Myself, along with a few friends, exhibited a few aeronautical bits and pieces at the Malpas Rally last weekend.
Pully 113 was there with his Tornado sim cockpit and Andy Blair with his JP3 work-in-progress cockpit. I took along a P&W Twin Wasp engine – always a cert to draw a crowd when there are lots of engineers about.
Whilst trawling the bric-a-brac and vehicle spares stalls I spotted an aircraft artificial horizon alongside a pile of old spanners and stuff. It had a 1940 build date so I purchased the instrument for a small sum.
Later, inspecting the item more closely, I noticed some text on it. The pictures will tell the rest. If anyone can dredge up any history on this particular aircraft I’d be interested to know:
Wellington Mk.X, s/n NC425, date 29/7/48
Anon.
PS – hoping to attend Wulfie’s CockpitWest event at Halfpenny Green this weekend with the engine. If any Forumites are planning to be there, do come over and say hello.
By: Snoopy7422 - 12th September 2012 at 02:51
Horizon.
This AI is the earlier Mk1 type with the ‘skyview’. It’s been in for service and had some white paint gobbed on it, but you can still see some of the original gold foil. They were usually luminous too. They were of course also used in civil a/c pre-war from about 1936 onwards.
The Mk1A was this unit inverted, but the later devices used white paint for use with UV lights etc and the symbology was simplified too. Same basic unit however. I think the revised version started to come in around 1941.
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th September 2012 at 21:30
Run?
Yes, the plan is to get it into some sort of portable rig and get the thing running some time. It’s full of black oil and turns over nicely.
The rig will have to be quite elaborate as not only will it have to be towable I’d also like to run the engine with a full prop, so it will need to have plenty of clearance.
Thanks for the information, ian and T167. Great to have a picture of the machine.
Anon.
By: racer2_uk - 11th September 2012 at 21:21
Hi Anon,
a great looking engine you have, will you be running it at some point ?
I have a P&W Jr Wasp waiting to be fitted on a rig and run up.
Have a good time at Halfpenny Green, I ran my Leonides there a few years ago.
I will be at Loton Park this weekend watching the aero engined car’s and at Old Warden on the 22nd running the Lion.
Andy
By: Thunderbird167 - 11th September 2012 at 20:34
Here is the aircraft when in service
By: ian_ - 11th September 2012 at 19:55
Always worth keeping an eye out, Anon! Very nice and would grace any Battle of Britain panel display. Air Britain has NC425 as a Wellington X delivered between June and December 44 by Vickers Armstrongs Squires Gate. Served with 2 Air Navigation School and struck off charge 23/2/50.
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September 11, 2012 at 7:38 pm