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chumpy

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May 13, 2007 at 9:38 pm in reply to: Spitfire on the move. #1308541

chumpy
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….also available in Blue!!..circa 1967!

May 6, 2007 at 10:07 am in reply to: SPIT aluminum #1316246

chumpy
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Hi Phixer,
No offence intended by the term freak, just an old 1970s term of endearment! Likewise I also make my living in aircraft sheet metal / fitting and have done for many years, currently with a certain company on the IOW involved in things Supermarine etc.
Alas as the years roll on all those old Brit rivets are becoming an endangered species, with the world taken over by U.S. MS /NAS stuff. Though I have to say those yank radius-tail rivets produce a nicer looking job than SP71 / 80s etc.
And yes those black, double CSK rivets mentioned by Flipflopman do come in real handy when you are having a bad day!
Attached is a shot of some original 1940s Supermarine ‘mixed variety’ rivets, on this occasion the mag ones as good as the day they were put in. Other times they just turn to dust!

Chumpy….from the land of the 2BA bolt etc!

May 3, 2007 at 10:42 pm in reply to: SPIT aluminum #1318431

chumpy
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Hi Rivet freaks!
Yes purple rivets (L.86 alloy) are the current order of the day, though these were infact introduced back in the early 1940s. The mag alloy rivets were used mainly due to there lighter weight but they suffered badly from corrosion over time.
Quite common to find both the green mag-alloy and purple rivets alongside each other in bits of structure i.e wing ribs etc. Never quite figured this out, can but presume that Supermarines had boxes of mixed-variety rivets on the shop floor!
The above rivets were used for general structure work, however in high stress areas such as the outer portions of the wing spars, stronger (L.37 alloy) ‘salt-bath’ rivets were used. These supplied in the soft condition and required heat treatment prior to use.
A good source of info relating to the old WW2 material specs can be found in the technical books published by Pitman during the 1930s/40s. A couple to look out for are Materials of Aircraft Construction by F.T. Hill and Metal Aircraft Construction by M.Langley. Much useful data and listings of Air Min DTD / British Standard specs for sheet, bar, tubes etc…a small section attached.

Cheers, Chumpy.

May 2, 2007 at 11:59 pm in reply to: SPIT aluminum #1319629

chumpy
Participant

Hi J,
A good question this, whilst the UK did have the facilities ( smelting / rolling mills etc) to produce its own supplys of aircraft grade aluminium during WW2. This relied on the supply of the raw Bauxite ore mainly from overses, plus it was very expensive in terms of the energy required to process this raw material into sheet and bar etc.
With this in mind, along with the small problem of U-Boats etc, most of it came from the U.S. / Canada, ready made in ‘billet’ form for the production sheet and bar etc. I can but presume that it was produced to British ‘specs’ especially in Canada, still a bit of our empire in thiose days! Though it would seem that quite a lot of material arrived ready made in finished sheet and bar form.

Can anybody out there expand on this?

Chumpy.

May 2, 2007 at 11:12 pm in reply to: SPIT aluminum #1319676

chumpy
Participant

Hi all,
I am in agreement regarding the material specs mentioned so far, though it should be noted that DTD390/L.72/ L.163 etc only relate to sheet materials used for stressed skinning / sheet metal components. Weldable sheet, alloy bar, castings, forgings etc come under differnt specs, far to numerous and tedious to go into!
However on the subject of skinning materials, you never know what you are going to find when a bit of original structure is dismantled. The attached pix of a Spit fin unit show that portions of it were skinned with U.S. 24S-T. As you can see unpainted internally, still with the original sheet ident in place. Not sure if this was original Supermarine skinning or maybe done at M.U. / Repair Station level? But certainly from the 1940s complete with ‘mag’ rivets. At some stage a rough patch repair had been done at the top, but otherwise structure had not previously been ‘restored’. Have come across this before on other portions of Spit structures, mainly wing skins.

Chumpy.

January 5, 2007 at 11:34 pm in reply to: Blenheim and Rolls Royce Spitfire RM689 Restoration progress #1251585

chumpy
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re RM689

Hi there,
Regarding the Rolls Royce Spitfire RM689, the fuselage from firewall to rudder was rebuilt by Airframe Assemblies on the Isle of Wight. The finished result being delivered back to Filton in November 2004 for fitment of engine and systems etc, wings being done by Hull Aero in Norfolk.

Cheers, Chumpy

January 1, 2007 at 11:40 pm in reply to: R.N. Air-Crash Investigation Unit, 1950s. Location? #1255339

chumpy
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RN crash etc

Hi all,
Further to yesterdays message anyone come across this unit emblem before, in relation to any of the Daedalus based outfits.

A bit blurred but a big blow-up from a small sectionof one of the photos, looks to be Donald Duck in sailors outfit, with axe about to chop a butterfly??

Most curious!

Chumpy.

December 31, 2006 at 9:11 pm in reply to: R.N. Air-Crash Investigation Unit, 1950s. Location? #1256346

chumpy
Participant

R.N. Air Crash

Hi all,
Many thanks for the reply’s this confirms what I thought.

The reason for my interest started a few weeks back when a work mate of mine showed me a collection of old photographs, that belonged to his deceased father in law.
Seems the chap in question served with said RN unit just after WW2 and never really spoke too much about it. The family are keen to find out a bit more so I stupidly said I would do a bit of digging being the company aircraft nutter! ( and occasional magazine contirbuter).
Early days as yet but given the subject matter this might turn into a magazine article. Some interesting photos of a crashed Firefly showing the Griffon being dismantled on site etc. At this stage I am not at liberty to post any of the photos, one in particular shows a curious looking seaplane in RN markings that has so far defied indentification!

If I get the necessary permision I will post the photo for your comments.

Cheers and thanks again, Chumpy.

January 1, 2003 at 8:16 pm in reply to: Spitfire Mk1a P9374 #2097427

chumpy
Participant

RE: Spitfire Mk1a P9374

In answer to your question on P9374, the aircraft moved from the IOW about a year ago. It is currently held in storage ‘somewhere’ in Essex pending a decision on its future.See the current edition of Wrecks & Relics.

regards chumpy.
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