A missile which gave a major boost to Coventry’s aircraft industry after the Second World War has landed back in the city centre.

The missile weighing half-a-tonne has been on loan to the Midland Air Museum in Baginton for the last three years while the £20 million re-development of The Herbert has been carried out.

The four-metre long object was actually a remote test vehicle used as part of the development of the sea slug surface-to-air missile after World War II.

It was returned to The Herbert by Exhall-based Plant Installation (Coventry) and in the next few weeks it will be suspended from the ceiling of the new History Gallery which will open in October.

Huw Jones, Keeper of Industry at The Herbert, said the missile had been at the venue since the 1960s.

“Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited began secret development on a new missile in the late 1940s in Coventry,” he said. “The company made this test vehicle as part of the development.

“The resulting sea slug missile entered service with the Royal Navy in 1961 and continued to be used until the 1980s.

“The development of the missile gave a major boost to Coventry's aircraft industry after the Second World War.

“It has been on display at the Midland Air Museum but when it returned to The Herbert it took about 30 minutes to lower it off the flat-bed lorry with a crane and then we were able to wheel it into the gallery.

“Structural engineers will be visiting in the next few weeks to discuss the best way of suspending it from the ceiling and it will certainly make a striking impact in the new History Gallery.”