Correction
Dave said:
I was rewatching a piece I taped some months ago from NZ news show ‘Holmes’ where a NZ policeman was interviewed live about how he helped in the recovery of a Stirling that crashed in Holland. His uncle was one of the crew. The recovery made some news again later because the crew were later buried in Britain a month or so back. Anyway, he mentioned that most of the metal they recovered was in excellent condition, “like new”. I wondered, could pieces from this recovery and others be used to help build a complete ‘replica’. I hope so.
Answer:
The six crewmembers were not buried in the UK but in Holland,in fact at the same cemetery as where the pilot had been laid to rest after having been found at the crashsite. Sorry, had to put that right (see also earlier thread about this topic).
Dave said:
what happened to the aircraft bits? Can they be used in a restoration?
Answer:
Dave, the remains of N3654 are still with us after having been released by the RNethAF. Although there are no substantial sections, there is a wealth of small fittings, brackets and castings etc. that can be used in the Stirling Project. I have been in contact with Giuseppe Lombardi some weeks ago and if all goes well a party will come over to Holland to have a look for themselves to see what can be recovered for the Stirling reconstruction. As Al Campbell stated (the New-Zealander you mentioned) the preservation is excellent and there is no corrosion whatsoever. I for one would be very happy to use recovered castings and brackets as the cost to make these from scrath would be very high indeed. For my Halifax cockpit project I also use parts from crashsites.
Hope this clears things up
BW the Stirling section mentioned earlier is probably from LK488 which was recovered from Mickle Fell, and which is in store at Wyton I think. Flypast did an article on that recovery fairly recentley.
Cheerio
Cees
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