Steve TOllie–
Haven’t got a scanner here, but the CW piece wasn’t an “article”, just a brief news item, so I’ll just quote the text as it appeared…
“ANOTHER HURRICANE SOON TO FLY”
“Another Hawker Hurricane is about to join the ranks of airworthy survivors after a break of over half a century. Hurricane XIIa BW881 began life as a Sea Hurricane but was converted to a Mk.XII for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Struck off Charge in September 1944, it was recovered derelict from a farm in Ontario, Canada and spent some time under the ownership of Maurice Hammond and the Alpine Fighter Collection, before being acquired by the Flying Heritage Collection, Seattle. Nearing completion of restoration to airworthy standard at Hawker Restorations in Suffolk the aircraft is currently undergoing engine runs and will fly in the colours of an RCAF training aircraft. This will bring to 12 the number of Hurricanes now flying worldwide.”
HTH
S.
Steve TOllie–
Think so, yes: a pic of this one (BW881, begun as a Sea Hurricane but it ended up as an RCAF Mk.XIIA) appears in issue 53 of Classic Wings magazine, showing it running up uncowled, and the text states it was nearing completion for Mr Allen at Hawker Restorations…
S.
Steve TPossibly seeing more than one Spit in the air at a show for the first time (and maybe as many as three Hurricanes into the bargain)…
Possibly getting published…
Possibly doing air-to-air (no actual prospect, but hope springs eternal…)
And, most fervently, a 34th year of seeing only entirely safe air displays. I’ve had a long fortunate streak that way. Here’s to 2006 as the year we all see nothing but…
S.
Steve T…Forgot to note that C-FDNL, Ed Russell’s Mk.XII/IIB (ie. a IIB based on what was initially a XII–like the late lamented CWH one), is ex-RCAF 5481, begun as a project by Jack Arnold here in Ontario and completed in the UK as G-ORGI before joining the Price collection in California as N678DP; it then passed to Mr Russell along with the Price collection’s Me109.
S.
Steve THello again Ollie–
Jerry Yagen’s Mk.XII flyer, ex-RCAF 5667, is registered N943HH; previously it was owned by Neil Rose in Washington state and registered N2549, which it (cleverly but confusingly) wore as an RAF serial on the aft fuselage.
Harry Whereatt’s C-GGAJ, from the info I have, seems to be ex-RCAF 5447. BTW Harry has quite a collection out in Saskatchewan, including a restored Westland Lysander.
The Lone Star project is tentatively slated to be at the Willow Run (Michigan) airshow this coming August, so must be very near flying.
Have you got the Paul Allen/Flying Heritage Collection Mk.XII listed? The RCAF serial escapes me but it has already been ground run and looks superb in RCAF home-unit livery. Like the Reynolds one (5418), it is fitted with the spinnerless Hamilton Standard prop as was usual for Canadian-based XIIs, instead of the more commonly seen DH or Rotol units with spinners.
And BTW, don’t get too rattled about making errors…I well remember asking, on one of my first visits to Canadian Warplane Heritage, whether that twin with the long tapered nose was a Marauder…it was in fact an Anson–! Just part of the learning process. 😀
Cheers
S.
Steve TOllie et al–
C-GGAJ, Harry Whereatt’s Hurricane XII in Saskatchewan, has been flown at least twice since restoration. One cowl panel on C-GGAJ still carries its 1942 paintwork with the name “Star Dust” and the code “71”. A wonderful machine. At the moment the RCAF serial of this one escapes me…
You’ve missed one “theoretical” flyer (unless I missed it myself in reading your list): Mk.XII 5418, on show at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. It was restored to airworthy condition but has not been flown, though ground running of the Merlin has been done.
Cheers
S.
Steve TExciting indeed…
How long had it been since a Griffon VI turned? I’m thinking the most recent previous runup of one would have been when the Calgary Seafire XV was briefly fired-up in 1986…any more recent runs?
S.
Steve TMichael–
Doubt you’ll have much luck sourcing a Stirling (alas)…but here are a few suggestions…
* Swordfish from Muirkirk ON (may be intended already?)
* Seafires: PR503 (would have to be trucked in); VP441 from Montana…
* Fireflies: WH632 (CWH); Captain Eddie’s from Colorado…
* Lysander (CWH), if it’s flying by then
* Shackleton (CAF)
* Mosquito (somehow or other…)
Less pie-in-the-sky than some of the above:
* Sea Furies/Furies–as many as possible–would love to see the Peeler one, and of course the Greenhill T20 rebuilt from WG655 (hm, Furies could be a theme type some year, could they not…?? :rolleyes: )
* Early Brit jets: Vamp (new Rubin one??), Venom, Hunter, etc.
* On the lighter side: light deHavillands–Moth series/Rapide/Chipmunks etc
Whatever you guys do I don’t doubt it’ll be stellar. After several years of being told I should go to Yankee, I finally did, in 2002, and have not missed it since. Wonderful Mt.Hope timewarp for someone who laments the passing of the old CWH shows. Thunder, along with Geneseo the previous month, is now central to my summer vacation planning…
Cheers
S.
Steve TCool thread…a few from me:
1976-77 approx: walking home from school, was just in process at that time of getting interested in WWII iron. Big rumble from the south, here comes a vic-five of dark green B-25 and four yellow Harvards, which I no doubt remember flying lower than they really were, but certainly an impressive sight. They represented about half the flyable machines at CWH at that date.
June, 1982. Thursday before Hamilton airshow. Sitting on oildrum out on grass beyond the old flightline. High up, the inimitable Merlin note…whistling far overhead above some thin broken cloud, the pale green belly of the Robertson Spitfire. Watch Billing (which is who was always flying MK923) fly a graceful descending pattern…and vanish into the treeline. When he reappears he’s pointing right at me at about wingspan height. The 400mm lens on my camera at the time is useless, but I yell like a World Cup fan as the shiny pale green underside of MK923 flashes (barely) overhead…whew.
