Outside the TFC hangar this morning

Droptank, I think you’ll find that all of Kermit Weeks restorations are airworthy. It’s the number of unrestored aeroplanes which is the problem, of which the Tempest is one. It was on the flightline at the Lakeland Sun’n’fun show last year, and if I had the technology I would post some very nice shots of it but I haven’t so I can’t!!
It still looks just as good as when it left Duxford, so at least it is being looked after and not just stored in a box.

As for TFCs Beau, I agree with Yak11fan, it will fly eventually, and I look forward to it.

Does anyone know what the longest running airworthy restoration project is?

My vote is for DH Rapide G-AGJG at Duxford which has been under constant restoration since at least 1976!!

Willow

In reply to Mr Burkes and Digbys post i believe both could possibly be the case in question with TFCs BEAU, without engines and props your going nowhere fast and without the resources the same applies.

As DIGBY rightly says resources are the biggest factor,ie KERMITT WEEKS is a good example,look at all the a/c the man has how many fly in the collection,not many against the restorations is it.

In a nut shell you can have a complete example of a warbird sitting there waiting its turn for restoration for many years ie TEMPEST 2 even if your a multi-millionaire like Mr Weeks but how many people do you employ to get all your collection flying in your lifetime.

Mr Burke I am not wrong If you read my post I was posting in reply to Ant harrington and referance to TFC Beufighter as I was told that there are spares and components waiting for the TFC BEU but NOBODY to work on them. I am quite aware of how difficult it must be to find spares for any rebuild

I can appreciate the length of time a rebuild takes, having at times been involved in restorations and also the money soaked up into it. I personally would love to see the Beaufighter fly and would applaud TFC and it’s engineers for having the courage to tackle such a beast. I would rather it takes another 10 years if it means it will fly at the end of the day

i find it strange that all the armchair engineers amongst you can not appreciate the complexity of restorations.
problems during rebuild are like walls that take time and a lot of patience to scale. yes it did take 12 years to build the first blenheim but with knowledge gained the second only took five. the beaufighter is a totally different kettle of fish the construction is two generation on from the blenheim and poses many different brick walls to scale
stop the knocking and wait for the great day

Originally posted by Moggy C
Amazing what you find isn’t it?

And quite a few of the pubs have a treasured aviation connection. There’s even one called the Flying Fortress which I have yet to visit.

Moggy

You’ve never tried the Flying Fortress Moggy? Not a bad pub as they go, beer is good, or was last time I went there

Originally posted by Moggy C
And quite a few of the pubs have a treasured aviation connection. There’s even one called the Flying Fortress which I have yet to visit.

Moggy

If you mean the one in Bury St Edmunds, it’s well worth a visit. I went in about a year ago, and heartily recommend it. Even got it’s own brown road sign now apparently! 😀

Digby – I am afraid your wrong. I have been involved in finding spares for a Beaufighter restoration for many years and they are most definately a problem. There are plenty of Varsity Hercules 264’s in circulation but the desired powerplant in reality is the Hastings unit. There are a finite quantity of them around and quite often you find that they havn’t lasted that well if their storage has been poor.
Propellor assemblies are also almost non-existant if you want
to run with three bladers .One project has opted for the original Hercules XVIII and that again poses massive problems but it can be done.
Simply put it’s far more difficult to put a Beau back in the air than a Bolingbroke because of the scarcity of spares.

I think that not only would there be a problem with sourcing the correct or alternative Herc engines but also the propeller assemblies as the nearest type to have the Herc engine was the Bristol Freighter ‘Wheelbarrow’ but that had a four blade where as the beau is a three.
Then there is the Tail which is not a five minute job by any standard
Plus ‘little’ details like getting tyres made

I would think that restoring a Spitfire is ‘childs play’ relatively speaking in comparison as parts are more common place along with experienced engineers merlins are more plentyful etc.

Originally posted by Mark2
Moggy….

You must visit some VERY nice pubs.

Oh… how I do miss ’em!!!!

Was fortunate enough to spend three years in East Anglia ’78 – ’81 and have MANY fond memories!!!! 🙂

Mark

ps You must plan to write a book “Moogy’s Air Enthusiasts’ Pub Guide”.

Amazing what you find isn’t it?

We were busy scanning the Knettishall pics and getting outside some Adnams when a guy says

“If you think those are good, I’ve got hundreds in my car that are better”

We says “Oh yes?”

