Don’t worry chaps,
The Stirling Project is very much alive and kicking, if you look at their website (it was active when I tried a few hours ago) you can see the magnificent nose turret that they have restored. Over the years we have provided a lot of information regarding measurments from recovered items to them. Only last year I found a Stirling tailwheel in Holland which was exchanged with the team to complete the tailwheel assembly they have.
Also the good new is that the RAF Museum’s sections will be available to the team for reference. Now that is co-operation as it should be. At least they are aiming to construct a full size cockpit section using the correct materials and any original parts they can lay their hands on. The problem is that the drawings were destroyed and the very few originals left are now being gathered from all over the UK as well as the teams own draughtsman who has been reverse engineering the missing ones. That shows what a difficult project they had taken on, but they are making progress.
The early mark Hercules they got is also a beautiful object in its own right. Until a complete Stirling is found lurking beneath the surface of some Scandinavian lake or fjord this is the only significant attempt to ressurect the Stirling. A very important type. And the RAF Sub Aqua club is looking for any possible crash site after they abandoned the Norwegian Stirling site some years ago.
Peter van Gelderens aim was never to claim to build a Stirling cockpit, but he wanted to make something three-dimensional that could give great satisfaction to former crewmembers and to date he has succeeded in just doing that: giving pleasure to former Stirling crew, and they have been so grateful to at least get the feeling of their experiences all those years ago back. And while in the museum it will give still further information to future generations who don’t even know what a Stirling looks like or have never even heard about it.
Cheers 🙂
Cees
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