the Finnish Brewster; an idea…

All–

I too would rather have seen the B239 go into a Finnish museum, but better she be conserved/restored in Florida than be allowed to deteriorate after so remarkable a survival. And she’ll have a good (and high-profile) home at Pensacola, seen and appreciated by thousands of enthusiasts.

My idea? Take a leaf from the Navy’s own book…and while the Brewster is being disassembled and restored, a la the USN’s (NAS Willow Grove) Me262, source the data to “run off a few copies”. That way, Brewsters could go not only to Pensacola (static), but also to Finland (a static and a flyer?), to the USMC museum (who have wanted one forever), and to a private collector or two in the US, UK, or (what the heck) here in Canada (I can think of at least one collector here for whom a Finnish B239 would be a logical addition)…What does everyone think, and given the success of the Me262 restoration and re-creations, could the idea get the Navy’s blessing?

S.

Hi all–

Weighing in with one more…RCAF 5418, Mk.XII at the Reynolds Museum at Wetaskiwin, Alberta, also flyable but never flown. Often confused with Harry Whereatt’s Mk.XII at Assiniboine, Saskatchewan, which is on the CCAR as C-GGAJ and apparently HAS flown at least a couple times since completion.

BTW, the GRP replica Hurricane that “replaced” 5377/C-GCWH at Mt.Hope stands on the refurbished original main gear assemblies from 5377. Much of the core structure of that Hurricane survived the 1993 fire albeit badly warped and oxidized.

S.

Steve–

Course to seat James K back there you’d have to remove the canopy! 😀 For the record…I stand a mere 5’7″ and am eternally willing to serve as ballast for aft-CG testing… :rolleyes:

Cheers

one of the other Steves

Mr Russell’s 109 certainly would be a crowd-pleaser, but thus far this collection does not appear at airshows. Only the Harvard is yet on the C- register (as C-GFLR). Access to view the collection has thus far been granted chiefly to RCAC squadrons and the like, and Mr R does not plan to operate his hangar as a museum.

The Hurricane visible in the background of one of the posted pix is ex-David Price (as the 109 is as well). Perhaps of interest, before going to the UK for rebuild to fly, this Hurricane spent a number of years in another southern-Ontario collection, that of Jack Arnold of Brantford ON. Jack recovered quite a lot of Hurricane material from Quebec and New Brunswick in the seventies, and owned a number of other old birds as well. His former project Hurricane sure does look different these days…

S.

NewRay toy 109

Hi all–

NewRay Toys in China make a whole series of these. They go for about $C5 at local Wal-Marts. There are at least two versions of the 109; that one on eBay is the better-looking of the two liveries…They also do a birdcage F4U in the approximate livery of the XF4U prototype; two Spit XIVs (one of which wears the livery of a 112 Sqn Kittyhawk!), a MiG-3, a Zero, a fairly plausible 352FG-marked P-51D, a wonky P-40 in vaguely-5AF finish, and most surprisingly a Dewoitine D520 that is the best of the lot by miles. They’re all 1:48 scale or close to it.

I have to guess, re the 109s, that there’s a skittishness even in China to marketing anything showing authentic Luftwaffe markings. The resulting models are, if nothing else, amusing… 😎

S.

Fascinating to see so much TSR-2 talk that’s almost verbatim what enthusiasts over here say about the late lamented Arrow. (Nice to see a tip of the hat to Bill Baird who saw to the rescue of Mossie W4050, too!). Anyway, I think the best way to hazard guesses about the hypothetical career length and versatility of either TSR-2 or CF-105 is simply to look at the closest types that were NOT cancelled. Those would be the F-4 and the F-111. (Hmm, two Yank classics…go figure…) So let’s see. F-4. Big two-seat naval interceptor…initially…subsequently a PR bird, bomb truck, SAM suppressor, research aircraft, et cetera. 5000 examples built. Still in service in a couple air forces 46 years after first flight. That suggests the tecnologically-similar (and even more capacious) Arrow would have done just fine…F-111. Controversial, yes, but very capable (once the bugs were worked out), and besides penetration strike it proved a useful ECM/EW platform (and were they used for recon as well??). The Raven version is still active (or at least was recently) about 40 years after the first F-111 flew. TSR-2 apparently was better “out of the box”; there’s no reason to think it would have had any less significant and lengthy a career. Ah, politics…

S.

Cees et al–

I think I saw pix posted from decades ago in one of the well-known scrapyards, showing mostly Firefly components, but something else was there too and I think it may have been Firebrand…? Ring a bell with anyone?

BTW, recently found that quite a big piece of Bristol Brigand fuselage survives at the Bristol museum. That was a surprise to, to me at least.

S.