RAFM Hendon have her paper in their archive…

Martin’s quite right on his last point, from when I last looked into this particular side of things the copyright would still be held by the original creator unless the new work was substantially different from the original, rather than just a copy. A good guide to this sort of thing is “Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers” by Tim Padfield, he’s looks after (or did) these things for The National Archives.

Hello Peter, try making an official request to Hendon to see AP 114P-0200, 0300 and 0801 (ASV 21 in various incarnations) series. The AP’s got renumbered into the modern series, I can’t garuntee that they’ll be there but its the most up to date reference for the equipment, you may have more luck than with AP2890G – The answer was lying in AP113 Book 4, for anybody that’s developing an interest in AP’s… 😉

In the Air Publication series there is one volume called “guide to engineering publications” which lists all the aircraft, engine and related manuals at about 1944-1945 and also explains how the air publication system works – I can’t remember the AP number for this one and I’m not a work to check I’m afraid. You could also try the AP 113 series, which is a catalogue of forms, publications etc. we’ve got several copies from different periods at Hendon, but it could be a bit of a trawl. Of course there is the mighty AP1086 series, stores vocab, this often has references to AP for specific equipment.

A word of warning on the engine APs – some of the (higher I think?!:confused: ) volumes refer to what’s sometimes known as power eggs or engine change units (ECUs), a complete assembly of engine and ancillary equipment (such as starters, oil systems etc.), designed to speed up engine changes, you’ll get plenty of infomation overal but not tremendous details on the engine itself – I mention it because the titles can be a bit misleading and you could end up ordering a copy of a publication you didn’t really want.

Thanks for the compliment Bruce, we don’t tend to get many round here lately! 😉

It’s a nice idea, the thought of hundreds of people or groups doing there own little bit and then bringing it together, I’m sure it would do a lot strengthening the ties between everyone within our area of interest. Unfortunately I’m with Bruce on this regards practicalities, if you were to look at something like the organisation that kept all the companies feeding into the Mosquito construction run to time, budget and specification (which I’m sure Bruce knows far more about than I) I doubt it could be done in a voluntary way. Of course if we took the hypothetical Siskin its not like trying to rebuild a Vulcan, so I wouldn’t say never…

Speaking as a Hendon nmpty (:mad: grrr!), RAFM does do its own work – the Sopwith Dolphin is a prime example of some beautiful work. However where work has gone external I don’t recall multiple contractors being used, which of course keeps project management much more simple…even then we’re not that flush for funds:(

Nothing like a spot of Hendon bashing, not 😡 🙁 😡 🙁

Anyway, from what I remember off the top of my head (why I answer these questions when I’m not in the office where the info is in black and white I’ll never know!) R5868 (‘Sugar’) started life on the production line as a Manchester fuselage but was finished as a Lancaster. You could argue then that there a bit of a Manchester surviving in a way. Of course how much of R5868 is the original rather than wartime repair/rebuild and subsequently post preservation restoration will cloud that argument by degrees…

(And that last statement is not something you can level at Halifax W1048 :diablo: )

Hello Victor 45,

I grew up in Cornwall, near St Austell and at the end of the war rumour has it that a lot of ex-US military equipment was dumped down mine shafts in the area, accounts vary but normally included ammunition throught to motorcycles. I’ve been a member of the Cornwall mining & Caving Club for quite a while and of the shafts we explored we had never come across anything that modern. One thing that does spring to mind though is that most mining enginners would sink the cheapest and smallest practical shaft through dead (unproductive) ground to reach the mineral lodes, something say 8ftx6ft, they did get a little wider in some of the mines that were still operating during the 20th century due to the increase in size of shaft equipment. However even if you spilt a B-17 into all its subsections you’d still need to chop them up pretty much completely to get them down the shaft…

Now if you were to google nancekuke, that would be a bit different. This was a chemical warfare production plant built on part of RAF Portreath after WW2 using some captured German equipment, apparently some material in this case did end up down some mine shafts when the site was cleared in the 1970’s and there are still some concerns about its toxicity…

Yes, Its still definately there, if a little scorched after the fire that consumed the first set of flats that were being built on the site. There has been some confusion in the past over previous demolition as Stevo76 outlines. The existing control tower, and associated spine building which formed the public entrance to Claude Graham White’s factory are listed buildings and are currently on English Heritage’s buildings at risk register. The original intention of the site developer was to restore the building in its current location with new build around it, however the intention now seems to be to take down the bulding and reassemble it on the RAF Museum site, presumably linked to the CGW factory building that was moved across during 2002.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConBar.5477