Historic planes which RAF Cosford no longer wants are given new homes

Members of the Boulton Paul Association were left devastated when Shropshire's RAF Museum at Cosford said it could no longer accommodate the aircraft.

The news came a year after Cosford took delivery of the exhibits and just eight months after officials showed members of the association plans for an extension to show them off.

But BPA chairman Cyril Plimmer today revealed that several key pieces from the Wolverhampton-based collection have now been snapped up by other museums and interest has been expressed in many of the other items.

"A bleak situation is looking considerably brighter and we are all feeling a lot happier now we know that our time has not been wasted," he said. "That is very important to us because the building of the Defiant alone took us eight years and 50,000 man hours.

"We are never going to get a place of our own again for reasons of money and our age. Everything comes to an end and so we are donating these exhibits secure in the knowledge that they will be appreciated and put on public display."

The replica of the Defiant bomber destroyer will be going to the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge, where a Defiant squadron was based in 1940. Staff have even offered to come and collect the aircraft.

Meanwhile, the P6 bi-plane, the replica of a research aircraft built by Boulton and Paul in 1917, is going to the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum in Flixton along with other exhibits including a Hawker Hunter nose and cockpit, similar to the development aircraft used to test a "Fly by Wire" control system as installed in Concorde, and the replica Overstrand nose, housing the world's first totally enclosed aircraft gun turret.

Other museums are showing an interest in the replica of Balliol training aircraft built by the heritage group. Interested parties are due to meet at RAF Cosford on November 17.

The Boulton Paul Heritage Museum was forced to disband when GE, the owner of the site of the original Boulton Paul Aircraft factory in Wobaston Road, Pendeford, decided to prepare the land for sale following the move by Moog to the new i54 development in 2012.

Boulton Paul moved to Wolverhampton shortly after its formation in 1935. The firm built planes until the 1960s before concentrating on hydraulics and flying controls. The company was involved in several mergers and takeovers before becoming part of Moog.

Mr Herrington conlcuded: "There is still some way to go in finding homes for many of the smaller artefacts but as the news of their situation spreads hopefully this problem will be resolved."