Gate guardian

F-104 at the Georgia Air National Guard

A gate guardian or gate guard is a withdrawn piece of equipment, often an aircraft, armoured vehicle, artillery piece, or locomotive, mounted on a plinth and used as a static display near to and forming a symbolic display of "guarding" the main entrance to a site, especially a military base.^[1][2] Commonly, gate guardians outside airbases are decommissioned examples of aircraft that were once based there, or still are. The visual effect is very much like a hobbyist's model, particularly when it is an aircraft mounted on a pole to simulate what it looked like in flight.

Examples

Examples of gate guardians include the following:

Australia

In Australia, gate guards are also often found outside Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) clubs.

Colombia

• Mounted atop the entrance gate to Pablo Escobar's ranch, Hacienda Nápoles in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia (320 km (200 mi) NW of Bogotá), and 180 km (111 miles) east of Medellin, is a replica of the Piper airplane (tail number HK-617-P) that flew the drug lord's first shipment of cocaine to the United States.^[3]

South Africa

• Atlas Impala at Air Force Base Ysterplaat.
• Twin Eland Mk7 Armoured Cars at the SANDF Legal Satellite Office, Air Force Base Swartkop.
• Rooikat and M3 Stuart at 1 Special Service Battalion, Tempe Base.
• Eland Mk7 at School of Armour, Tempe Base.

Switzerland

• Lockheed F-104 Starfighter at Grenchen Airport in Grenchen Switzerland.

United Kingdom

• 25 Pounder howitzers at 48 Regiment Royal Artillery, Thorney Island and two on loan from the Honourable Artillery Company outside Admiralty House (the official residence of the Commander Joint Forces Command) at Northwood Headquarters.
• Avro Shackleton at RAF St Mawgan.
• BAC Jet Provost at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.
• C-47 Dakota at Headquarters 16 Air Assault Brigade, Merville Barracks.
• De Havilland Comet at RAF Lyneham.
• FV434 Combat Recovery and Repair Vehicle at Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College.
• Gloster Javelin at Staverton Airport and XA634 RAF Leeming (purchased by Gloucestershire Jet Age Museum in January 2015.^[4]).
• Handley Page Victor K.2 XH673 at RAF Marham.
• Hawker Hunter at RAF Halton and WV396 at RAF Valley.^[5]
• Hawker Siddeley Harrier at RAF Stafford and RAF Wittering (visible from the northbound A1).
• Hurricane (replica) at the former RAF North Weald, with the markings of the No. 56 Squadron RAF, as flown by No. 249 Squadron RAF pilot Thomas 'Ginger' Neil during the Battle of Britain in September 1940.
• McDonnell Douglas Phantom at RAF Boulmer.
• McDonnel Douglas Phantom and Panavia Tornado at RAF Leuchars.
• SEPECAT Jaguar from the former RAF Coltishall, now named "Spirit of Coltishall" and displayed at Norfolk County Council.
• Spitfire (replica) at RAF Benson.
• Spitfire and Hurricane (replicas) at RAF Uxbridge.
• Spitfire and Hurricane at RAF Biggin Hill.^[6]
• Tornado F3 at RAF Marham.
• A 40% scale replica of Concorde had been located at the main road entrance to Heathrow Airport until March 2007, when it was moved to Brooklands Museum, Surrey. At Heathrow Airport, that Concorde model has been replaced by a model of an Airbus A380 in Emirates livery.^[7] In September 2012, the Concorde was finally installed at the main entrance to the whole Brooklands site.^[8]

United States of America

• Lockheed F-104 Starfighter at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Arizona and Georgia Air National Guard in Brunswick, Georgia.
• Lockheed A-12 at George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.

Images

• 

  RAF Bristol Bloodhound missile outside the RAF Museum in London

• 

  MiG-17 at Kubinka Air Base, Russia

• 

  Kingston Airport (Canadian Air Force)

• 

  1 Tank Regiment (Royal Armoured Corps)

• 

  Fort Knox (US Army)

• 

  Tempe Base (South African Army)

See also

• Door god
• Imperial guardian lion

References

1. "A-6 Intruder (A-6E) Gate Guardian". Wikimapia.
2. "A-7 Corsair II (A-7) Gate Guardian USN NAS Atlanta". Wikimapia. Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
3. Arbuckle, Alex Q. (August 29, 1989). "Hacienda Nápoles: What do you buy the drug lord who has everything? A zoo".
4. "BBC News - Gloucestershire Jet Age Museum buys Gloster Javelin". BBC Online. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
5. Gate Guardian, RAF Valley, accessed 2009-11-10
6. "Fundraising drive begins to replace rotting gate guardians". Newsshopper (RAF Biggin Hill, UK). September 12, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
7. "HEATHROW MODEL MOVE". CONCORDE SST. 2007.
8. "Concorde moved from Heathrow Airport to Brooklands Museum". Brooklands Museum. September 2012.