VP441 was rescued from the ravages and vandalism of an ATC unit in Plymouth in the mid 1960’s.

At that time it had lost its original Dowty-Rotol counter-rotating propeller and spinner group.

A restoration to static condition by RNAS Culdrose included the simple fitting of a standard De Havilland counter-rotating propeller from a Shackleton, over large on diameter and over large also on the diameter of the spinner back plate at the engine cowling interface….but OK for static.

When Jim Smith commissioned Ezell Aviation of Texas to just do what it takes to get it flying, one of the solutions was to fit a modified Shackleton 58 Griffon engine and to re-profile a Shackleton propeller to the correct diameters and to build a one off set of spinner and backplate components to replicate the original nose profile.

One of the joys to look forward to with the restoration of Seafire 46 LA564 at North Weald is that enough blades, hubs and spinner components have now been gathered to facilitate the fitting of a correct Dowty-Rotol assembly, as the image below.

What ever turns you on. 🙂

Mark

Hi,

This is indeed a lovely photo, and one I recognise from a set of negatives that included a DH Hornet F3 taken at RAF Hullavington. I used the Hornet photo on the entire rear cover of the Dalrymple and Verdun book from 2010, such was its quality.