XB259

XB259 was the first production Blackburn Beverley, one of 49 built at Brough in East Yorkshire. The first production aircraft flew on 29 January 1955. With a 162 ft wingspan, the Beverley was then the RAF's largest aircraft, built to carry bulk loads from rough strips.

XB259 later went on display at the Museum of Army Transport in the town of Beverley. When that museum closed in August 2003, the aircraft was taken on by Fort Paull, the fortress museum east of Hull. It is the only complete Beverley left; the others were scrapped by 1989.

Fort Paull did not reopen for the 2020 season. Its contents were auctioned on 19 September 2020, and the Beverley sold for £21,000 to Martyn Wiseman. His engineers removed the wings, engines and tailplane for a planned move to the former RAF Riccall, but the scheme stalled.

In early 2024 Wiseman agreed to give the aircraft to the Solway Aviation Museum. The museum's £60,000 appeal reached its target by April 2024 and passed £70,000. Volunteers dismantled it, lifting parts over the fort walls, and the first sections left for Cumbria in May 2024. A reinforced hardstanding with tie-downs and power for dehumidifiers was prepared that summer.

Listed by the museum as an aircraft in progress: volunteers are reassembling and repainting it at Carlisle, and it is not yet on full display.