Following an online auction on 19 September, it was announced that Blackburn Beverley C1 XB259, the last surviving complete example of the four-engine airlifter, had been purchased by a new owner and will therefore be saved from the scrap-man. The Beverley was among 1,048 lots put up for sale with auctioneers Gilbert Baitson following the closure in January of the military museum at Fort Paull, a Napoleonic fortress on the River Humber. This followed a bereavement suffered by a member of the museum's team, and the retirement of its director. It did not prove possible to sell the collection in its entirety, hence the 'piecemeal' auction. XB259 - which never flew with the RAF, spending its career with manufacturer Blackburn and then the Royal Aircraft Establishment - was moved to Fort Paull in 2003, after its previous home at the Museum of Army Transport in Beverley closed down.
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