frames

Steve,

thought they might have been from you??

Not sure who else has moulds?

Mark

P40

Nice photos of a professional recovery with the P40 disassembled as the manual. Don’t always believe what you read.

We know the P40 flew with the undercarriage locked down to 53 RSU – this was in the squadron/loss records. This does not necessarily mean it was non retractable. It just might mean it could not be locked safely down following undercarriage retraction. It obviously needs some attention as it was classed as Cat 2 and time at an MU so on its flight the best solution was for it to remain down.

F/Sgt Copping would not have landed with the wheels down if at all possible. It was a standard procedure to belly land in the desert outside of an airfield as the risk of flipping over would be too great.

I think the undercarriage was therefore retracted prior to the landing which would be sensible, the impact shattered both hubs and the port wheel/tyre was lost. Whether it was 100% fully retract or only partial, only more detailed analysis will tell.

Also great to see the Azure Blue underside that has been protected for UV 70 years and how clean the guns/gun bays are.

Lets hope..

Mark

Website

Still working – this time PC and Chrome.

both Firefox and IE seem fine with it.

regards

Mark

bomber museum

Former RAF Bicester.

All there – just need the aircraft – battle, blenheim, anson, hampden, halifax.

Mark

Website

Very nice.

Could give you a list of themes regarding recovered aircraft which you might be interested in painting.

Unfortunately cannot commission.

Nice one would be the Curtiss P40E Kittyhawk 1a HS-B ET574 just after it had crash landed in the desert.

and others!

regards

Mark

Bf109E

Chris,

You are opening a whole can of worms with that statement and not going to get into it too much but I believe there is more ‘structure’ here than 1342 and probably slightly less than 3579, when they were both recovered.

Personally, I would not call any of them new builds, to me that is starting with just drawings (at least for the structure/metalwork). Nor would I call them refurbishment as this is more making good substantial structure for static display.

Rebuild would be my general take though you might disagree. The Fw190A at FHC is a rebuild and has an amazingly high level of existing material.

Just my take.

Mark

Operation Benedict

Nice story – crap reporting.

Eric is a lovely guy but he is not the last survivor of Operation Benedict. He is not even the last surviving pilot. I am sure Tim Elkington might have something to say about that!! He was with them in January.

Eric might be the last pilot from 81Sqn and Tim was with 134Sqn (and I am not sure if he is the last with that unit as another was alive a couple of years ago).

Both 81 Squadron and 134Sqn I think had 10-12 pilots to each unit but only 39 Hurricanes. Eric was one of the junior pilots whereas Tim of course was one of the more experienced having flown during the BofB.

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/articles/sheppard/hurricanes/index.htm

Good for them both getting a flight even if in a Spitfire.

Mark