St. Athan - 4th June 2006

[K35R]

Can anyone help me tie up the serials of the following...

2 x McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier USMC
Jet Provost

...and I noted a Jaguar, XZ105 but that was apparently written off in 1983! I noted 15 Jags in total stored there.

Cheers,
Andrew

[rh226]

Possibly your two AV-8Bs were 162964/18 and 163205/- (minus rear fuselage?). They were noted in Picketston hangar E5 during 2005...........credit SWAG.

[MCB]

Noted at St Athan 29.4.05 were:

Hangar 318;

162730 AV-8B Harrier II, (CUM47) f/f 10.1.86, d/d 27.1.86, ex 'CG/05' VMA-231, USMC, Stricken 23.1.01 and stored at Cherry Point, to St Athan, to Wyton 12.2.02, returned to St Athan, departed 25.5 for scrap.

Picketston Site;

162964 AV-8B Harrier II, (CUM85) f/f 14.5.87, d/d 10.6.87, ex 'WH/18' VMA-542, USMC, Stricken 6.2.03 and stored at Cherry Point, to St Athan 9.8.04. Nose allocated to Wittering 2.2.05.

163205 AV-8B Harrier II, (CUM118) f/f 18.5.88, d/d 15.7.88, ex 'WH/15' VMA-542, USMC, Stricken 6.2.03 and stored at Cherry Point, to St Athan 9.8.04, to Warton 12.8.04, to St Athan.

Hope taht helps.

MCB

[DickFlute]

Hi Andrew

...and I noted a Jaguar, XZ105 but that was apparently written off in 1983! I noted 15 Jags in total stored there.

According to info published in Military Aviation Review, at the time of your visit XZ106/FW was among the Jaguar airframes in external storage at St Athan, so maybe your 'XZ105' was a typo/mis-read of this?

For info, it was seen in storage there during March 2006 - along with 16 other Jaguars (plus five more had joined the storage line by the 8th April) - but by late July/August most of these had left for Bentwaters, including XZ106.

Best wishes