A massive jet is to be moved to a new home at the Scottish Deer Centre in Fife tomorrow – causing possible travel disruption.
Famous in its current home in Elgin, the Buccaneer jet is being transported to Cupar, however, moving such a massive object is no easy feat.
The jet has sat on the Bishopmill petrol station forecourt for almost 25 years, but will now take up pride of place at the Scottish Deer Centre.
Moving the plane was due to take place earlier this year, but due to the increased police presence in Glasgow because of COP26, no officers could be spared for the police escort.
The jet will be lifted onto a truck with its wings folded.
The truck is so big it spans two lanes of the road and requires lamposts to be taken down as it makes the 140 mile trip to Cupar.
Around 9.30 am on Sunday the jet and its transporter will navigate a specified route created in coordination with Bear Scotland.
Transporting the massive object is likely to take at least eight hours to arrive at the Deer Centre in the evening.
Jet being transported over 180 miles
For part of the journey, a drone will be following closely to capture the jet on the move which will be used as an educational tool once the jet opens to the public at the park.
There have been some challenges already due to the jet’s wings having seized and requiring special assistance to prepare it for transport on Sunday.
The route will take the jet towards Inverness where it will travel over 100 miles down the A9 Inverness to Perth road where it will merge onto the M90 motorway.
It will travel down the M90 leaving via Junction 3 and onto the A92 where it will stay until it turns onto the A91 on which the Deer Centre is located.
David Hamilton, co-owner of the Scottish Deer Centre, said about the move: “It was always the plan to fold up the wings but I just found out from the logistics guy that there has been a delay because they couldn’t get the wings folded up.
“The wings haven’t been moved since it was first moved to Elgin, so they have seized up a bit.
“So we have an expert coming up to get them unseized and fold them up because we wouldn’t be able to move it with the wings down.
“The team predicted that it wouldn’t be as simple as everything working and loading it onto the lorry so they scheduled the entire day for the lift.”
“The move has been pre-planned with Bear Scotland and is costing about as much as it did to buy the jet.”
The full route that the Buccaneer jet and its transporter will take can be viewed here.
