Gate guardian

:"For a man who guards a gate, see guard."

A gate guardian or gate guard is a withdrawn piece of equipment, often an aircraft, armoured vehicle or locomotive, mounted on a plinth and used as a static display near to and forming a symbolic display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 somewhere, especially a military base. Commonly, gate guardians outside airbases are decommissioned examples of aircraft that were once based there, or still are.

Examples of gate guardians in the United Kingdom include the following:

*De Havilland Comet at RAF Lyneham
*Hawker Siddeley Harrier at RAF Wittering (visible from the northbound A1)
*Hawker Hunter at RAF Halton
*Spitfire and Hurricane at Biggin Hill
*McDonnel Douglas Phantom at RAF Boulmer
*Spitfire Replica at RAF Benson
*BAC Jet Provost at RAF Linton-on-Ouse
*Spitfire at RAF Uxbridge
*Hawker Siddeley Harrier at RAF Stafford
*SEPECAT Jaguar from the former RAF Coltishall, now named "Spirit of Coltishall" and displayed at Norfolk County Council
*25 Pounder howitzers at 48 Regiment Royal Artillery, Thorney Island.
* Avro Shackleton at RAF St Mawgan

Until March 2007, a 40% scale replica of Concorde had been located at the main road entrance to Heathrow Airport, when it was moved to Brooklands Museum, Surrey. [ [http://www.concordesst.com/modelmove.html CONCORDE SST : HEATHROW MODEL MOVE 2007 ] ] [ [http://www.brooklandsconcorde.com/news.html Concorde At Brooklands Museum : Project News ] ]

Examples of gate guardians for other uses include outside Balinese temples.

=

ee also

*Door god
*Imperial guardian lion

References