Keith Park BofB Hurricane mistake

Excellent Mark. There’s more to work with than I’d imagined. I hope it eventually comes to something.

AC Cobra Cars

Dave H,

That would have been the operation rebuilding an Indian Tempest, since moved on. It was the proprietor of AC Cars who make/made the famous Cobra conversions.

Ted’s is a more humbler affair. Here is a shot I have just dug out – as recovered. It looks more exciting than I remembered. The best bit was although the RAF serial was not known there was still painted evidence on the forward fuselage of a number of ‘Doodlebug’ V1 kills.

Mark

Cheers Mark, excellent story. It is also thanks to you for following up the leads in the first place. Well done to all three of you for rescuing them.

I vaguely recall an article in Flypast years ago (early 1990’s?) about a guy who was rstoring a Tempest Mk II to get it airborne, and he also restored cars (Jaguar I think). This isn’t Ted is it? Can’t recall more details sorry. I’m sure there are very few Tempests left, and less Typhoons for that matter.

Tempests & Typhoons

DaveH,

This was a lead I followed up circa 1980. I had a report that there were four aircraft front fuselages at a car scrapyard – the exact location escapes me but towards Bristol area. Of course they had to be Spitfires but an indepndant check revealed them to be two Typhoons and two Tempests. I had more than enough to do with projects I had at that time and I alerted near neighbour and friend Ted Sinclair to their location. He immediately purchased the Tempests as they had front windscreens, and looked the more exciting, and passed the Typhoon details to Mike Cookman who acquired them.

Ted still has the Tempests and they have grown. The Typhoons must be out there somewhere and I am sure fellow Forum members can enlighten us.

We must be grateful to people like Ted, born hoarders and junk collectors, who take on impossible scrap and are the custodians for that crucial period before they become commercially viable, fashionable, truly collectable… delete as required.

Mark

Re: NZ Hurricane Replica

Originally posted by Mark12
Ted Sinclair in the UK, he of two Tempests and two Typhoons, built/acquired/orchestrated a full size Hurricane replica, non BoB film, and shipped it, from distant memory, about twenty five years plus ago.

Mark

Mark, I was meaning to ask, can you tell me anything about the Tempests and Typhoons please? Are they real and still extant?

Dave

Last time I saw that Hurricane it was outside a pub at Green Tye, Hertfordshire. I think it was my justification for visiting the pub.
It was mentioned on an earlier thread.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16487
Long way to go to see it again.

Cheers Mark,

So that one now at Wanaka definately was Ted Sinclair’s Hurricane, judging by the fine structure inside seen on the Omaka website. And this backs up what Bill Rayner at Motat told me, that the Omaka one is very much an ‘exact replica’ as he put it, where the one on their plinth is a ‘plastic model’ as he said.

Still I do wonder where the second Motat one came from. I guess there are several moulds around – the RAF made a few plastic Hurricanes, didn’t they? One at Hendon I think.

James, I’m not sure what you’re drinking, but have another ONE on me 🙂

I hope you find the article Septic, cheers

JDK

I had been ‘onedering’ that.

Mark

I seem to remember an article in control column magazine regarding the Ok -1 Hurricane replica, I will try to find it but it may take a few days.

Septic.

Sorry, can’t help myself:

Gee, that 1 must add value to that one.

Are you sure that one is an original one for the provenance? One finds that one’s aircraft often have the wrong one painted or applied, leading to all sorts of suspicions about one and one’s aircraft.

Or is one above all this (up a pole perchance?)

Normal service will be resumed… 😀

The Keith Park Hurricane.

DaveH,

I spoke with Ted Sinclair tonight to clear up some of the points and I must correct an error in my previous post.

The replica was a Battle of Britain film replica but it was special. Ted believes it to be the protoype made at Pinewood. It has different construction to the others, was more robust and had number 1 painted on the internal structure parts. It was also fabric covered like a real Hurricane. It is both mine and Ted’s belief that the Hurricane replicas were fibreglass covered. Indeed it is possible that the moulds for the latter were taken from this fabric proto example.

Ted was actually the third owner post the film and acquired it from a publican at Sawbridgeworth. He tells tales of axles catching fire as he towed it to Haverhill before eventually parking it in a lay-by and finally hiring a low loader. Ted did a lot of work on the structure before parting with it to MOTAT. Vampire wheels were replaced with Spitfire/Hurricane type. The structures was re-aligned and strengthened before departure in the mid 1970’s.

That photo I posted was just prior to shipment and is outside the workshop barn in the UK.

Mark

In lieu of my own photos which are yet to be developed, there is a photo of the Current Motat Hurricane from Brendan Deere’s website.

The photo is here
http://www.integration.co.nz/aviation/aircraft/Motat/Hurrrep.jpg

The Motat page is here
http://www.integration.co.nz/aviation/Motat.htm

And the homepage is here
http://www.integration.co.nz/aviation/Aviation.htm

Incidentally, Brendan Deere is the nephew of Spitfire ace Al Deere.

Now I am thoroughly confused as hell. It seems I was right in the first place – the Omaka Hurricane IS ex-Battle of Britain film, and IS ex-Motat.

Its whole history is here on the Omaka Classic Fighters site
http://www.classicfighters.co.nz/aircraft/hurricanebob.htm

So, where on earth did the current Motat Hurricane come from, and why didn’t the museum curator I spoke with, Bill Rayner, know that the Omaka one had been at Motat before. He assured me the one on their plinth now had always been there.

So is the CURRENT Motat plane the Ted Sinclair one? If so, where was it before they got it?

Bill described there one (the current one) as basically a big plastic model, whereas the Omaka one having been built on a proper superstructre like a proper Hurricane’s – which is seen on the site. So the current one is apparently fibreglass shell, whereas the Omaka one is more complex and has a fibreglass skin.

When i went there in 1996 I don’t think there was a Hurricane at all, and my previous trip to that in about 1990 I saw it derelict with a broken wing thanks to vandals. This would have been the one now at Omaka this one pictured below, from the site mentioned above

Keith Park Hurricane replica

DaveH,

Here is a shot that Ted Sinclair gave to me at some time in the early/mid 1970’s.

I cannot be sure if this was taken in the UK before delivery, or on arrival in NZ.

Mark

Cheers Mark,

If this is so, then it has to be the one in Omaka. The one in Auckland is without doubt from the film. Here’s the Omaka one, I’ll post photos of the Auckalnd one when they are developed.

I wonder where the Omaka one was housed for that length of time, has it always been at Omaka?

NZ Hurricane Replica

Ted Sinclair in the UK, he of two Tempests and two Typhoons, built/acquired/orchestrated a full size Hurricane replica, non BoB film, and shipped it, from distant memory, about twenty five years plus ago.

Mark