Licenced recovery of DH Hornet PX229

I think PX229 is pretty much cleared out, we used magnetometers, fishers, and ordinary detectors,

truth is most was carted away by personel of RAF Locking, and the hornet crashed almost in level flight . and blew up , flinging parts up the hill, over the wall and into the next field.the only points of impact were where the cannon dug in, and the engines, which broke apart on impact. showering parts of the engines up the hill, + the ground is very rocky, so we are lucky to find what we did, there will allways be odds and ends ,but the majority is dug up, to try and explain the ferocityof the explosion, I found the exhaust stubb, about 3/4 of a football pitch away, in the next field,on the brow of the hill, in a field that has never been ploughed !! 😮

Interesting thread Chris. Has everything reachable been excavated from the Hornet site? I realise it had already been cleared previously, but just wondered about other possible finds!

thanks Tony,

now for my next target to investigate, Liberator, B24J USAAF not far from me..:D

it can be bought direct from the manufacturer…nice chap…just google…bilt hamber deox and you may find stockists nearer you. Halfords etc do not sell it

can anyone tell me if i can get Bilt hambers Deox-c in any local stores, ie halfords,B&Q , Etc ??

would rather not use ebay, and cant find any on here at the moment anyway

thanks David,

I will send some pics to your email 🙂 .. and i never realised I found a Ki-Gas 🙂 allways wanted to find one of those 🙂 , which bit is it David :confused:

and what was the switch used for ?,

the stubb has a letter F stamped into it, and various circular inspection marks one with N or W26 , + 69S + s41

also a bracket, with 6A/???? on it,

when they get a clean up, i will pass some numbers to you 🙂

Hi Chris,

The switch is one of a pair that are used for Bomb fusing.

I think the ki-gas part is the brass flanged ring shaped part (but I could be wrong!), however the photo is a little fuzzy. You have definitely got some cockpit items in there. The aforementioned throttle friction lock nut, switch, dials, glass, etc.

Agree with all the comments on Deoxy-C.

I use it extensively on the Anson II components to slow down 60+ years of atmospheric corrosion.

My tweak is to drop a couple of tropical fish tank heaters into the solution to maintain temp at around 35 deg.

Once cleaned with Deoxy-C I then give an additional degrease with acetone or white spirit and then coat with a microcrystaline wax to fill the corrosion pockets and exclude air from unpainted surfaces.

I use the wax as a electrolytic barrier between pieces when I connect them back into an assembly.

More info for the wax is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Wax.

Used to use it for coating suits of armour in the local museum. Removal is relatively easy using acetone in small areas but needs H&S care on larger surfaces.

Regards
Ross

Thanks Tony 🙂

but to be honest, I dont need all this much, as I dont have anywhere to display it, I think some of the parts will be going to a local museum, perhaps in weston, as this was its intended destination, which PX229 never arrived, at least some of it will arrive at its intended destination all be it 60 years later .

That deox-c is great…For best results, dissolve it in a warm water and stir lots. I only make up what I need to and make it more concentrated. As others have said, get loose stuff off and also any grease.
Lovely parts there Chris, you will have a lovely display board, well done

thanks David,

I will send some pics to your email 🙂 .. and i never realised I found a Ki-Gas 🙂 allways wanted to find one of those 🙂 , which bit is it David :confused:

and what was the switch used for ?,

the stubb has a letter F stamped into it, and various circular inspection marks one with N or W26 , + 69S + s41

also a bracket, with 6A/???? on it,

when they get a clean up, i will pass some numbers to you 🙂

Sadly the dig with the Mini digger didnt come up to much, although a few interesting items came out.

Due to such corrosive soil , most of the aluminium was turning to powder before our eyes,:(

some bits were of interest though, a switch with SAFE and NOSE FUZED was found, (armament ??)

a really nice welded piece must be engine,maybe remains of stubb ??

armoured glass, brass oxy fitting, inspection hatch, plastic/rexine type circular piece ( part of Dingy pump ??)

i leave some pictures.. what are your thoughts ?

🙂

Hi Chris,
You have found another interesting collection of parts. The switch with the label “SAFE and NOSE FUZED” is shown in this photo. It is located on the pilots electrical box to the right of his seat.

You have indeed found one of the exhaust stubs, also a spark plug, part of a ki-gas pump, the pointer from the elevator trim indicator too.

Any chance of sending me some higher resolution images please?

I use it too – totally agree about the heat – it does speed things up. One of the great benefits is that it leaves residual paint intact – thats handy for wreckology items.

