Hi Tony,

The third link http://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/346072/NMA_metals_s4_p04_stabilisation_aluminium_aircraft.pdf is of particular interest.
It is good that this information is now logged here for reference.

Knowing the type of alloy used as well as the depth and oxygen content are – as you suggest – key factors also.

Converting this information into a usable manual for the preservation of various components, would (I imagine) be a useful tool for many on these forums.

Thanks again.

Hi David. Thank you for your offer of a CD. My Father would be most interested to see this.

We have been searching through his albums this evening and there are more to locate. At present we have pictures of Short Sunderland’s but nothing yet of Hornets. Once these are found then I will post them here and forward better quality copies to you directly. The pictures are small but the negatives have all been found which are 60 year’s old. They appear to be in perfect condition.
I can however share some stories that Dad shared this evening for your interest:

He was called up as part of the National Service and trained as an aircraft Instrument Technician. He was flown by HP Hermes from Blackbush to RAF Seletar over several days via, Rome, Calcutta, etc.
The Hornets were placed in reserve when he was there and staked out on the base because of any winds, pending their future. The fuel tanks were always filled as soon as they landed due to condensation quickly forming in them. The parked aircraft were fitted with covers and regularly restarted to keep them at operational readiness. He thinks there were about 12 Hornets parked at the base.
He was passing the aircraft one day when a team of four or five servicemen turned up and used axes to chop off their tails. The engines were removed and taken to an old bomb dump and the castings were smashed up with sledge hammers.

As alluded to earlier, the big problem they had was termites. They burrowed down through the timber structure and apparently caused huge problems for the maintenance staff. A story that may have strengthened the argument to scrap them was told as follows:

A pilot taxied to the end of a runway and opened up his throttles with the brakes on prior to taking off. At full power, an engine detached from the airframe and bounced down the runway shortly followed by the other. To me – as an ex airframe engineer – this smacks of deterioration of the timber retaining structure. This may well have contributed to a decision to scrap the lot.

I hope that you find this interesting and will follow through on my commitment when the other pictures turn up.

Best regards to you.

I know this thread is antique but a little info on Hornet remains, chatting to the owner of a junk shop in Birmingham England some years ago it turned out he had been stationed at RAF Butterworth, Malaya in the early 50’s as ground crew on DH Hornets.
Across the bay was an Island with an emergency airstrip which I take is now Penang, when the Hornets were replaced by either Venims or Vampires the Hornets were taken over to the emergancy strip and dissassembled.
A large long trench was bulldozed along the side of the strip and all the fuselage and wings, engines and everything else was dumped in and run over with the dozer, the trench was then filled in.
My friend in the junk shop described Butterworth perfectly and the Penang airstrip is just across the bay, he drew me a little map of how the airstrip looked and where the original flight control box was and where it was moved to then where he recalls the aircraft were buried,.
Everything he told me fits, there could be anything upwards of twelve to fifteen Hornets in that grave if they are still there,

regards. Terry

I came across this the other day and my Father confirms that he was based at RAF Seletar when a number of Hornets were scrapped. He ‘happened’ to be walking past an area of the air base where he flew as a regular passenger on Short Sunderland’s when they did exercises in the South China Sea. He used to regularly watch the Hornets and Mosquito’s fly from the base. One day – and to his total disbelief – he saw teams of personnel arrive next to a line of perfectly serviceable Hornets and cut the tails off! The engines had a sledge hammer through the turbochargers and the planes broken up where they stood! My father has dozens of photographs of his time in Malaya and will see whether we can locate any of the photographs and put them up here for your interest. I guess it was just a lack of foresight and the cost of keeping them going – particularly in a very aggressive environment for anything made out of wood. The termites were a real problem with these planes apparently.