How to contribute to the Whirlwind replica

Dave Gibbins, Archivist at AgustaWestland, is your man. He’s ‘Judwin’ on here – but he’s also easy enough to find elswhwere – if you call AW on the Yeovil number in the phone book they’ll put you right through – sorry, I don’t have it in front of me here.

Thanks Beermat

Do you know who I can contact to find out more info on the drawings ?.

Bob T.

Tell them it’s a rare twin engined Spitfire, that might get them interested :rolleyes:

Bob T.

Easy mistake to make, after all..

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By the way, as a late answer to your question, Bob – Both wood and metal types in the Wapiti drawings at Westland..

Very true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hector

They did indeed, they also built Hectors “far more interesting than Spitfires lol”.

Bob T.

Well Westlands built the odd Spit did they not>>>

Tell them it’s a rare twin engined Spitfire, that might get them interested :rolleyes:

Bob T.

Very true, come one Flypast you know where we are.

How about the other way round? Why hasn’t FlyPast contacted them yet seing the great progress the project
is making.
Cees

Just a thought has anyone on the team contacted Flypast Magazine regards an article?

Hi Chris

I’ve had the conversation.. and identified some key players in making something happen. Tell you the details when we next catch up via Skype messenger..

Looking forward to it Matt

Hi Chris

I’ve had the conversation.. and identified some key players in making something happen. Tell you the details when we next catch up via Skype messenger..

A good few ideas there matt

if so, there is a fair chance that a sizeable sum could be acquired by the museum for your project from external funding bodies especially if said museum has younger volunteers who could make parts whilst learning their skills from older tradesmen, or the museum has a Whirlwind link or some such.

Yeovil perhaps?

Thanks Rich – I will be picking the bones out of those later – very useful!

Also, thank you for all that food for thought, Johnny. That has already sparked off as couple of ideas for collaborators.. more to follow.

..and yes please on Whirlwind parts from Dumfries! It sounds like you might know exactly where the scrapping happened?

Beermat, I suspect you are quite right in your funding plan and that personal donation is the easiest way to start out. However, it may be that it should only form part of your funding ‘cocktail’…

I assume you have thought of the fate of the end product? If you have earmarked a museum which will house and display the finished aircraft, you need to sit and talk to them before any metal is cut. The reasoning behind this is that virtually every museum is already a charity, will by definition have a heritage aspect to their operation, and most will have an educational aspect. If so, there is a fair chance that a sizeable sum could be acquired by the museum for your project from external funding bodies especially if said museum has younger volunteers who could make parts whilst learning their skills from older tradesmen, or the museum has a Whirlwind link or some such.

The point is that externnal funding IS out there – it may be hiding, but it does exist. A bit of collaborative thinking and forward planning might see things better funded than you think. Downside is that no funder I have come across will fund retrospectively – ie if the construction phase has started, you can’t apply. If you can continue to busy yourselves with cad work and research for another few months and attach a start and finish date (these could be far apart) to the project, you will have a nice, neat, educational project to sell. Also worth remembering that to work with young people brings it’s own workload – disclosure etc.

That lot said, good luck, and if we find any Whirlwind parts here at Dumfries (where most were scrapped) they’re yours!

I’m a frayed knot, Jon

We are looking at this. The definitions of the aims of a group that the Charities Commission require are the tricky bit. We need to use the ‘Heritage’ and ‘Educational’ aspects (listed as qualifiers for charitable status), but I for one don’t know how to phrase it. Does anyone have a copy of the wording of a successful bid to the commission for a similar project?

I don’t know if it helps, but this is the charities commission entry for the Shackleton Preservation Trust.

http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityFramework.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1020951&SubsidiaryNumber=0

…and here’s the one for the Vulcan to the Sky Trust.

http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1101948&SubsidiaryNumber=0

I imagine the wording of the aims and framework of either could be adapted, and are equally applicable to the Whirlwind.

Regards

Rich

Yes, there are websites – I have had a look around, they appear geared to other things – for example Kickstarter is for ‘Creatives’ – film-makers, authors, sculptors. There is a long pre-qualification process to go through to get your project on these sites. Also, they collect a 5% fee. And, if we do get charitable status, then we can’t use Kickstarter – they specifically rule this out, as do other sites.

So I thought about it, and it’s really much simpler to ask for an email promise on the same principle (in fact it wasn’t my idea – thanks Jim).

Having said that, if there is an appropriate ‘building/restoring heritage items’ pledge site that was free or close to it then I’d look at it.

Is there not already a website available for this type of funding in the UK? Kickstarter being the biggest I know of in the US and PledgeMe a New Zealand version- http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/7593086/Kiwi-crowd-funding-takes-off

And some very quick research returns many options on google and answers my own question.

I’m a frayed knot, Jon

We are looking at this. The definitions of the aims of a group that the Charities Commission require are the tricky bit. We need to use the ‘Heritage’ and ‘Educational’ aspects (listed as qualifiers for charitable status), but I for one don’t know how to phrase it. Does anyone have a copy of the wording of a successful bid to the commission for a similar project?

Does this now signal that the group has gained charitable status?

Jon