Is there a Walrus flying boat under restoration to fly?

  I actually took this photo along with many others of W2718 arriving at the Charles Church/Dick Melton facility, In Hampshire.

On the left is Steve Atkin from Warbird Colours and Dave Pontin.

I’m happy to share them, it was a delight to see the photos myself.

It’s certainly come a long way from the caravan!!

I have found this image on the web. There is no clue as to the copyright holder, so apologies to whoever it may be.

It is in slightly worse condition than I remember it being in when I saw it. 

Now those Walrus photos really do show great promise. Dare one ask, is there a rough first flight year pencilled in yet? Or as with the ARCO Lysander, work steadily pedals away as and when time permits away from time specific job? Are the wings yet underway?

As an aside question, is the Walrus undercarriage pump really the same as early Mark l Spitfires? Are the rudder pedals also the same? Or is that just a nice fireside tale for long evenings?

One thing we can be sure of is that when the ARCO team are finished it will be another amazing piece work gracing our skies – and air shows!

Thanks for sharing those photos – I hadn’t seen or heard anything about this one for a while.  Certainly an interesting project!

A few photos of G-WLRS at Duxford – including one on the grass – have popped up on Flickr and Facebook in recent weeks.

1143:G-WLRS / X9556 by David Whitworth, on Flickr

IMG_6981 by Fred Taylor, on Flickr

Yes, it is at Duxford, in the ARCO hangar. Now registered as G-WLRS.

Almost certainly, Aerotony, it is. Photographs of it? I suggest that you have a word with the Archivist at Solent Sky Museum. It was brought back to Southampton and parked for a some time in the Museum’s yard. Maybe they can help you?

I do not know the current return to air situation (can anyone help, please?) but it was at the Vintage Fabrics facility at Audley End. However I heard some gossip suggesting that it may have moved on to a group at Duxford – but don’t rely on that comment.

At some point in the mid 1960s I saw a Walrus caravan parked up with other caravans at the rear of Cams Hall, Fareham. I assume that it was the same one. Are there any pictures of it as a caravan?

May I add a little more background about the pre – restoration history of Walrus GRNLI. David Green, who was the Spitfire Society Founder was approached by a gentleman living in Gosport, Hampshire – sorry to say I do not recall the year – saying that a relative had a converted front fuselage section of what might be a Supermarine Walrus in his Gosport garden and it was now in the way. DG went over and found a previously road worthy home conversion touring caravan!

DG, of course said yes please but had nowhere to ‘park’ it. At that time the Society had office only premises in Southampton opposite the then Solent Aviation Museum (now Solent Sky Museum) . Result was that the Walrus caravan was parked in their staff car park for a quite lengthy period of time. Dick Melton and Charles Church heard about it eventually and the ‘caravan’ went up to the Popham workshops and restoration commenced. If I recall correctly Dick Melton did complete the main structure of the fuselage just before Charles Church died in a tragic Spitfire accident near Blackbush.

Dick Melton I believe eventually moved away to Lowestoft and the Walrus went with him. I guess the rest of the history is as given in Post #21 but at some point I believe that Aeroplane Monthly in that era provided a very accurate story of the whole saga.

Bit late in replying, but thanks for the update Geoff.

Great to see! Thanks for taking the time to reach out to them Geoff, and for sharing the reply.

🙂 That looks lovely, Thank you for posting and good luck to the team involved.:eagerness:

Very good – and really hoping this time it does finally get to flight status.

And again I will reiterate my admiration and gratitude to owners who are prepared to restore and / or operate something ‘different’!

Rob

Hi All,
Trumper,Sopwith and others,
Here below is the reply to my enquiry about Walrus W2718 (G-RNLI).

Hi,
Thanks for your query re our Walrus project.
Work continues, mostly focussed on the back end. Over the past 18 months we have built a new tailplane from two wrecked ones and have almost completed a new rudder based on a surviving spar. Next project will be the elevator.
Attached a picture of the rudder under construction by our engineer, Mike Fenton.
Happy for you to publish any of this.
Regards
Andrew
Andrew Herbert
GRNLI Owner’s Representative.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]241780[/ATTACH]

Geoff.

Well done Geoff be interesting what progress has been made.

Hi All,
trumper and all interested,
This was discussed on the Forum many moons ago this from 2009:- http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?88007-Supermarine-Walrus-to-fly-fantastic

This from Wiki (Amended thanks to MkV:eagerness:) and as mentioned by others on this thread:- Walrus W2718 (G-RNLI)
This aircraft was at one time part of the collection of Solent Sky,[41] an air museum in Southampton. restoration work was carried out by Dick Melton Aviation in the early 1990’s. Later the project was sold to James Lyle and the restoration restarted in 2011 at Vintage Fabrics, Audley End, Essex.

I have fired off an e-mail for any update info so fingers crossed…..:eagerness:

Geoff.

Wasn’t there a problem with finding the right type of Pegasus engine?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden1967/9280765901

🙂 Thank you.