You are probably right Jerry but I am 99.9% positive we wont ever get to a flyer if I recall correctly wasnt there some guys doing a lot of talk and hype about they were going to build one to fly ? I think it was in the UK and about 4 or 5 years ago and there was also the 3/4 flying scale replicas that actually shared very little with the appearance of the original and where powered by a pair of VW engines on steroids.

On the latter I think a couple got built and a few kits sold but it went very silent.On the original I think possibly lack of all the information needed and finance will have kicked it in the head. Without a lot of the jig saw and drawings etc they wont get approval for it to do more than taxi and as we have already established the engines just dont seem to be out there to be able to do it.

Tony check for a PM re our phone conversation earlier I have to go out

Mike

Things to remember guys the CAA never does anything for nothing and they look for fill loop holes by creating new ones of their own.

The section regarding owners having to seek new approval to meet the changes could open up an dinteresting can of worms.

Might I suggest we watch this space with interest and perhaps hold our breaths in anticipation.

On Peter Smiths aircraft I have not sseen peter for many years having moved etc.But from what I recall he had two cockpit sections one with some fuselage still attached .One was definately car door and early the other a later canopy.He also had One complete Napier sabre engine and at least two others in bits I think from memeory the complete engine was sat on display in mounts on the front of the car door cockpit.Very Impressive beast.

Dont know current status or ownership I am afraid its been a long time .

Talking of long time I never remember the airframe in Stockport ??? I lived there from 1959 to 1990 and was involved with a couple of the preservation organisations around at the time as well as working at Woodford.

Under water wrecks recovered bring to mind Hurricane Z3055 recovered from 42 metres between Blue Grotto and Filfla island Malta,And Sea Fire MB293 recovered from off the coast of Malta. There also known about 19 other wrecks including a Sea Fury,A sky raider,a Liberator, a Wellington and lots of other very interesting types but they should be treated like the Hurricane and Sea Fire where wait until you have the resources to recover otherwise you are wasting your time and effort to bring it up and just dump it to rott away.

The Buerling Spitfire in the War Museum at Valletta being a prime example the official line has in the past been for this ands the Gladiator “If we give it to the museum to rebuild it will be as good as new again it needs to stay as it is”

you may agree with this you might not but look at it this way if you bring it up and then dump it down on display no matter how well meaning it aint going to look the same in a short space of time it will just fade away to nothing and be lost so it might as well have stayed on the sea bed at least it would last longer.

Hi Cees

I believe that it was HFM who told me that the Heyford drawings were missing, they have most of the Handley Page drawings stored at Duxford, but the Heyford & HP42 drawings are not there.

Cheer’s.

Rob.

I know a man who has a loft a bit like mine with some boxes buried in dust and loft insulation I will go up there at week end and see if there is anything helpfull
its so long ago I cant remember what there is .I know there is a lot of Avro stuff and some other manufacturers as well as HP as HP like Hawkers/Avro/British Aerospace swallowed up so many names after the war and inherited a lot of their stuff.

No promises of what there might be but I will have a look if I can I will also try and dig out the contact details for a couple of other guys who like some of us where heartbroken to see stuff just being thrown into skips.I actually took two sets of Lancaster pilots seat arm rest out of a crate(reminds me they are destined ror East Kirby)and upteen binders full of photo’s of ex wartime Lancasters being converted to Lancastrians in Canada the detail etc in the photo’s is amaizing.There are some big biplanes in the drawings but cant rememebr if they are HP I think they are there is also some drawings of a very large single engine torpedo bomber.The drawing s are not your A5 jobs one fully detailed side view is over 20 feet long when unrolled so I think is either 1/4 or 1/3 scale.

Will post what I find next week if I have anything by almeans you are welcome to access to them as any other bona fide organisation or individual is but I would prefer them to remain part of my reference library given the fact the original owners decided to destroy them and did not want to care for them.

Some folks may disagree and that is your privilage but I feel if I have usefull archive material it should be made available to anyone who really needs it not locked away and needed a letter from the prime minister or a fee of lottery proportions to gain access to it.Only proviso the information contained is not for use on a flying aircraft as I am unable to guarantee the content as being current.accurate or to the latest mod standard.

R

Mike

I also recall some absolutely weird wonderfull and fantastic wind tunnel models turning up.We already had some good ones to start with.I wonder what happened to them all ?.I think a couple ended up at Manchester Air and Space but only a fraction of what was there.Might be another option see if they managed to rescue any of the Woodford stuff being on the doorstep.