Armstron Whithworth Siskin

The Gamecock remains have always been in the ownership of the Tompkins family and there has never been a question of them being acquired by anyone else. The project if it were to be carried out would be a long term one.

sorry I mis-remembered :confused:

Roger Smith.

Thanks for the interesting replies chaps. Amazing what’s still around albeit scattered all over the country or countries. Didn’t know about any Siskin drawings in Holland but they were never used or built here, so that would be strange if true. The Siskin is a very important type between the wars of UK aviation history, so if a Bulldog can be recreated the Siskin should be relatively easy to do apart from funding. But that’s the trouble with (in this case) british aviation. There are so many types that it is difficult to make a list with priorities. And that would also be depending on personal taste. It’s not easy to be in charge of this kind of work as the RAF Museum is doing but full marks to them for doing it.

Cheers

Cees

The Gamecock remains have always been in the ownership of the Tompkins family and there has never been a question of them being acquired by anyone else. The project if it were to be carried out would be a long term one.

Gamecocks

….. whats happening with the Gloster Gamecock reconstruction that was reported on a few years back. I thought the plan was to contruct two aircraft, one to airworthy standards but to remain as a static exhibit, and the other to fly?:confused:

There is possibly, I think, two seperate Gamecock projects in the UK.

The Jet Age Museum in Gloucestershire are constructing a superb looking reproduction Gamecock – see photos below (hopefully) I took at their open day in June to unveil their E28/39 replica to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Frank Whittle.

In Northamptonshire a Forum member (Texan Tomcat) has previously indicated that the remains of a civil registered Gamecock (G-ADIN) have been located and negotiations to acquire were underway. This aircraft, along with a considerable quantity of spares, was acquired from the RAF as surplus and flown at Sywell in 1936(?) by a Mr Tompkins. I think it may be possible that what has been found is the spares cache but I don’t know.
Can TT possibly give us an update?

Roger Smith.

Just done a search go to http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38911&highlight=Gamecock+G-ADIN

photo files too big 😡

Ping Roger, how much AW history has MAM managed to preserve? Apologies as I know your present sit with them 😮

Well, there’s a question – good job I’m suffering from a bit of imsomnia at the moment :p

Of all the “big players” of British aircraft companies Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth & Co is the one most poorly represented with preserved airframes. A handful of Argosy 650/660 freighters are all that survive as complete aircraft.

MAM has the 2nd Argosy built G-APRL (the 1st is preserved at Yankee Air Museum in Michigan, USA) and a collection of post-war AWA-built jet fighters.
Meteor NF.14 and Seahawk (which were both sold as AWA aircraft), Javelin and Hunter were all built at Baginton. AWA built components for other firms including the Vulcan (fin and rudder I think) which also underwent mods/servicing with AWA at Bitteswell. A piece of Bristol 188 (elevon?) is displayed as built by AWA. The Siskin wing already mentioned is accomanied by an Atlas undercarraige leg and an unidentified ‘wingtip’ – it may be from a Siskin lower wing. The tail section (rear fuselage plus various horizontal and vertical tailplanes – but no rear turrret) of Whitley N1498(?) although on display is now difficult to see. It used to be accompanied by a large chunk of the same aircraft’s wing but I think that was returned to the RAFM. Many years ago (before the Whitley Project started) I wanted MAM to act as a repository for all and any Whitley bits salvaged off mountainsides but the idea never found favour. Nearby is a fin from a Lincoln (many Lincolns were built by AWA).

There is a display case with various AWA sporting trophies in and there is on display a quantity of post-war wind tunnel and promotional models. The promotional models include a large scale model (1/24th ??) of an Argosy sitting on an airport apron with switches to operate/open both front and rear doors and turn the four propellors. The company’s own ‘history display’ – a complete set of same-scale models of every aircraft type that AWA built is on display and there must be a good collection of small bits and pieces acquired over the years.

Photographically – there ought to be a good collection of photos but I have absolutely no idea of what it might contain (the library system has long been a mystery to me). Although I did ‘engineer’ a loan of a photo album aeons ago the story of which illustrates the loss of company documents thrown out when Bitteswell closed. Someone I knew had been working at Bitteswell during the close-down and told of ‘skip-fulls’ of paper material. The item he rescued and, later, loaned to MAM (I dont know if the Museum still has it) was a photo-album with a large quantity of company photographs showing stages of construction of the AW.52G research glider – including the laminar-flow wing Hurricane.

What survived of company paperwork has been variously reported as being transferred to Gloster (Hucclecote?) and/or Avro (Chadderton??).

That’s about the extent of my off-the-cuff knowledge.

Roger Smith.

Ping Roger, how much AW history has MAM managed to preserve? Apologies as I know your present sit with them 😮

I did a bit of digging into all things Siskin a couple of years ago, with just the same question in mind, ie, what original drawings and parts survive and what might be reconstructed out of them.

Distracted by other things, I haven’t got as far with my inquiries as I would have liked, but having scratched the surface it seems there are very few if any original drawings surviving. On the plus side, there do seem to be quite a few bits and pieces still about (including rumours of a fuselage frame in Canada, and perhaps a centre section in Estonia), in addition to the RAFM/MAM wings.

If someone felt like ‘picking up the torch’ from me and chasing things up, I’m pretty sure a goodly number of Siskin bits could be rounded up. Any takers?

I remember reading that some Siskin drawings had been found in Holland a few years back.

Not impossible and would help to fill an important gap in the RAF’s history.
Whilst on the subject of between the wars fighters, whats happening with the Gloster Gamecock reconstruction that was reported on a few years back. I thought the plan was to contruct two aircraft, one to airworthy standards but to remain as a static exhibit, and the other to fly?:confused:

The Siskin wing on display at MAM (about a mile from where it was built – if it was constructed by the parent company) is one of three the RAFM have. I believe they are all uppers from the same side.

I remember someone saying previously on this forum they knew someone in Warwickshire with a Siskin rudder.

Roger Smith.

Didn’t AW trash most of their drawings and jigs?

BR
An AWA member 🙂

Hypothetically speaking Skysport Engineering would be the company to do a reconstruction. The wings are on display at the MAM on loan from the RAFM.
There are other parts around i.e Jaguar engines – however it imagination to get the ball rolling . Hypothetically speaking there are aircraft in storage that have not seen the light of day for years – start on those first!