Can you identify this wheel?

I guess you’ve been there a few times with the fabulous Bluebird project.

Oh God yes- it’s often our natural state in fact! Our adage is ‘if you don’t give in you can’t fail’ and usually that proves out, though there are times when you just have to wave the white flag too. Dunlop themselves are an option that we are still pursuing, so we’ll see. But if anyone can give this a shove in any kind of helpful direction, it would be very much appreciated.

I wish I could help – sometimes one comes up against the edge of surviving knowledge, and it gets difficult. All you have is a ‘probable’ and you are scratching around for the smoking gun document or find. I guess you’ve been there a few times with the fabulous Bluebird project.

I believe Dunlop have done special runs in the past? Worth asking.

Just to broaden this out, who does old aircraft tyres, generally? Who has collections of old stock, who manufactures specials for restorations, things like that?

Hello again everyone. We’re finally sorted for wheels but now we’re on the hunt for some tyres, which of course seem to be like rocking horse doo-doo. They are the 26×7.75×13 size with the square block grass tread as shown in my archive pics above; we’ve seen one on a Vampire undercarriage leg, and supposedly, later Spitfires with larger wheels used them too..? Dunlop No. seems to be 27A 2087; they still list plenty of smooth treaded tyres in that size but none with the treads, so we’re throwing it out there in the hope that someone may be able to help us source some..?

We might have answered our own question now- the wheels on the Saunders-Roe beaching gear are AH 8405; they still look the same as the Varsity items and are the same 26 x 7.75 x 13″.

Any further input from anyone still much appreciated.

Pulling this thread up again as we’ve had something of a breakthrough on this subject. We’ve just been told that the wheels on the cradle were from a Saunders Roe aircraft, and that caused a huge penny to drop- the original Beryl engine for Bluebird was from the SRA1 flying boat and there were numerous other Saunders Roe parts on the boat when it was built new as well. A quick Google reveals that the beaching gear on the SRA1 is a perfect match to the cradle wheels, so what I’d like to know now is does anyone have the wheel type for the SRA1 to hand? Which would then maybe help confirm (or not) whether the wheels were the same type as the Varsity ones that we’ve visually matched to here?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]250142[/ATTACH]

Keep searching, Something will turn up.

Hi Mike,
Well at least you know what you are looking for now. AH 8373. Forumites????

Bill T.

So looks like Varsity Nose wheels might be the answer, if you really need wheels to be absolute originals.

Cheers for the help, Bill. It was just curiosity to start with- we knew they were of aircraft origin so I thought I’d ask, but of course, once you start looking into these things, the bug strikes! It would be fabulous of course to use the right wheels on the new trailer, so even if there was a single Varsity wheel out there that we could use as a pattern, that would be great. Here’s hoping!

Ahhhha !!! Minute differences.

Mike,
I see what you mean about the Sea-Hawk wheels being slightly different to ones in your pics. on Trolley, in respect that the 4 “Discs” on “Trolley” wheel pics. are fitted on the side where detachable rim is. Also your pics. don’t show wheel having that small recessed “Clip” (which held an inflation extension at some point in time. ) So looks like Varsity Nose wheels might be the answer, if you really need wheels to be absolute originals. (You could fasten 4 of your own make discs to a Sea- Hawk Nosewheel of course– !!!!!!!!!! and fill in “Clip” recess with filler—————Der, I’ll get me coat !!!!!!)

Lol !!! Have fun,

Bill T.

Ah, no, hang on; the separate rim/hub arrangement is different between the Sea Hawk and the boat cradle-

[ATTACH=CONFIG]238929[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]238930[/ATTACH]

Nuts. :apologetic:

Although it would put my scaling off again- which is quite possible given what I’ve got to work with- the Varsity wheel is definitely the closest match visually so far.

Ooh! And, I’ve just done my scaling exercise afresh, and came up with 14 inches again, too…

Just looked at some Sea Hawk pics, and see what you mean- the other side to that pictures above looks spot on as well…hmmm…even if we could borrow just the one to make a pattern..? Of course, if anyone knew of a set of four just laying about..!

Excellent satisfactory conclusion guys, Yaaaass !! Now where to find the elusive types of wheels. ( S/Hk nosewheels do have the circular discs on other side of wheel too, I just never took pics. of that side 😮 )

Bill T.

Thanks very much for the further input chaps, much appreciated. I definitely concur with VARSITY, the wheels in question match those of a Varsity exactly. Funnily enough my first go at scaling them from the photos came out at 13.5″, so I was closer to being right the first time!

But, where to get some..?

The Varsity has the 4 circular discs on the wheel rim as in your photo.

Possibilities Mike !!!

Hi Mike,
That wheel looks like could be a Sea- Hawk one to me, fitted with a late MK of Spitfire tyre. The sizes quoted in my Dunlop list is:- 26″x6.50″x14″ which about fits in with your size estimates. Here’s Pics. of 2 I’ve just donated to Gatwick Aviation Museum (For their Sea-Hawk that was the late Peter Vallances first Aircraft he obtained. ) ( Very sorry Mike ,as I would have happily donated em to Bluebird project but might be worth talking to them as they only have one Sea-Hawk. ) Anyhow, looking through my Dunlop Lists for Aircraft period Wheels The Sea- Hawk wheels are:- AH 9238 and AH 9548 and these would have been manufactured from around 1949 through to 1960, which seems to fit in with the criteria for BlueBirds construction.
Also note the following Nose wheels are same size, (or very close).

AH 9590 Shackleton
AH 8373 Varsity T Mk 1 ( 26″x7.75″x 13″ )
AH 9139 Vampire T11 / Sea Vampire ) Same size as above.
AH 9199 And AH 50028 Ambassador –:–:—:——:—-

So at least you now have an idea of what’s around. Bet someone will come up with something. Best wishes on the project too.

Bill T.

Hoping for some further help with this one yet…

I see that there aren’t many intact Varsitys on show in the UK, but there were enough of them at one time- are there any spares hoards? Again, was the wheel common with anything else?

Any input much appreciated…

Thanks chaps. Well even a cursory look at some Varsity images seems to show that the wheels are the same, visually anyway. Does anyone know the rim size on the Varsity nose wheel to help confirm?

I wouldn’t get too hung up on the tyres fitted- I’m only guessing, but they are just as likely to have come from elsewhere as anything!

Another question- if they ARE Varsity wheels then 1, who’s got some and 2, did any other aircraft use the same wheel too..?

All input very much appreciated…

Wrong tyre pattern for Varsity.

Looks like Varsity nose wheel.