RAF Cosford cleaners abseil to dust off old war planes

The RAF Museum Midlands is home to a vast collection of former war planes set up inside the site’s hangars.

Among the displays at the museum, based at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, is the National Cold War Exhibition, which gives visitors the chance to learn about threats posed to world peace during the latter half of the 20th Century.

The exhibition features the RAF’s V-bombers, the Vickers, Valiant and Vulcan, some of which are suspended from the ceiling.

But the impressive spectacle means cleaning the planes can present somewhat of a challenge.

Every year, industrial specialists rig up a rope system that allows brave spring cleaners to access the aircraft from the ceiling.

Speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire before this year’s operation, which took place on Tuesday, director of Totally Wild Access Alex Picken said workers “basically abseil down and give the planes a dusting”.

“It’s a lot of work for a light dusting,” he added.

While this year’s work primarily focused on the Cold War exhibition, workers were also due to clean World War Two bombers the Wellington and Lincoln.

Mr Picken said the main issue was getting above the planes, due to the hangar being “quite a big building”.

The cleaners had to first climb the structure, before rigging a set of lines to get them down to the planes, he explained.

“Some of the war planes in this hangar are very, very big, including the Vulcan and the Valiant,” Mr Picken said.

“It can take a while to dust them because, after a year of leaving them, there’s a lot of dust that gathers on these planes.”

Mr Picken said he had been working at the site for six years and also helped to inspect lifting systems used to suspend the planes.

He described the cleaning operation as a “challenge” that attracted people with a passion for activities like mountaineering or climbing.

“It goes hand-in-hand with what we enjoy,” he added. “It’s definitely physical but it is good fun as well.”