He goes out to his car and comes back with a box full of pristine B&W prints of which this was one.

Turns out he took them in as recompense for a bad debt.

I’ve seen several of the photographs before, in print, including the one I will post early next week which I think lots of you will recognise.

There were negative numbers on the back of the prints, but no other identification.

Yes. I live here in East Anglia out of choice. The beer is great if you can avoid Greene King (Getting harder by the day) the landscape is littered with disuseds, the sky is full of F15s, it is Heaven on Earth.

And quite a few of the pubs have a treasured aviation connection. There’s even one called the Flying Fortress which I have yet to visit.

Moggy

Ant you are way off beam as a source has said it’s not a matter of spares and parts it’s manpower at this time and as I am sure you can figure out you can have all the parts etc in the world but without anyone to bolt them all together I rest my case

No offence Droptank,but I’m not sure you understand the way these restorations go.It quite often happens that you have to wait for a part to either be restored or built before you can progress further,hence the lack of obvious progress on the Beau.There are quite a number of bits you simply have to wait for before you can go on with the restoration.As an example,TFC have been investigating the possibilities of modifying the engine mounts to accept a later verson of Herc,servicable examples of the early versions being seeimingly extinct.An outside company has to design the mod,which then has to be approved etc etc.There is no point doing work which later has to be undone.You simply have to have patience and let things take as long as they take.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see work being done on airshow days either-all the TFC staff will be out organising things on the flightline.
As an aside,the Beau piccy that Moggy put up is a Banff Strike Wing example according to the caption in Osprey’s British Warplanes of World War Two.

Moggy….

You must visit some VERY nice pubs.

Oh… how I do miss ’em!!!!

Was fortunate enough to spend three years in East Anglia ’78 – ’81 and have MANY fond memories!!!! 🙂

Mark

ps You must plan to write a book “Moggy’s Air Enthusiasts’ Pub Guide”.

There that’s better 🙂

I have visited duxford off/on for many years now looking at the aircraft being restored and from what i can remember ARC or whatever they were called in the 80s, during their blenheim restoration only had a few other planes to look after as well.

The point i am making WILLOW is TFC has a lot more on its plate than a few a/c and i guess with their resources they have something has to give and i believe the beau is way down the list .

Also they have legends to deal with,they must have time -scales to meet on getting the fleet ready for the show,can anybody see the beau flying in the uk?

So what difference are you refering to?

Both are/were privately owned aircraft under restoration by paid staff with the assistance of volunteers. The aircraft are of roughly similar size and complexity (someone in the know is going to shoot me down about that last comment, I bet), and were in a similar state on arrival. The Blenheim probably had an advantage in that there are more spares availible (they started with 2 airframes I think), but the Beaufighter has the advantage of the modern advances in restoration techniques. It’s surprising to think that the first Blenheim restoration flew in Mid1987, some 16years ago!

Over to you

Kermit the Frog (nee willow)

I was thinking more on the lines of restoration you muppet,one thing we do agree on, it is good to see TFC do the majority of their work in public view.

The beau is a big restoration for any group,but add all the other projects as well something has to give,plus all the flyers surely.

The point I was making is that just because you can’t see anyone working on it doesn’t mean that it’s not being worked on. System and engine work can take place elsewhere and can hold up re-assembly work.

We should be grateful that TFCs restorations take place where we can see them, unlike Historic Flying who have there own very private building, from which finished aeroplanes appear.

Willow

P.S. difference between Beaufighter and Blenheim. Hmmmm…

I’m guessing that the Beaufighter is faster.:D

Didn`t mean to be to negative WILLOW but answer me this one,if a project is not worked on how does it get finished,the difference between the blenheim and the beau is huge can you guess why.

Fair enough Moggy, Thanks anyway. Nice shot.

DROPTANK, you should be aware that restorations like this DO take a long while. The actual airframe is one of the less time consuming items to restore. With all due respect to panel bashers everywhere, the frames and skin are probably the simplest part of a restoration process compared to the engines (which must be a problem in the Beaufighters case) and systems such as hydraulics and electrics

Don’t be too hasty, it’ll get there in the end. The first Blenheim took twelve years to restore.

Willow

Originally posted by Willow
But quite topical, you must agree!

Moggy, any details on the original shot?

Willow

Nope.

Another shot I found in a pub 🙂

Moggy