Elliott's Whitley project in FP-news

Hi Cees

It’s being subcontracted out – the nacelle frames and engine bearers have already gone off to be rebuilt. The front turret is currently being rebuilt and work will start on the centre section later this year.

Cheers

Very very Nice Elliott,

Great work you are doing there. What’s the first goal to achieve for the team?
Reconstruction of a nose section?

Cheers

Cees

Hi Cees

Thanks for the mention – yes, as usual things are moving along quietly – more progress was made on the front turret this afternoon, stripping down the valve box and linkages from the front turret controls that originated from a high ground wreck Whitley (corroded nuts are slow work).

I’m still waiting for the missing half of the outer turret ring to come back from the fabricators – I am promised this will happen soon.

Our pilots escape hatch is also coming back together now – the wood is well preserved and still smells new after careful cleaning. One of the wooden members has gone away to a highly qualified person to be repaired before being incorporated back into the frame – once this is done the metalwork will go back on over it.

Here is a picture of the front end of one of our nacelle frames – this was put together about six months ago by a very talented but extremely busy engineer. Some of the joints in these pictures were brought down by Chinook in our Nov 2005 recovery – they are looking much better now and are very much back in the right place.

There is much much more to say, I have updated the website recently and will add a few more recoveries when time permits. Hopefully a more detailed progress report will appear in the aviation press later this year – it is probably the right time for one….

All the best