Hawker Kestrel XS694 Restoration - Wings Museum

25/08/2026

We are still looking for an aperture card scanner to borrow/hire, unfortunately commercial companies that offer scanning services are very expensive.

If you can help please let us know

09/07/2026

A massive shoutout and thank you to Jim at The4SquadronCollection! He generously donated two elusive parts we’ve been hunting down for quite a while now: a lower control column lever and a tail plane trim standby control guard cover.
Once again, the incredible Harrier community has stepped up to help us restore this old girl. We are so grateful for the support.

05/06/2026

Can any of our Harrier friends or any CNC Machinists help us out, we are after a control column lower lever assembly as ours is missing, we are looking for an early Harrier/Sea Harrier one or someone who can machine a kestrel one for us, we have already drawn it up in CAD.

04/06/2026

If you can't find it, make it! (At least for now...)

We hit a bit of a roadblock with some missing instrument panel gauges, so we decided to get creative today. We spent a few hours drawing them up from scratch so we can 3D print them.

While the goal is to eventually source the authentic instruments, these 3D-printed placeholders are going to do a fantastic job of filling in the gaps and helping us visualize the final layout.

Step by step, it's all coming together!

If you would like to donate to help us restore this old girl please follow the link here:

https://gofund.me/6732819ec

02/06/2026

While long-term structural work continues on the fuselage joints and cockpit framing, we’ve shifted some focus toward the interior layout. We have begun trial-fitting the newly fabricated instrument panels to improve the visitor experience and show the eventual layout of the cockpit.
As you can see, we still have a significant number of blanks to fill. We are actively sourcing period-correct instruments, indicators, switches, and cockpit switchgear to populate the panels.
If you have any components in your stores or know of any leads from the era, please drop us a message.

If you would also like to help contribute to the restoration you can donate here:

https://gofund.me/d10e157ed

11/04/2026

Just a small update we have now managed to remove the STBD side of frame 8. Next will be the PORT side. Then we can start to make the replacement and repair parts we need.

03/04/2026

We are currently looking for an aperture card scanner to assist our restoration projects, unfortunately commercial companies offering scanning services are unrealistic with there pricing and for the amount we need to scan would set us back £15k+

We are also still fundraising for help to support the project, if you would like to donate please use the following link:

Welcome to the Wings Museum Hawker Siddeley Kestrel XS694 gofundme page.… Aaron Simmons needs your support for Hawker Kestrel XS694 Restoration - Wings Museum

12/03/2026

The team have been busy putting back together the 2 halves of the Throttle box that came with the aircraft. We have used Photos and AP we have showing the Throttle and Nozzle boxes as used in the P1127 and Kestrel see picture. One of the hardest things to reproduce was the Throttle top but using pictures of Gr1/3 Throttle top we were able to workout the sizes of the buttons etc. Aaron did his magic and produced a model of the parts missing and then 3D printed them. After a couple of changes what you see is the result. In most of the pictures we have the Top appeared to be red this was miss leading due to the item being UV bleached and wear from being black. The next thing to do is to sort the mountings Outboard and inboard.

If you like what we are doing don`t forget
https://www.gofundme.com/f/hawker-kestrel-xs694-restoration-wings-museum

11/03/2026

We have hit our £700 target on our fundraising for the Kestrel.
We would like to thank everyone who has donated so far!

Go fund me had now increased our target to £800.

If you would like to donate please use the following link

Welcome to the Wings Museum Hawker Siddeley Kestrel XS694 gofundme pa… Aaron Simmons needs your support for Hawker Kestrel XS694 Restoration - Wings Museum

21/02/2026

The Strip is ongoing, STBD is done Port is held up because we can't remove the duct yet due to the seals welded themselves to the sleeve! One more Skin to remove before we can sort the Frames.