and seeing the Boeings prototype for future manned space travel.

From there we went and met a Boeing executive, Kevin Hoshstrasser, who is the Florida Site director. It was a sad day for him, as it was a lot of the employees last day, due to the shuttle programme ending.

From there we went to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It was originally built to assemble the Saturn Rockets for teh Appollo Program but is most famous as the fourth largest building in the world by volume where the Space Shuttle was attached to its propulsion systems.

In the building we saw the Discovery. It was really fascinating seeing such an iconic spacecraft just sitting in the hanger.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Whilst in the VAB we went onto the roof to watch the Juno Satellite launch. We had such a great view from the top of the building, not just of the launch site but also the whole surrounding area.

After about 45 minutes delay, the rocket finally took off. It was absolutely mesmerizing, and utterly breathe taking. We were al just stood in ore of the rocket, and it was 700 per cent better than I expected, and I had high standards!

This by far was the best experience of the trip!

Next we went to the Orbiter Processing Facility. In there we got to get up close and personal with the Endeavor. In respect of what we had just seen, (launch wise), we were still taken back in seeing the aircraft. We also got to hold some tiles, which go on the shuttle and it was unbelievable how light they were!

Once we had walked around the spacecraft we headed to the Launch Area and Pad A. This was where the Apollo 11 and 13 shuttles took off. We all got given launch pads rocks to keep, mine is now in the middle of the fireplace, owning the room! It was amazing how big the pads are. You only ever see launches from a distance or on TV so standing on the pads makes you realize how big the shuttles really were!

Next it was Saturn V time! We visited the Saturn V facility where they have displays of the control towers and also videos of the rise of the Apollo’s. We also stopped of for lunch here. At this point we were all starving so I think we pretty much had the shop! Once we had all eaten, we looked at the exhibits that the Saturn V facility had. They had things like Space suits through to moon rock you could touch! It was really interesting.

After visiting the Saturn V facility we went into the main Kennedy Center area. Here we rode on the space simulator and had a general look around.

Day 23: Freebie Day

Today was do whatever you want day! In the morning we headed to Ron John’s Surf shop, and then onto a few other shops. At around lunch time, I headed to the beach. In true British style I went for the panic tan option,  in respect of what we had done, it was nice just to be able to sit down and go for a swim when I fancied.

Day 24: Good Morning Fire alarm and Hello home

After a few early morning wakes up calls from the fire alarm, it was time to head to the airport. It was bad leaving Florida as I wanted to do more, but in another sense, I was really happy to go home, as I was missing my family and the fresh smell of English rain.

The trip overall was amazing. I enjoyed meeting the people that I met, and in some cases I hope we stay in contact. I thoroughly enjoyed the activities planned, they were really fun. And most of all I loved the tours we did and all the things that I have learnt about with my time over in the USA.

I would like to give my biggest thanks to Ann and Lester, they are lovely people and I have decided I would like to adopt them as honorary Pringle folk.  I would also like to thank Fred Roggero, Barry Smith, Ulla Johnson, John Sessions, John Desmond, Bob Torgerson and everyone else, for making our stay fun, enjoyable and one of the best trips I will probably ever go on!