Firefly restoration

Where’s the salivating smiley when you need one? 😉 That’s a PROPER aeroplane, if ever there was one!

Unfortunatly the Cockpit section was scrapped about four years ago!!!
It is quite frightning that we are still losing items like this in this day & age.

Fortunatly the Windscreen assembly was removed before scrapping ,which i managed to aquire.

Thanks for that ! It’s nice to see a section surviving after all these years!

Yes it was from a Sea Hornet PR.22. It was still there when the yard was cleared in 1980! 🙁

Hmm, so what happens when a scrapyard gets ‘cleared’? Does it all go for scrap 😮

I can confirm the cockpit section is ex Failsworth.

The late Gene Fisher purchased the Diemert Firefly multi-seater and subsequently purchased a cockpit section from Unimetals/Failsworth to assist the restoration back to….well actually he was heading for an earlier marque with the short Griffon.

The section he purchased was after the long engines had been removed for Spitfires following the Spencer Flack purchase.

The other Firefly under restoration in the US, the ex Nick Grace example, went firstly to Ward Wilkins, then Butch Schroeder, Lone Star Flight museum, Wally Fiske and then I believe the current owner.

Mark

That’s a Sea Hornet wing in the first pic isn’t it… ‘VZ’ something…:eek:

Yes it was from a Sea Hornet PR.22. It was still there when the yard was cleared in 1980! 🙁

That’s a Sea Hornet wing in the first pic isn’t it… ‘VZ’ something…:eek:

It is nice to see this project progressing so well, can someone explain something though, They say in the words that go with the WD840 project that one item they have used is the main fuel tank from the spare fuselage section. The top of it is visible in one picture.
My question is, whats it made from, I would have expected it to be a rubber self sealing bag tank that old age would have made unuseable, or is it a metal tank, perhaps with a self sealing layer over it.

Richard

Ah! Yes I see what you mean.

That donor section has a very Failsworth look about it.

It will not have come cheap!

Some shots of the ten or so Fireflies taken on a shopping trip with Spencer Flack in July 1979. The prize then was the Griffon engines still therein.

Mark

Indeed – my interest stems from what looks to be one of the ‘missing’ Failsworth front fuselage’s .

Click on the project -Stage 1 Transport and scroll down !

Saw this over on WIX ! The Firefly cockpit looks distinctly ex Failsworth
http://www.davescustomsheetmetal.com/Projects%20Main.html

Ex Failsworth?

Surely the ex Bob Diemert multi-seater.

Mark