Messerschmitts for sale

Templates of airframe components are easy for most sheetmetal shops.The critical components are the systems and controls.The Fw190 relied heavily on electrical systems for most of the working parts.I would think original parts that way are hard to find and restore.

True the documentation was mostly in place for the Lynx. How about the work done by Flug-werk, or White-1, have they not recreated many drawings for their work?

Granted, if they are working without drawings the job is impossible – guesswork at best. I just thought that they had access to documentation, or at least a complete airframe as “template”.

There are a huge number of variables – I have been heavily involved in a FW190, and the sheer work involved has to be seen to be believed. They are incredibly complicated aircraft; far more than any other World War 2 fighter. There are very few surviving drawings, and not that much other information either.

Remember that swapping a Lynx airframe over was a well documented, well supported task, with all the parts available and to hand, and full manufacturer support.

Bruce

Its easy to predict a price for something you have never done before.

Those particular projects have been discussed here ad infinitum before now, and are scant to say the least. I would go so far as to suggest that there is not enough material there to even contemplate a rebuild, bearing in mind the complexity of the FW190 – and yes, it is something I do know quite a bit about…!

Bruce

I don’t know how they estimate the work, but 55.000 man-hours is quite a lot of work. It’s actually 28½ full working years, or 7 men working 37 hour weeks in 4 years – actual work, not coffee breaks and milling about. I like to call it Marshall of Cambridge work-hours.

We used to swap airframes on Lynx helicopters in 18.000 hours and that’s A LOT of work. So restoring an Fw-190 in 55.000 hours does not seem all that crazy to me, allowing for some parts to be purchased from subcontractors. At £25 an hour, the actual work only comes to about £1,4m, so there are a good bit left for materials and whatever extra is needed.

As I understand it, they are not actually rebuilding the aircraft, but rather constructing a new one, based on the identity of the wreck. I’m pretty sure that no functional part from the wreck will ever be certified and deemed airworthy. The engines are from somewhere else it appears.

For a professional workshop with tools and materials ready, you can get pretty far in 55.000 hours. If it’s some garage outfit, they will never finish, not even in 100.000 hours. I have no idea about their actual setup, I just think it sounds possible if the setup is right.

Hi all, as chumpy says there are many many more parts in rear fuse of a spitfire. For example take frms 12 through to 19, there are 14 frame halfs,1 full frame that is frm 19, small half frm 18A, 14 joint plates, 20 spine attachment cleats, 1 spine, 2 lower longerons, 2 datum longerons, roughly 200 intercostals and roughly 500 frame to intercostal & longeron cleats !!!! this only takes care of half the aircraft & doesnt include the skins . There are 14 of those.

Yeah we are finding that out.Even more fun when your working it all out from scratch..