Siskin remains

You never know. I believe that one crashed into a swamp, but don’t know if it was recovered at the time.

Bob T.

There are a few photos of Wellesleys crashed in the desert – now they might have been burnt/recovered, or they may not….

I’ve always thought East Africa must have some Wellesley remains – although Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia aren’t the places to go looking!

You never know. I believe that one crashed into a swamp, but don’t know if it was recovered at the time.

Bob T.

A Siskin, now that would be a nice project.
Cees

[QUOTE=DaveF68;1984826]I’ve always thought East Africa must have some Wellesley remains /QUOTE]

In the days of the Warbirds Worldwide Forum I seem to recall discussion about a Bristol Bombay in East Africa somewhere……

VICKERS WELLESLEY.

I’ve always thought East Africa must have some Wellesley remains – although Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia aren’t the places to go looking!

Unfortunately as with certain WW1 aircraft, there are many inter war types that are “currently” extinct. The main problems with “accurately” resurrecting most of these aircraft types are- Lack of manufacturing drawings, No substantial airframe parts are known to exist, & there are very few people around, with both the money & interest in them.

There are either no drawings “or only a handfull” known to exist “unless anyone knows otherwise” for such types as-

AW SISKIN. ATLAS. WHITLEY ETC.
BLACKBURN DART. VELOS. BLUEBIRD. SHARK ETC.
DH10 to DH50. DH61 ETC.
GLOSTER NIGHTHAWK, GREBE.
HP 42. HEYFORD. HARROW.
VICKERS WELLESLEY.
PARNAL PANTHER.
MILES M2 HAWK.
& many others which were built in reasonable numbers.

All of which means that the chance of ever seeing an accurate repro of any of them is very unlikely “though not entirely imposible”.

Bob T.

AEG G.IV twin-engined 1918 night bomber in good nick on show at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (former CAvM/NAM), Rockcliffe (Ottawa), Ontario. One of just three survivors from the substantial war-prize haul brought to Canada in 1919 (the other two being a Fokker D.VII and a Junkers J4/CL.I).

We Canucks have a particular fondness for the Siskin, since it was the RCAF’s first fighter type (though obsolescent when acquired). One is said to have survived inside the Kingston (Ontario) armoury as late as the middle of World War II, but it is of course long gone.

There’s possibly an easier way to get at least the look and feel of a flying Siskin. Remember the French Latecoere 17 replica built for a film in the 1980s? It was made over from the basic airframe of a Noorduyn Norseman. I once chanced upon a disassembled Schweizer AgCat cropduster in a storage yard, and remarked to myself that it had the feel–and the size–of a Siskin. Did a quick sketch based on three-views of both types. With all-new wings and tail, and extra cosmetic-only struts added to the undercart, the result was a pretty convincing theoretical Siskin lookalike, with even the big uncowled R985 up front looking “right”…

Is there anywhere an online (or print) listing of extant inter-war military aircraft? A few that come to mind, not mentioned in this thread yet, would be the Romeo 38s ex-Kabul scrapyard, Hendon’s Hart Trainer, and the Blackburn Ripon in Finland. I bet the full list would be surprisingly long and very interesting!

S.

Regarding WWI multi-engined types, there are at least a couple of Caudron G.4s that I’ve seen, at Le Bourget and Udvar-Hazy.

don’t forget Wallace in UK and Bison and Vincent (eventually) in NZ as well

Two Furys, a DH4 and a Hurricane I can be added to that, to come a DH9, Blenheim I and Wapiti. It has been pretty dire though…thank heavens for the Hawker biplane resurrections! And what about the Russian Chaika and Rata?

This has been an interesting thread – it looks as if any Siskin will be substantially new build…..

unless somebody start digging in Cambridgeshire and discovers something.

The low survival rate can also be said for multi-engined WW1 types. Apart from the odd (in numerical terms) Caproni – IIRC the only survivors are Vimys who’s survival is down to their record breaking exploits

Regards Siskin parts -what is suprising is that out of how many where built so little survives.

To be honest, that is true of inter-war combat aircraft in general. Most types are totally extinct, and this extends worldwide. Airworthy ones are even more rare, apart from the Shuttleworth Gladiator and Hind, I can only think of the resurrected Retrotec Hawkers and the F3Fs, the Finnish Gauntlet, the Chino Peashooter, and TFC’s Gladiator. There are more trainers, but very few fighters, bombers, or even transports.

The Hurricane frames sound like the examples that were at Blackpool along with the remains of a P-38 . They were quite famous even then . Regards Siskin parts -what is suprising is that out of how many where built so little
survives.

You’ll have to forgive my memory, as it is many years since I last read the booklet. it was one from the 60’s “possibly W & R #4”, I also remember it mentioning a number of Hurricane fuselages in a scrap yard near Liverpool “St Helens area ?”, these are now long gone.

As far as I am aware, this thread is about the locations/possible locations of Siskin parts, to see what is or might be around to aid a possible rebuild, & no one is planning to dig anywhere “not yet anyway :p”.

Bob T.

While we’re on the subject of Siskins, could someone tell me what the instrument panel on the IIIA was made of and what colour it is please? It’s for a model that’s very expensive in model terms and I want to get it right, I can only afford one go at it.

Photos I’ve seen make it look like black metal but I thought the Siskin was a bit early for black.

Do you have the old Alfred Granger ‘Dataplan’ on the Siskin? I don’t have one to hand, but that may provide some useful references.

If its anywhere near the Red Lion pub itself (which is incidentally in Whittleford, not Sawston) then i wouldn’t be too hopeful now, as the pub is encircled by a hotel, railway station carpark, highways agency road gritting yard and of course the A505 main road.

But on the opposite side of the A505 and slightly further along is a small yard owned by a local Duxford man. If i see him i’ll ask if he knows anything about a pit or indeed aircraft remains being buried nearby.

Rob

Sorry yes ! The article needs to be discovered to give it some credence plus the Siskin being steel doesn’t bode well!

I don’t think we need any more information. We have eyewitness testimony from someone who thinks they might have read it in a magazine, or maybe a book, that there is a rare fighter buried. It is in the area of a pub in Sawston or Sawtry. Surely that is plenty of information to start a multi-site dig involving heavy equipment, TV crews, newspapers, etc.

All that is missing is the magic word, Spi…………. 🙂

While we’re on the subject of Siskins, could someone tell me what the instrument panel on the IIIA was made of and what colour it is please? It’s for a model that’s very expensive in model terms and I want to get it right, I can only afford one go at it.

Photos I’ve seen make it look like black metal but I thought the Siskin was a bit early for black.

Sorry yes ! The article needs to be discovered to give it some credence plus the Siskin being steel doesn’t bode well!

Bob -I looked in W&R 1963 reprint and there is no mention of Sawtry in that issue.

Sawtry is up near Peterborough, Sawston, much nearer Duxford.

Perhaps we can get some sponsorship from JCB and go digging! 🙂