Afternoon all.
I have been tasked with trying to find a replacement nose cone for our Hunter F4 cockpit section. The Nose has been in store for many years at Jet Age Museum, Gloucester and we have just this weekend taken it inside to see if we can get it in a state to open for visitors. One of the most obvious bits is the missing nose and, to be honest, I wouldn’t know where to start looking.
The Hunter was originally an F4 as XE 664 with 26 sqn, before being returned to Hawker for conversion to a Singaporean T.75 (516). This is the cockpit that was removed during the conversion.
I have attached a photo taken last weekend of the section.
So, I guess the question is… Do you have a spare nose that would fit? Do you know of someone that may have one for sale or, dare I say it, donation 😉
i am willing to travel, but the closer to the Midlands the better.
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Dan
Jet Age restoration team
By: Arabella-Cox - 2nd December 2013 at 18:57
David,
We had access to that in exchange for a canopy, rails, quarter screen plex and radome cover. Parts went to aid my F.4 cockpit and also QA12 owned by MarkG. However they wanted to keep the external structure complete as it’s used as a prop (hence the need for the canopy and plex). It was pretty much rogered though after having sat at Predannack for years.
I was after some of the nose structure to help rebuild 940’s but that was definitely off limits. I now have almost everything, except the top skin panel between frames 3 and 6, which is stopping me completing my nose rebuild.
By: David Burke - 2nd December 2013 at 18:46
I seem to recall a GA11 in fairly parlous condition on a paintball site down your way ! It might be worth asking nicely if they can help
By: Arabella-Cox - 2nd December 2013 at 16:48
Hello Dan,
well, being fairly ‘local’, and having worked on restoring my Hunter since 2000, I may be able to help some. I recall XE664 at the original museum – I learned to fly at Staverton in the early 1990’s.
What I’d suggest is PM’ing me once you’ve had a chat and perhaps drop in to have a look at XF940 sometime and I can show you the bits pertinent to your nose issue. I also have quite a few AP’s, parts of which may be of use which I can probably scan and pdf for you.
Cheers,
Mark.
By: BigDan - 2nd December 2013 at 16:24
Thanks XF940, We had a feeling that it wouldn’t be straightforward, but I thought I’d ask anyways. I must admit, hunters aren’t really in our repertoire of expertise. We obviously wouldn’t want to damage a nosecone, especially if it was on loan. I’m down in Gloucester on Wednesday, so I’ll have a chat with the guys and come back to you, if that’s ok?
Dan
By: Arabella-Cox - 2nd December 2013 at 16:07
You’re missing the Fr.3 bulkhead and attachments to just fit a nose section on there. So it won’t be that straightforward.
I have a nose section for my Hunter which I could have loaned you until such times as you managed to source one permanently, but without the correct attachment clamps fixed the the bulkhead at Fr.3 you’d need to make up some way to clamp the nose onto the existing structure. I’d not be wholly happy about mine being messed with as I’ll need it intact when I get around to fitting it to my cockpit (an F.4 too by the way).
However, as I’m only in Weston-s-Mare, you’re more than welcome to come down and have a look and take measurements etc if you wanted to make up a replacement bulkhead as I have one sitting in my spares pile for rebuilding my nose at some point.
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December 2, 2013 at 3:36 pm