Southend: Carvair plane ferry cockpit returns to Essex

An ultra-rare aeroplane cockpit has been returned home to Essex and is a step closer to being preserved for posterity.

The cockpit was used in one of the 21 car ferry planes that started being built at Southend airport in the 1960s.

Aviation enthusiast Marc Wilmott raised £3,000 to relocate it from an industrial estate in Suffolk.

The 62-year-old said it was being kept at a secret location in his hometown of Hadleigh, near Southend.

"It has come home," said Mr Wilmott, speaking to BBC Essex.

The Carvair planes date back to the Bristol Freighter, which could carry up to three cars across the channel.

Airline entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker wanted to build larger vehicle ferries and his company developed the Carvair fleet by converting the Douglas DC-4 military planes.

Sean Connery's James Bond could been seen driving an Aston Martin DB5 on to a Carvair in pursuit of Goldfinger in the eponymous 1964 film.

Mr Wilmott arranged for it to be transported from its abandoned location in Beccles, which he did using a combination of a hired lorry and finally a large forklift truck.

"It was quite precarious but it was either that or take it back to Suffolk," he joked.

He said he was told there was no room for the cockpit in the Vulcan Restoration Trust hangar at Southend airport, but hoped an individual or organisation in the city could house it for preservation and even as a display for the public.

Mr Wilmott said he had been given extra cause for celebration because the cockpit's previous owner confirmed it contained panels from the very first Carvair prototype.

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