N.WotherspoonHi – I recall when I got my first seat, I was struggling to id it and wrote to Martin Baker – I got a nice free booklet on the history of ejector seats by return of post and a personal letter in which they identified it as having been originally fitted to a Canadian CF100 Canuck and the date of manufacture – Never did find out how it ended up on a scrapyard in Staffs though!
N.WotherspoonUnfortunately the Whirlwind Mk 1 had an additional muzzle flash diffuser at the tip that only appeared on the Whirlwind.
That is unless you know different?
Hi Stu – Alan is right the Hispanos are behind the Packard Merlin, but if you are stuck I will take some measurements.
All except my Oldsmobile M2 variant (P-39 / P400) are pretty straight – The three off Mk V Spitfires are MkIIs IIRC and all three have additional muzzle brakes / flash diffusers – I also have one from a MkXIV Spit and that is plain at the end of the barrel (Like a big hexagonal nut) and is slightly shorter. Then there is the one trawled up off Millom, which I think is Spitfire as it had part of the shroud fairing still attached – but that one isn’t much good for detail.
You say you need nut & bolt detail – might be worth mentioning that one of the conditions under which I was granted permission to retain these weapons was that they are not dismantled or opened up in any way.
N.WotherspoonRIP
He was definitely an inspiration and a sad loss indeed
N.WotherspoonThe bearing in the rounded-triangle housing with the three mounting holes (next to the bevel-gear sector) looks like one of the bearings from one of the three clutched supercharger drive gears from a Merlin engine.
Yes I would agree re this id – I have them still on the back of the Merlin from my last dig (Mustang) as that is the point at which the supercharger shattered – probably when the rest of the A/C caught up with it.
We also found quite a bit of the rexine type fabric material on PX274 that appears to be visible in photo 003 – It was a very vivid blue colour and I am still unsure as to its purpose as it appeard to be a tailored cover of some sort rather than fabric outer surface covering.
N.WotherspoonI noted the photo “An oxygen bottle was among the items recovered from the site of a crashed Mosquito” – Confess I made that mistake myself when I found one of these many years ago – I now know it is actually the CO2 bottle for inflating the dinghy.
N.WotherspoonWell done – it is indeed a rare type – The results look very similar to our Hornet dig on PX274 – see: http://laituk.org/Hornet%20PX274.htm
Very high energy impact leaving parts very badly damaged and hard / rock ground meaning wreckage was flung far and wide rather than imbedding into the ground – One of our best finds was the pitot head embedded about a foot down some 30 feet from the impact crater! Found by our detecting guru Gareth.
N.Wotherspoonhttp://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/page/42/ sadly not in this country but the states..Waco Glider ?
Yep that look to be a Hadrian – Think it has also appeared on some other forums and this picture was taken a while ago and although there are still a lot of parts there from several Hadrians, they are no longer as intact as they were when the photo was taken.
IIRC the Pennine glider came from the Southport area – I donated the bulk of it to the Yorkshire Air Museum where is formed the basis for their restoration / replica. The cockpit of the Pennine one was supposed to come to me but storage issues meant that It went temporarily elsewhere & I was not able to recover it later.
Not spoken to Colin for quite some time please pass on my regards. If it wasn’t him, then all I do know is that I was told it had definitely been removed.
N.WotherspoonA Botha throttle box was sold at the last Newark Aeroboot. It was “rough but restorable”, having (probably) been found in the Mag Elektron scrap area in the 1980s.
The guy was none too pleased when I congratulated him on his Botha purchase, as he’d bought it on the understanding it was from a Beaufighter!
Did it have “fake” wooden knobs on the levers? If so it probably used to be mine 😀 & you are correct as to its provenance – don’t want to know what it sold for though as I suspect “inflation” has run riot over the past few years!!!
Someone in the Millom museum mentioned in a thread here there is a submerged example in an estuary up north. If you are a devotee of the botha it might be worth looking into this.
