Firefly back on Ebay

Manchester air & space museum

Does any one have any have any photos of The Firefly cockpit section(WB440),when it was on display at the Manchester air & space museum?

Gratefull for any help.:D

Item was sold for the asking price! Would the buyer be Paul Harcourt?:confused:

No.

😀

Item was sold for the asking price! Would the buyer be Paul Harcourt?:confused:

Couple of items from Flypast’s of yesteryear, June & July 1983……..

Mark,

Well no, i was hoping you’d know what you had on your hard drive.

That said, i did find some interesting photo’s of yours in the Failsworth thread, thus……..

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20216

😀

I have checked.

You are seeing there all the images on my hard-drive that I took on that day at Failsworth.

Mark

Mark,

Well no, i was hoping you’d know what you had on your hard drive.

That said, i did find some interesting photo’s of yours in the Failsworth thread, thus……..

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20216

😀

Mark12,

You posted other Firefly images in the ‘Scrapyards thread’ including IIRC, some after the engines had been cut out and lying on their sides.

Without checking, and assuming they didn’t survive the mass 5Mb forum limit photo cull of late 2006….. can you post more please ?

.

Can you give me the post numbers to the thread titles?

That is a mighty big thread.

Mark

Cees,

You have to get this in to a July 1979 context. I had flown up to Manchester with Spencer Flack, he bottom left of image, to finalise a difficult negotiation with the Unimetals management. Not easy.

Spencer was endeavouring to make a bulk purchase of the Fireflies purely for the Griffon 74 engines to part service a number of Mk XIV and XVIII Spitfires, most recently imported from India and this he did. This was high risk on an unknown condition for a high price. Dave Zeuchal was the favoured engine builder at that time.

The engines were unceremoniously gas-axed out, the residue of the Firefly airframes being scrapped or given away. Gene Fisher in the US had some parts I recall.

It would not be the same today.

Mark

Hi Mark,

No problem, of course it’s not possible to compare the present day movement against the past. Just wondering what happened to this large number of Firefly cockpitsections compared to the few that have survived to this day.
In those days (I think, you have more experience with this) wrecks in this condition were considered scrap. These days anything can be used for a reconstruction/rebuild. This shows the development of the warbird movement in the UK (and the world for that matter).
I knew from one of the first FlyPasts I bought (March 1983) that Dave Zeuschel rebuilt the Griffon for G-FIRE. Now I understand the logistics needed for an important part of that project.

Thanks.

Cees

Mark12,

You posted other Firefly images in the ‘Scrapyards thread’ including IIRC, some after the engines had been cut out and lying on their sides.

Without checking, and assuming they didn’t survive the mass 5Mb forum limit photo cull of late 2006….. can you post more please ?

.

Mark,

Impressive sight.
What happened to the other forward fuselages (and props that were in the same yard). Were these sold for spares to aid air racing in the US. If so, was
this the cache Dave Zeuschel was involved with?

Cees

Cees,

You have to get this in to a July 1979 context. I had flown up to Manchester with Spencer Flack, he bottom left of image, to finalise a difficult negotiation with the Unimetals management. Not easy.

Spencer was endeavouring to make a bulk purchase of the Fireflies purely for the Griffon 74 engines to part service a number of Mk XIV and XVIII Spitfires, most recently imported from India and this he did. This was high risk on an unknown condition for a high price. Dave Zeuchal was the favoured engine builder at that time.

The engines were unceremoniously gas-axed out, the residue of the Firefly airframes being scrapped or given away. Gene Fisher in the US had some parts I recall.

It would not be the same today.

Mark

The Firefly section in the Manchester museum surely, from memory, looked superior in appearance to the ebay images.:confused:

Mark

Mark,

Impressive sight.
What happened to the other forward fuselages (and props that were in the same yard). Were these sold for spares to aid air racing in the US. If so, was
this the cache Dave Zeuschel was involved with?

Cees

[QUOTE=Mark12;1156853]The Firefly section in the Manchester museum surely, from memory, looked superior in appearance to the ebay images.:confused:

Mark

Although the cockpit section did indeed look quite presentable whilst at the Manchester museum, close inspection would have revealed it had suffered quite badly during its exposure to the elements whilst at Failsworth, with many of the castings being severly pitted. The restoration work appeared to my untrained eye to have been very much conservation / cosmetic rather than structural.

cockpit

The last time she was in one piece was when the Royal Navy owned her. She was a restored cockpit plus Griffon at Manchester circa mid 1980’s,

The Griffon was a sectioned one on loan from the Fleet air arm museum.
The cockpit was on loan to the Manchester museum.
It has been for sale since the early 90’s started at 20k

The Firefly section in the Manchester museum surely, from memory, looked superior in appearance to the ebay images.:confused:

Mark

firefly

sorry i thought the aircraft was a complete airframe this wasnt clear in the initial thread and explains the failsworth link id assumed she was intact, so who owned the nose section when it was on display in manchester.:cool: 😎 😎

The last time she was in one piece was when the Royal Navy owned her. She was a restored cockpit plus Griffon at Manchester circa mid 1980’s,

….and wasn’t she merely on loan to (and not owned by) the museum ?

The last time she was in one piece was when the Royal Navy owned her. She was a restored cockpit plus Griffon at Manchester circa mid 1980’s,

firefly WB 440

if the aircraft was once a complete airframe whats happened to all the other components over the years and why did the Air and Space museum remove it from display? unless it was lack of space there does anyone know the real reason?,its tragic when this happens to a classic aircraft, viewing the remains its not beyond restoration even just as a nose section, but if its being reoffered obviously people arent that interested and it could end up being scrapped or just forgotten,has anyone a photo of the aircraft in one piece please 😎 😎 😎

Yes

Are you sure that this is the same one that was in the Air and space museum. I remember it being immaculate when displayed.