The Orion aircraft participated these days in its last NATO exercise, and today the 333 squadron flew its last major NATO mission on Andøya. Flya has been central to monitoring the northern region for over 50 years. – That is half the air force’s history. It says something about the quality of the aircraft and those who have kept them alive on Andøya through all these decades, says director of the Norwegian Aviation Museum Rolf Liland. He has such an Orion aircraft on his wish list when the aircraft is taken out of service in the summer and replaced with the P-8 Poseidon. But the wish does not seem to be fulfilled, because the government has plans to sell them. – It is incredibly sad. You can almost compare it to the fact that 1,000 years ago the authorities decided to sell all the Viking ships, he says. Director of the Norwegian Aviation Museum, Rolf Liland believes the Orion plane is Norwegian cultural heritage. Photo: Kåre Riibe Ramskjell / news – Negotiations with various actors Storting representative Hårek Elvenes (H) also hopes that one of the planes will be in Norway. – I hope the government looks at the matter with a benevolent eye, so that an opportunity can open up to keep one of the aircraft, says Elvenes. At the end of February, he submitted a written question to the Minister of Defence, asking if there were any plans for the aviation museum in Bodø to take over one of the Orion aircraft. – Preservation of military material for museum purposes is important in the dissemination of Norwegian military history, and something I see positively. Wrote Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) in the reply, adding that defense material is in the process of disposing of the P3 Orion system, and negotiations with various actors are ongoing. And since the sales contract has not yet been signed, it is too early to say anything about how many aircraft may possibly become available for museum operations, says Gram’s reply. – We have to look at how we can deal with visits to the museums without spending a lot of money on aircraft, which we could otherwise have sold. I am sure that we will arrive at a good solution within a short time, says the Minister of Defense to news. Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram says preservation of military material for museums is important. Here he is sitting in a flight simulator on Ørlandet. Photo: Ole Andreas Vekve Norwegian cultural heritage – This is not just something we wish for, but it will be a cultural heritage in Norway for several generations to come, says Liland in Bodø. He adds that the plane tells a story about the Cold War, about Norwegian assertion of sovereignty in the northern area, and about some of the world’s best submariners. – Can’t they tell this story without having this huge plane here? – We have some model aircraft, torpedoes and sonar buoys, but that in no way tells the story. We could have a digital exhibition or write a book, but that is not the same as an object. At the Norwegian Aviation Museum, this is the closest they will come to an Orion aircraft. Photo: Kåre Riibe Ramskjell / news According to him, it is also important to have an authentic aircraft that they can research. – We cannot do research without a plane. And research for future dissemination is also an important part of that. These are difficult financial times and selling these aircraft will bring in some extra funds for the defence. Liland also understands that. – But we have had difficult times before. We had it after the first and second world wars, but we still took care of many of those things at the time, he says and adds: – We must take care of the cultural heritage, and that is our mission.
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No plan to preserve Orion aircraft in a museum – historyless, says the director of the aviation museum – news Nordland
