Handley Page Victor XL231 'Lusty Lindy'

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Handley Page Victor XL231 'Lusty Lindy'

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Residing at the Yorkshire Air Museum since 25/11/1993, maintained in live running condition

31/10/2026

L/H Oleo work continued Saturday as well as stripping the L/H bogie in the workshop. The L/H Oleo is now fully nitrogen charged and as the light began to fade a few atmospheric shots seemed a reasonable plan. Winter feels to be heading our way for sure! A good day all round.

23/10/2026

Thursday was a good day for the team.

The Oleo was installed and then re-oiled with OM15 hyd oil and bled of air before, the bogie was then fitted. The extension was then set around 6" inches with the wheels on the ground and the Victor on the jacks. Nitrogen was then applied and a number of alterations to the jacking height and re-gassing in order to achieve around 4" inches of compressed Oleo showing with the full weight off the jacks. ideally a little more showing would be ideal but, we will have to wait for a fresh fully charged nitrogen cylinder. After around 2 hours of settling and the gas cooling after application we, still had around the same extension showing.
A tired happy Victor team at the close of play!

21/10/2026

And this is how it all comes apart!

Luckily,years of greasing, oil and washing off with paraffin have meant nothing at all was seized. It was still very grotty once the brake units had come off out of the way though.
Stood on four wheels at 10 am and dismantled by the end of the day.
The undercarriage retracted (partially) as smoothly and cleanly as if it had just done so the day before.
Re-assembly tomorrow with the overhauled Oleo unit. Hopefully if all goes well it will all be re-oiled (OM-15) and re-gassed (Nitrogen) tomorrow and stood back on 4 wheels.

15/10/2026

After de-corroding and painting the inside of the retraction link the team today re-fitted the overhauled retraction jack and then hydraulically pumped it down to line up with the bottom attachment point.
Next week it is intended to jack the aircraft, remove the remaining brake units, wheels and bogie unit before, partially retracting the undercarriage in, order to remove and then replace the faulty internal Oleo with the overhauled unit.

08/10/2026

Progress was made today with the guys successfully installing a brand new set of seals inside the L/H main undercarriage retraction jack. It was then cycled both ways on the hydraulic bench rig. Hopefully to be refitted next week. dismantling work and checks continued on the undercarriage itself with the L/H outer rear brake unit removed and the bogie dashpot checked for nitrogen pressure and then, for safety reasons discharged.
All being well we will be looking at removing the bogie unit and faulty oleo within the next few weeks.
It is all going to take time but, we will get there.

03/10/2026

Progress was made with Ian, Jon, John and Gordon removing the leaking left main retraction jack in order to replace the seals. The learning curve was already made by dismantling the jack from the spare leg and taking the seals away for matching up on sizes. We hope that it will be refitted shortly and then the job can begin in order to partially retract the undercarriage in order to extract the internal main Oleo unit. The spare jack came from a left hand main leg but, it turned out to be for a right handed undercarriage. Stories about the leg being made up from U/S gash parts for the ex-Victor gate guard duties prove to be correct!

02/10/2026

Bluebird Projects has a video coming out this evening on YT: 592,610 Pieces of a Victor Bomber - But Not the One That Mattered.
It is the story of the loss and fascinating recovery of the Victor B2 prototype XH668.
https://youtu.be/VM32FRWwfAE?si=lmYnHZPytCehU6zT

It was a pleasant surprise to see Bill Smith again yesterday as he was visiting to get a better look at the pitot heads, which feature heavily in the story of what happened to XH668.

XL231 may also make a guest appearance in said production...

27/09/2026

Refurbishing the hand operated hydraulic rig.

Serviced and repainted.
We have decided that, to change the faulty internal Oleo from within the left main undercarriage leg that, once on jacks the left leg will not be fully removed. This is to avoid any possibilities of damage to any fittings, the main casting and pivot points. Once the bogie unit has been removed with it's wheels and brakes the, aircraft hydraulics will be isolated. In order to control things at our pace. The rig will be connected via hoses and stop valves and used to unlatch the locks and then operate the retraction jack. The top and bottom oleo retainer nuts will be slackened and the leg put into partial retraction at a suitable angle in order to undo and slide out the faulty Oleo and the lower leg sliding portion. The replacement Oleo will then be fitted. The leg locked back down and the slave (temporary) bogie fitted with wheels only (no brakes). The Oleo will then be oiled and gassed as required. The removed bogie with brakes etc will then be taken into the workshop for overhaul. We have been warned about shims on the bogie unit pivot axle. That will not matter for the slave unit but, they will be carefully removed and refitted at final re-assembly.

25/09/2026

Slowly getting there!
Equipment being put into place and Gordon & Kev built up a wheel on Thursday. Jon manufactured 3 new O ring seals for the sliding wheel rim beads. We have long run out of original old stock items such as these and there are 3 per main wheel....

Address

Halifax Way
Elvington
YO41

Website

https://yorkshireairmuseum.org/handley-page-victor-k2/

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