I seem to remember from an old Flypast article that the Tempest Two group was planning to rebuild one a/c with a Centaurus, and the other with a US engine. This was years ago. What has been holding back this project, availability of engine or lack of funds?

T J

The engine. As I understand it, the airframe is pretty much ready to go, but they are still waiting to get the engine back before they can move forward.

Although what about a Griffon powered one with a Sabre shaped cowling, that would only leave the sound to the imagination.

The Tempest IV was a Griffon powered aircraft… I’d certainly be happy to see a Tempest fly with a Griffon up front… And I dont think it’s beyond the realms of possibility!

Which Tempest is at Wickenby and how far away from flying is it?

As Bruce says, the problem with the Tempest is the Engine. To answer the question as to how far away it is from flying… Its as far away as the engine is! By that I mean that once the engine is Back, it shouldn’t take too long to return her to the air, but at the moment they are still waiting for the engine.

It seems that a number of posts here have been about the AT6 rudder lock incident. I am curious as to Kermit’s side of the story, and will ask him when I see him next. I will post his response.

Good idea Praz, I look forward to hearing his response. If he wants to talk to someone about the lousy response from his ground crew, then I’d be more than happy to talk to him about it. Let me / us know what he says.

So what you are really saying is that TVOC should go onto every thread about XH558 on every aviation forum that they are going to post on? That isn’t going to happen. I for one want my money to go into the project rather than paying someone to sit and read aviation forums.
There are a lot of aviation forums that just seem to love having a go about TVOC, some are right, some are not. however the fact is that they have a fully working Vulcan and need support to keep it in the air where it belongs. Even if we don’t agree with what TVOC/VTS are doing, we are all aviation enthusiasts and we should all want to keep this beautiful aircraft in the sky.

Nick… I didn’t for one minute say that TVOC should sit on here and read every post about every aircraft. But do you not think they should read the one about 558? Do you think they should know what people are saying about their aircraft on a public forum? In short… I do.

The point I was making, and I stand by it, is that any press team worth it’s weight would tailor their releases to suite the audience that they are talking too. That’s just common sense.

Time ticks on and no update from the 555PressOffice… Maybe they’ve taken my advice and are reading through this thread before they post… Then again… Maybe not!

Please correct me if I’m wrong but how would you go flying with a rudder lock in? Take off straight ahead? Did he get in and start taxing with the lock in? Would the rudder be also locked? How do you do your checks when you go flying in your Harvard, get the ground crew to do the walk around or insist on doing them yourself? Do you check your Aircraft if the ground crew have OK’d it?

I dont want to turn this into a “the day Kermit tried to fly with the control lock in place” thread, but as you’ve asked, I will answer for you.

The control lock was left in place after Kermit and his passenger were strapped in and engine running. Like I’ve said in earlier posts, the main problem was actually trying to convince his ground crew that the control lock was in place. The comments they made were nothing short of ludicrous despite the fact that they could clearly see it. Personally, I would always check the aircraft myself, and wouldn’t rely on someone else to do the walk around. The fact has to be that if Kermit had done a walk around then he would have seen it as part of the rudder inspection. I’m sure that when it came to turning the aircraft on the ground, then it would have been clear to Kermit that something was wrong.

Me… I’m reading a small book titled Squadron 303 by Arkady Fiedler.