There is a considerable difference between looking at an aircraft in a photograph and actually climbing inside one.

For many years, the Queensland Air Museum took the cockpit section of its Sea Vixen to airshows, exhibitions and community events on a specially constructed trailer.

Visitors could climb into the pilot’s cockpit, explore the rather more claustrophobic observer’s station, and learn about one of Britain’s most distinctive Cold War naval aircraft. More importantly, it allowed the museum to take aviation history out into the community rather than waiting for the community to come to the museum.

Unfortunately, the original trailer eventually reached the end of its useful life, and without a suitable replacement the cockpit has been effectively grounded for several years.

The Queensland Air Museum is run by volunteers, and funding a project like this from the museum’s normal operating budget is no small undertaking. So, Rex’s Hangar and the Queensland Air Museum are teaming up to do something about it.

We are aiming to raise $16,000 AUD to fund a new specialised trailer capable of safely transporting and displaying the Sea Vixen cockpit.

Once completed, the new trailer will allow the Sea Vixen to return to airshows, exhibitions and public events, giving thousands more people the chance to climb aboard, ask questions and experience a small piece of aviation history first-hand.

If you would like to help us get the Sea Vixen back on the road, any contribution would be greatly appreciated. If you can contribute, whether it is $5, $50 or considerably more, every donation will bring us closer to seeing the Sea Vixen out in public again.

And if you cannot donate, sharing the campaign would be enormously appreciated.