Yes I recall many converstaions about that one, but very little actual action 🙁 I think an attempt was made to locate it, without success as far as I am aware – It is reputed to lie in a salt marsh with difficult access and after seeing the state of the Invader we uncovered in similar circumstances, I think their interest waned somewhat.
N.WotherspoonAgreed that the four rivet profile is like that on 109 belly pan.
Not sure why he is selling it as wing panel and why would belly have a balkankreuz paint on it.
Looks like soot from post crash fire or burnt on oil to me – not paint – though I note “WE DO NOT TAKE RETURNS OR DO PARTIAL REFUNDS” and his feedback makes “intereresting” reading 😮
N.WotherspoonThe current “Notes for Guidance of Recovery Groups” states that “the Ministry of Defence is not prepared to grant, indefinitely, sole rights of recovery to an individual to excavate a particular site, but, other than in exceptional circumstances, only a single licence will be granted to work in a specified area at any one time” – so yes only one individual is to be licenced for a site at a time, but it seems that that individual cannot continually renew the licence to block others, which is allegedly what is happening in the case of the P-38?
However, the guidelines go on to say “that licence holders will need to apply for a new licence if they wish to continue working on an excavation into a second year and their application will be considered (on its merits) alongside those of any other applicants seeking to work at the site”
So there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping another group putting in an application and if Tigger still have a licence, then it must be that no one else has put in an alternative application? However, it does also seem that perhaps the MOD are close to contravening their own guidelines if they are continually re-issuing a licence to the same individual or group, who are clearly not carrying out any work.
N.WotherspoonHave certainly found similar – attached to radiator or oil cooler IIRC – can anyone id the drawing number?
N.WotherspoonJust spotted this: http://news.discovery.com/history/amelia-earhart-clumps-island-castaway-clues-110302.html
Well 10 out 10 for perseverence! other than that I am speechless! :eek:l
N.WotherspoonBadge seems to be a pointed ellipse, unlike the Delage badge, which is a more rounded shape and as Moggy says, the car doesn’t fit in with the marque. Looks like a typical pre-war “peoples’ car” style, though the grill looks wrong for an Opel + their badge was circular?
Sorry ZRX61 – looks like we overlapped!
N.WotherspoonI missed that comment so went looking for it. Appears someones credibility just plummeted 🙂
I wasn’t defending any particular individual – as many on here share their research and contribute to the recording of knowledge – though I suspect I know who you mean? and I’m sure he’ll get over it! 😀
N.WotherspoonI have watched this thread with interest and avoided comment so far, but now feel its time to say something; I think name resorting to name-calling is definitely lowering the whole tone now – don’t you? We are obviously going to have to agree to disagree here – I have had plenty of correspondence with representatives of THIGAR in the past and although we obviously do things a little differently on this side of the pond, I have never had any major dispute with them – The Earhart enigma will hopefully one day be resolved – whether by THIGAR or not – I don’t care one way or another – though suspect it is more likely to be through a chance find than by design.
I will say, however, I cannot agree with their involvement in the P-38 in North Wales (which I have known about for some 20+ years), I feel that their motives are questionable and the total lack of any action after declaring their intentions can only result in negative publicity for them now, so perhaps it is time they dropped this one? – I may lose some friends over that statement, but I do feel it has gone on far too long and their manipulation of the press in resurrecting the story on a number of occasions, when they are clearly doing nothing about it, is hypocritical to say the least. When I first heard about their intentions, I offered our group’s assistance – I felt that as we had already uncovered a complete aircraft in similar circumstances on our TT project, which was probably the only other such intact survival in this area of the UK, we had something to offer as regards experience – but I was directed to their web page where I could attend the “recovery” for a promise of a donation of around “£1500 GBP” – I was insulted to say the least!
I really don’t want to join the TIGHAR knocking camp, but they don’t seem to be doing themselves any favours at the moment and the posts on this thread on their behalf have only reinforced my viewpoint to date – especially the accusations of criticism by persons “who can’t actually do the work” – I suggest the person who made this accusation thinks a little more carefully about throwing around such accusative remarks when they clearly do not know the individuals who frequent this forum and the contribution they have made!!!
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