The aircraft was one of many that ended up at the yard of Hanningfield Metals of Stock, Essex and was subsequently also among a number of cockpit sections that were obtained by its first owner, which were kept in storage at Bruntingthorpe Airfield. It was next purchased by the nascent Phantom Restoration Group (along with the XV489 cockpit) who scheduled both for restoration. However, although the work on XV489 was completed successfully and the section was exported to Holland, the effort to preserve XV490 was never started and it was eventually sold on to a new private buyer, Mr Ray Walker. One of the conditions of sale was that an official group should be formed around the aircraft, so the Phantom Preservation Group was founded to support XV490. This new group, comprised of Ray Walker, Mike Davey and Mark Jones, worked on the project from a distance until the early 2000’s, when XV490, still in its 74 Sqn markings, moved to the Hack Green Nuclear Bunker, a tourist attraction in Nantwich, Cheshire. It remained on display there for the next 10 years until Ray Walker’s untimely death made its future uncertain. This situation changed when Mike Davey (who would go on to be a senior member of the BPAG) took full ownership of the aircraft in early 2011 and it subsequently took up residence at Newark Air Museum, Nottinghamshire. The first appearance in public at its new home was during NAM’s annual Cockpit Fest (a gathering of similar cockpit sections and memorabilia and parts from other preserved aircraft), which took place in June 2011, where XV490 was the winner of the ‘Cockpiteers Award’ voted on by the other attendees.

A few years later, after seeing online photographs of the cockpit in less than pristine condition and in response to subsequent comments, the BPAG approached Mike Davey with a proposal to restore it and reverse some of the damage and deterioration. So, over the next 12 months, working on occasional days as time allowed, the structural damage was repaired, corrosion removed or chemically treated, canopies were restored to optical clarity and the paint surface prepared. The choice of final paint scheme soon became obvious, as an association existed between the BPAG and Dave Gledhill, former F-4 navigator and successful author/journalist who had actually operated XV490 in service. Archive photographs and original MOD issue paint & finish technical manuals were used to produce a highly accurate final refurbishment, which represented the aircraft’s time with 92 Sqn at RAF Wildenrath, Germany.