You cannot be serious! How much for maintenance on a Chipmunk?

Make an educated guess on the cost of maintaining one of the two de Havilland Chipmunks operated by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF). £8k per year, maybe £10k if pushed? Perhaps if there’s a high price item such as a full engine overhaul required, then add a chunk more?

Think again. According to the latest Ministry of Defence procurement budget, the RAF is setting aside £190,000 for each aircraft per year for the next five years – a total of £1.9m.

According to one report, the two BBMF Chipmunks flew a total of 485 hours over the past five years. If that figure is applied to the new budget, that’s just over £3,900 per hour on maintenance for each aircraft.

We asked Phil Hall, Business Managing Director of The Midland Aeroplane Company at London Oxford Airport which maintains several privately owned Chipmunks, what typical costs are.

“The most expensive route is to have it on a CofA [CAA Certificate of Airworthiness]. You would be looking at about £3,500 for the annual which is about 50 hours labour at around 70 quid an hour including VAT. And then if you had a big TNS [Technical News Sheet], which is all sorts of service bulletins, you might be hit with another three grand.

“Possibly the most expensive one is the tail and fin inspection because you have to take the entire tail and fin off. There’s quite a lot of work involved. But it’s three grand, including the X-rays.

“So over five years, if you worked on the basis of, say, £7,500 a year in routine maintenance, including 50 hour checks and things like that. And then if you’re unfortunate enough to need an engine in that five year period, you’re going to add another £50,000 on the top. And if you needed a recover and a spray job, that’s £65,000.”

That works out at a worst case of £152,500 over five years, or an average of £30,500 a year – a long way from the BBMF’s £190,000.

What isn’t detailed in the MoD budget is what’s actually included, and there could be items such as hangar rent charges by Crown Estates.

The RAF said, “The BBMF has two de Havilland Chipmunks: WG486 and WK518. The ‘Chippies’ are the least displayed aircraft on the BBMF fleet, but they are used year-round for the training of the Flight’s pilots on tail-wheel aircraft, the reconnaissance of new venues, and the delivery and collection of pilots and spare parts.”

The Chipmunks are maintained in-house by the BBMF’s own engineering team, which looks after all 12 of the BBMF aircraft. It’s a 40-member team of technicians on maintenance, and a five-strong support team who look after training, authorisations, quality control, health and safety and much more.

According to the MoD document (also known as the ‘Acquisition Pipeline’), the famous and much-loved BBMF Lancaster has £9.6m set aside for maintenance over the next five years. Over the winter of 2023/24, extensive work is being carried out on the Lancaster, including replacing two of the four Merlin engines, and replacement of the tail planes with brand new, specially-manufactured ones – the first for 80 years.

FLYER has asked the BBMF for a comment and this will be added when received.

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Original Excel has been updated but then showed £1.9m / 5 yr contract for maint./support for 2 BBMF Chipmunks – c.£400k/yr

I did a FOI – they don’t fly public displays or generate any revenue

They flew total 485 hours in the last 5 years suggesting support cost of £3,900 hr. pic.twitter.com/m5PsEHN7rx

— Sean ???? ???? (@seanleicester1) January 3, 2024