Italian mechanics

It would be good to have more details about the Italian mechanic rumour.
As far as I know, Italian aviation personnel only worked on Italian aircraft. For instance, the Spit V were returned to the RAF for overhaul.
On the other hand, the RAF (not the USAAF) regularly raided the Italian workshops to requisition hard-earned or repaired machine tools, equipment, vehicles and almost everything else. There are boxfuls of complaints in the archives about this.
Thousands of Italians were formed into labour battalions employed to fulfill Allied (but I suspect largely British) needs in Southern Italy. They carried out heavy jobs like digging ditches, repairing roads etc., thereby releasing British resources for other duties.

Veltro

PS – by the way, Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again! and – Better On A Camel.

RSV Harvard

Alex,

The sad truth about the RSV is that they did not seek prior authorization to restore their T-6 to flying condition. They probably would not have received it if they had asked, but they did not ask. And do remember that in those years the MB.326s seemed to fall out of the sky every day, and pilots and engineers were tried for manslaughter.

Try to keep the paperwork of the former Viterbo gate guardian in order – and make sure everything is up to standard.

Veltro

Steve,

I’m interested, but puzzled that your mail notifier came through even though the Forum is still down. :confused:

Mark

And some how I have Veltro’s sign in.

Mark

Engineless

The lack of engines in the Spitfire and Mosquito has been in evidence in the overhaul pictures on the Duxford Update website for the past month or so. I must say that a clean-up and repaint are somewhat at the lower end of the “restoration” scale nowadays. But then again, until about 20 years ago that’s what any restoration consisted of. Things change, standards are raised …

Veltro

Ooops!

Thanks for setting me straight, Mike! I guess I’ll go take a closer look at that pile of black-painted junk in my backyard…
;-)) Veltro

Children

I regard children in the same way I regard Ferraris, they are noisy, smelly and expensive. I don’t want one, I don’t need one and if I really want to play with one I can probably borrow it.

M

When our daughter was born, I understood why my professor used to say “Each child is one less book you write”. He had no children and rewrote the history of fascism (and, incidentally, of 20th century Italy).

But when I made the first entry in my daughter’s logbook (60 days old!); when, at age 2, she said, precisely as we drove by the main gate of our local airfield, “Daddy, I want to fly”; and when she started saying than when she grows up she wants to be a pilot of aeroplanes and helicopters … I knew right there and then that my mentor was wrong.

And so are you, Melvin – at least on children. I do agree about Ferraris, though – I would much rather have a Caproni!

Veltro

Bulldog

In my opinion, the Bulldog restoration is a model of what national museums should do to preserve and enhance the aviation heritage.

The attached photo shows the provenance of the material by colour code:

– Red: original from crashed G-ABBB
– Green: original spare lower wing
– Blue: original period accessories
– Yellow: other original parts

and of course, implied but not stated, everything else is due to Skysport’s restorative magic.

Veltro

S.55

The American expert who intended to build an S.55 was “Buzz” Kaplan, sadly killed in a Jenny crash two years ago. By then, however, he had shelved the plan in favour of the Sikorsky amphibians seen at various US shows and associated magazine reports.

There is a long-standing ambition to build a full-size reproduction in Italy, airworthy if at all possible. Until then, or actually from September 2006, we can make our pilgrimage to Sao Paulo, where the world’s only surviving S.55 resides.

Veltro