This is thought to be the most complete Miles Martinet in existence in the world. MS902 was originally used by the RAF station flight at Reykjavik in Iceland before being sold to a local flying club in 1949. Sadly in 1951, the aircraft came to grief in the far North East of the country where it remained until 1977. The intention was eventually to put it on display in Iceland however, the museum went to Iceland and negotiated the return of this historic aircraft to Woodley.

Really great to see the old girl looking so nice. It is certainly a far cry from the remains we sent to Woodley. As I was (and is) involved with it´s former owner, The Icelandic Historical Aviation Society, I can assure you that by the time it went to Woodley all ideas of restoring it to display condition in Iceland had been abonded. In fact I´m not even sure such ideas ever existed. When it was rescued from it´s crash site I think it was more to safe it for a later date than to actually restore it.

One minor correction. The aircraft was never owned by a Flying Club. A gentilman by the name of Steindor Hjaltalin bought the aircraft from the occupation forces in 1946 along with a Proctor and a Hudson. The Hudson was his “executive jet”. The Proctor was intended, among other things, as initial training aircraft for his daughter. The Martinet was was to be a “complex” trainer for the daughter to ready her for the Hudson. For reasons unkown to me, the Martinet was never put into use in it´s intended role and it flew very rarely from 1946 until 1949. In 1949 three young guys got to an agreement with Mr. Hjaltalin to fly the aircraft provided they payed for fuel and inspections. One of these guys is my former mentor, Mr. Magnus Norddahl, and he flew the aircraft quite a lot. He has told me that they never owned the aircraft because of the simple fact that they didn´t have any money to pay for it, and Mr. Hjaltalin knew it!!

Chippie, your PM inbox is full. I would like to get in touch re. the tons of stuff you have.

I think I can say the aircraft behind the Nord is a Miles Gemini.* The hinged canopy is right, and the beacon behind the canopy is in the right position and it is possible to make out the tail surfaces behind the tail of the Nord. I say it is a Gemini rather than a Messenger because if it was a Messenger we could probably see the front part of the engine cowling in the rear window of the Nord. Just me two pence!

Is this the Boeing XB-39?? Allison V-3420 engines

Sir,
I´m in not going to enter into an argument here, but there are a couple of points I would like to make.

1. Building a fullsize airworthy replica of a Comet racer is not like building a scale R/C model. Where are you going the get the approved wood. What glue are you going to use? Are both of them approved for the application? Do you know how much aircraft quality wood and plywood is going to cost?? Probably not, as you thought it could be built like a big balsa R/C model. The glue you are going to use might be a big stumbling block.

What you need to do is to go to your countries CAA, find out about homebuilt aircraft being built in your area and go visit the builders. Building an aeroplane is certainly not like building an R/C model. Go to these builders and ask them to advise you.

2. Regarding flight instruction. You will never find a flight instructor crazy enough to teach you to fly on a Comet. Enough said. You´ll have to learn to fly something simpler like a C-152, progress to tailwheel in something like a Super Cub then go on to advanced tailwheel training in something like a Pitts S-2B and then go to a Harvard to learn the Heavy tailwheel part.

Like I said, Sir, your are way above your head here:eek: Just leave it like this until you have built your first Volksplane and got a pilots licence with a tailwheel rating.

See you in about 10 years time:eek::eek:

It is so ugly, it can only be french:rolleyes:

Yep this is my first project.

For a first time project, a Comet is a pretty steep learning curve:eek: Of course it is do-able, but it is going to be very, very hard. About 80% of sold kits/plans never fly, should tell you something about what you are about to embark on, with out any support of any kind

Your first priority should be to find drawings of the thing. There is (was?) a replica flying in the US. These guys should be your first port of call to find out how to build the thing, even if they changed the wing a little to make it more “user friendly”. IIRC, there was an article in Sport Aviation magazine about 1993-1995 about the building of this replica. I´m sure you can find it somewhere on the web (I´m too lazy to find a link!).

Good luck with your project.

Sigurjon

Here is my entry. I think it is too easy, but is all I could think of at the moment.