Halifax Messier undercarriage casting

Hi

The casting was solid but made from magnesium (which is light). The magnesium is very corrosive so that explains why so few castings have survived.

Cheers

Cees

Excuse my ignorance etc

But is that one lump or is it hollow??

I imagine its hollow, as if it was made from any material it would be a bit heavy!

There certainly is one Hastings undercarriage assembly at MOTAT in Auckland , I seem to remember engines and wing assemblys from a Hastings behind hangers at Dairy Flat , North Auckland , probably 20 years ago .

Alan,

yes with a lot of imagination though, the Hastings undercarriage casting was much skinnier than the Halifax.
Being cast from magnesium doesns’t help surviving six decades one bit. Although the one in Holland is well preserved and regularly painted. The prop from this aircraft was retrieved by me and a friend and later sent via the UK to Canada.
Cheers

Cees

Enlighten me!

NZ = Hastings = “Halifax undercarriage”

Wonder how that undercarriage leg ended up in New Zealand AFAIK no Halifax ever went there?

Enlighten me!:rolleyes:

Cees

That Halifax u/c casting!

Hi Cees,

We tried to borrow the Halifax u/c casting from the RAF Museum and they could not find it. They did tell us that it had come from the lobby of the Dowty/Messier building when they had ‘packed it in’.

The RAFM could find the paperwork but not the actual casting. Later we discovered that YAM had borrowed it and they kindly provided us with the moulds they had used to cover their undercarriage.

There was another undercarriage leg ‘allegedly’ in New Zealand and they wanted us to locate an old, rare, aircraft engine for them and then they would consider an exchange. They declined to provide us with photographs of the alleged undercarriage leg!

That`s a nice bit Cees !!!