February, 1985. On the snowy tarmac outside Hgr#3 at CWH. Mosquito RS709/G-MOSI is departing on her final flight to USAFM in Ohio, George Aird at the pole. Three glorious flybys; dazzling sunlight but such is the cold that everyone’s camera batteries are dying. One of the flybys is oblique to the flightline, taking G-MOSI very low over Hgr#3. Ohh the sound. Mosquito vanishes from view…and a huge cloud of snow billows up off the roof of the hangar from her propwash. Unforgettable. (So BTW was walking into Hgr#3 the afternoon before just to see what was going on. It is hard to maintain one’s equilibrium when coming nose to port spinner with a Mosquito one had absolutely no clue was coming)…
There are lots more where those came from. What a joy to have seen such things…
Cheers, and Season’s Greetings.
Steve T
Steve TNot to horn in, but to the right of the P-63 in that first high-angle shot I think I see at least two P-51s as well; they certainly aren’t Jugs or P-40s, anyway, with those squared-off tailplanes. Ohhhh for a time machine…
S.
Steve THi Dave et al–
The Sopwith Snipe now in the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa was used along with two others (all owned at that time by actor/pilot Reginald Denny) in ground shots for “Hell’s Angels”. CAvM’s Fokker D.VII airframe may also have been used in the film.
Re the World War I bomber (strictly CGI) in “The Aviator”, at least one of the early flying films employed a “Gotha” (which was actually a Keystone or some such beast, in very rough condition, decked out in German livery); as I recall it was supposed to be “shot down” and during the sequence a wing spar failed, the pilot baling out successfully, but a crewman operating a crude smoke system for the scene died in the crash.
Re the Connie, I’m told the fleet of L1049s in “The Aviator” is the Kansas City museum’s N6937C, digitally “photocopied”…
Cheers
Steve T
Steve TTT et al–
A favourite topic pops up again…Walt Soplata, as comes through in that chapter from the Kee Bird book, was (still is) truly unique, a gent to whom all of us who enjoy old airplanes owe a tip of the hat. There weren’t many who cared about Warbirds the way he did as early as he did.
He may be seen as reclusive today, but, though he has certainly never sought publicity, a quarter century ago he entertained (and that’s definitely the word for it) many an enthusiast visitor. I had the pleasure of visiting Walt twice in the early 80s. Wish I’d had a tape recorder going to capture some of the stories he told about his aircraft. He knew everything about every one…
There’s another Walt account that captures his personality just as well as the one in “Hunting Warbirds”. If you can find Bob Hull’s “A Season Of Eagles”, a chapter in there, based on a long article from one of the Ohio city papers, spins the whole Walt story (circa 1975). The book itself is about the National Air Races in Cleveland; Walt’s in there because he owned one and a half of Cook Cleland’s racing Corsairs.
Over on WIX (in the downloads section) there’s what is probably the most comprehensive listing of Walt’s aircraft, compiled by Mike Henniger from an assortment of sources (including me). Even a glance at that will make clear just how much we airplane nuts owe Mr Soplata. BTW, six or seven ex-Walt airplanes have left the collection, some of which are now restored and in museums (eg. P-80A at Pensacola), others under or awaiting rebuild (F-82E, F2G) and at least one (a B-25J now belonging to Jerry Yagen) soon to fly.
Cheers
S.
Steve THi–
I agree…this looks like a Dak. Peering at photos of pulled-apart DC-3s convinces me this centre section can’t be anything but…
S.
Steve THi all–
Called in briefly at Trenton during the Ontario region CAAA get-together; as a concession to long-distance visitors there are now holes cut in the opaque plastic over the glass doors that will lead into the Halifax hall. The wheels and tires (sorry…tyres!) and some of the nose glazing are yet to go on, but NA337 is now overall brown, green and black and looking magnificent. Interestingly the “2P:X” code letters are repeated in white on the fronts of the main undercarriage (“2P” to starboard and “X” to port). Have never seen that on a Halifax (or anything else) previously. NA337 is being unveiled before an invitation-only grouping on November 5; the next day she goes on show to the public as the only restored Halifax on the planet originating from a single airframe.
(Until LW170 joins her from the deep, that is…)
S.
Steve THi all–
C-FGAT’s new livery is growing on me, too…Mr Thomson who owns this Fury didn’t want a livery that implied the aircraft was “original”, as C-FGAT (formerly NX1324) is significantly modified for more practical operation. I think he ought to stick D-type roundels on the sides and the Stretton tailcode on the fin (ST, for Sandy Thomson, and oh gee, my initials are ST too and I live right nearby… :rolleyes: )
Nearly all Furies that have been converted to US power have followed the lead of the original George Baker “Skyfury”, employing the Wright R3350 (the basic Skyraider powerplant, hence, I think, the composite moniker “Skyfury”). The R3350 can be squeezed into a cowling of stock Fury profile, unlike the P&W R4360 four-row “corncob” which requires an elongated F2Gish cowl. I’ve never heard of an R2800 installation being attempted on a Fury, but it’s certainly an interesting thought; the later R2800 variants would have been comparable to the Centaurus 18 in power output…
Here’s a related idea. Anyone ever considered powering a TEMPEST with an R3350? Surely what’s good for the goose ought to be good for the (slightly older) gander…and the prop (though admittedly it would turn “backward”) would not even have one too few blades, which is everybody’s complaint about the R3350 Furies…and surely a Tempest in the air would be a welcome sight whichever way the prop was turning! Just a thought.
S.
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