I also find it works well on aluminium and magnesium, copper and brass too with care.

When I cleaned up the steel parts from PX274 I used the Bilt Hamber Deox powder dissolved in a dustbin of water and then painted the parts. It worked well on most of the parts, though some of the valve springs were soo heavily rusted they looked the same after sitting in the solution for a week.

The reduction gear and oxygen bottle came up well, though I’d alraedy cleared most of the rust off with a wire brush attachment for my angle grinder.

I use Deox-C too, fantastic stuff if you use it right.

The trick is to use a warm to medium hot solution. I have a stainless container which I sit on top of an oil fired range at low output. Maintain a temperature of about 50°C. You don’t want to simmer too much or boil it, then the efficiency is remarkable. You must take the parts out every hour or so and use nylon or brass brush or scotchbrite as applicable to agitate the surface.

You shouldn’t have to mechanically grind or power wire brush parts to near base metal to start with. That defeats the object! I would though suggest for really super heavy scale, on larger less fragile items, chipping lightly with a blunt cold chisel to start with, to flake off the heavier scale.

Removal of oils and grease is essential first as it won’t work otherwise. Leaves good chrome intact and very good for improving dramatically any brown and pitted chrome if originality is desired. Won’t touch still bonded paint areas, plastics or rubber either. Will strip cadmium and other lightweight oxide type coatings.

I have had very good results dunking heavily seized mixed material assemblies in the hot solution, which came apart readily without further mechanical damage afterwards. Otherwise impossible. It should remove all oxide down to pit level leaving dull grey base metal only, if you do it right.

To give you an example, if you take a 12 year old heavily scaled car brake caliper mounting frame and dunk it in at 10:00 am. You should be painting perfect grey base metal at 5:00pm

Sadly the dig with the Mini digger didnt come up to much, although a few interesting items came out.

Due to such corrosive soil , most of the aluminium was turning to powder before our eyes,:(

some bits were of interest though, a switch with SAFE and NOSE FUZED was found, (armament ??)

a really nice welded piece must be engine,maybe remains of stubb ??

armoured glass, brass oxy fitting, inspection hatch, plastic/rexine type circular piece ( part of Dingy pump ??)

i leave some pictures.. what are your thoughts ?

🙂

…sadly the soil up there is so acidic, and the steel is very heavily corroded…

Yes, I was going to comment on how rusted the variable-pitch propeller bearings seemed to be.

When I cleaned up the steel parts from PX274 I used the Bilt Hamber Deox powder dissolved in a dustbin of water and then painted the parts. It worked well on most of the parts, though some of the valve springs were soo heavily rusted they looked the same after sitting in the solution for a week.

The reduction gear and oxygen bottle came up well, though I’d alraedy cleared most of the rust off with a wire brush attachment for my angle grinder.

You could try electrolysis I have had good results on rusty steel – even brought out the markings on a lightly rusted crash axe where none could be seen to start with.

Dave, i believe it to be U/C strut, due to the fact it was on route to be converted at the workshops of the TDU at weston super mare, ,so I imagine PX229 had not had any conversions fitted due to its loss prior to arrival ??

Creaking door,Yes i believe your right, sadly the soil up there is so acidic,
and the steel is very heavily corroded, 🙁

I have restored and removed corrosion from lots of parts before, but never steel, and frankly do not have a clue as what to use to “stop the rot ” 🙁

and Nick,
yes Rexine, I to wonder just what use it was ? the part seems like a pipe fitting, with a rexine shroud ?

Dave, would you need a cannon shroud as a template for your Hornet project ??
😀

and IS that a Bomb Shakle in the photo ???

The bearing in the rounded-triangle housing with the three mounting holes (next to the bevel-gear sector) looks like one of the bearings from one of the three clutched supercharger drive gears from a Merlin engine.

Yes I would agree re this id – I have them still on the back of the Merlin from my last dig (Mustang) as that is the point at which the supercharger shattered – probably when the rest of the A/C caught up with it.

We also found quite a bit of the rexine type fabric material on PX274 that appears to be visible in photo 003 – It was a very vivid blue colour and I am still unsure as to its purpose as it appeard to be a tailored cover of some sort rather than fabric outer surface covering.

The bearing in the rounded-triangle housing with the three mounting holes (next to the bevel-gear sector) looks like one of the bearings from one of the three clutched supercharger drive gears from a Merlin engine.

Edit – one of these thingies!