12jaguarThanks TT
Good to catch up at Newark btw
John
12jaguarNo technical update today, as this was a work day clearing rubbish.
thanks to our Landlords and Huntingdon District Council, it’s now feasible for us to access the other wing of our complex and whilst the building has few (bad) leaks in the roof it offers additional storage for our less accesseditems such as landing gear and wing structure. It also has a self contained office and a toilet although we have yet to get the water supply running again. The office was full of c**p from teh previous occupants so clearing this area was the priority let’s just say we completly filled the skip!
Tenders have gone out for fabrication of the frame formers and the bomb frames will soon be following, with any luck we might be able to update you on these shortly. Then it will be all hands on deck making bomb frames, all 27 of them…
Once Covid lock down is over we’re hoping to organise the receipt of some substantial Stirling remains which should greatly aid our endeavours and we’ll definitely need the space to store that.
Next week we are hoping to be visited by another 98 YO veteran Flight Engineer, so not sure if we’ll actually get some work done or if we’ll be spending time chatting to the gent; hopefully both
take care
John
12jaguarA big thanks to AM for kindly donating the Stirling upper escape hatch handle assy to us today at Newark .
Also a big thankyou to the oragnisers of the Aeroboot, nicely laid out and whilst we were there the weather held out
John
12jaguarLast update for a couple of weeks.
A very warm Saturday at the workshop meant that progress was steady rather than hectic, with several refreshment breaks being the order of the day ☕️
Graham has finished off one of the few items that we actually have original drawings of; this being the terminal block and mount assembly at Frame 13 for the Flight Engineers Heated Gloves. A small detail but it’s nice to make these smaller items up whilst we have the opportunity.
Cliff, is working his way through the larger of the 2 lift up steps leading to the flight deck, he managed to source a lift up handle to the original pattern and this has now been installed in the top plate for the step assy. We’ve hit a slight snag in the C section channels that form the edges to the step as these have developed hair line cracks in the bend radius so I doubt they will be resilient over time. I think this is a combination of the material used and the bend radius adopted by the company that made them. I think we’ll have a go making them ourselves and use L163 as it’s a bit more workable.
I progressed the Pilots fixed armour plate and have sourced some extrusion to make the hinges that support the lower end of the head armour. Making the male part of the hinges was a breeze, having recently purchased a belt sander (why didn’t we do this years ago!). It took longer to set the brackets up than it took to make them. The armour plate is now temporaily installed awaiting the making of the female part of the hinges and sourcing the head armour plate. We just need confirmation of the height of this before ordering it in.
The CAD files for the MDF bomb frame formers has gone to a company for quoting, so we’re expecting a response soon; the CAD files for the metal frames themselves is all but frozen and just awaits confirmation of some minor details before sending these off; we have an offer of these being laser cut FOC so will be a major step forward for us and hopefully before long you’ll be getting bored of us showing progress on Fr6, Fr7, Fr8…etc
take care
John
12jaguarSeconded for S25 being Sunderland.
The throttle bank looks like Exactor controls, these could be Stirling; not sure if they were used on other aircraft types, is there a Pt No?
regards
John
12jaguarMorning all
With just Graham and myself in residence yesterday, it was a day of progressing/completing some components in readiness for the big build.
I shaped the fixed armour plate to the correct profile then primed it before the next stage of the assembly. I’ve been having second thoughts on the configuration of the fixed armour upper brackets and having found some better photos in our collection, I’ve remade the upper brackets to match the same pattern as the lower one. Not saying that this info from the seat at Deelen is wrong, it just seems right in my mind, so now all 4 mounts are drilled solid blocks rather than the 2 upper ones being a section of U channel. Graham is now drawing up the hinge brackets to mount the upper armour, so once we’ve found some suitable extrusion that’ll be the next step.
Graham meanwhile has been working on the support brackets for the Port and stbd lower transverse I beams at Frame 5 (not frame 4 as I mistakenly reported previously). Thankfully we had a damaged original item to work from and as this is a symmetrical installation on the aircraft it was easy to mirror the design. It actually took longer to remove the protective plastic coating yesterday than to rivet them together; we have one sheet of 18swg that appears to have had some sort of chemical reaction that welds the plastic to the metal. A liberal dosing of MEK finally saw it stripped.
John
12jaguarAnd good it is to see you still perusing here and even better that You’re following us in our endeavours. Only reason I go UKAR is to follow Meteor progress
cheers
John
12jaguarthanks chaps, at the end of the day this is why we do it; the chance to speak to these gents is an all too rare occurence now
John
12jaguarThe Project was privileged to be visited last week by Doug Vince who was an ex Flight Engineer on Mk IIIs and IVs. At 98 years young he was accompanied by his partner and her family and remarkably he was able to reel off the engine start checklist after some 76 years.
We made contact with Doug after he was featured in article on BBC Look East which referenced his time on Stirlings. He was due to visit last year and be filmed by the BBC but unfortunately this was affected by Covid. Nonetheless, Doug and his party were very impressed with what they saw and he was glad to be reunited with some of the FE panels and he was able to explain some of their function. One of his recollections was how uncomfortable the longer Ops were as the powers that be had removed the dedicated FE seat so he’s have to perch wherever he could.
Dougs time on Stirlings came to an unfortunate end when LK126 was shot up by a Ju88 whilst on the approach returning from an Op on 21/22 Feb 1945. The aircraft caught fire and whilst the pilot was able to land the aircraft normally, the Rear Gunner Bruce McGovern RCAF unfortunately perished in the ensuing fire. Doug had attempted to fight the fire using a hand hel fire extinguisher but was unsuccessful. He exited the aircraft vioa the upper escape hatch, ran along the wing and dropped some 20 feet to the ground; subsequent to this he realised that he still had the fire extinguisher in his hand; he tried to drop it but found that the extreme heat had welded it to the flesh! This required extensive plastic surgery thus making him a member of the Guinea Pig Club.
As I stated, it was absolute pleasure and privilage to host Doug and his party and it is a timely reminder that he is one of the reasons why we do this ‘hobby’.
John
12jaguarHi all
A sunny and warm British Bank Holiday; there must be something amiss….
With 3 of us at the workshop yesterday, there was lots of fettling being done. Cliff was persevering with the folding step in the cockpit which has needed a remake of one of the major components. Graham on the other hand has been making the sheet metal angle brackets that attach the I beams made the other week to the fuselage frame. Photos of these will follow in the next few weeks.
I collected another piece of damaged original structure that has been heat treated to allow us to straighten it. This is the top hat section that’s fitted just fwd and underneath the 1st Pilots rudder pedals and mounts the Differential Brake valve. Thanks again to Andy at Wallwork for sorting this FOC. This has come out pretty well considering the twisted original condition it was in and I’ve decided to leave some of the nicks and dents in it to show its provenance. This has had one new L bracket made and awaits some single lug anchor nuts and a top coat of cockpit green paint.
Finally, having received some metal of the correct thickness, I’ve transferred the pilot holes from the fixed Pilots’ armour template to the new material. This has now been temporarily installed awaiting the bracketry that forms the hinges for the Pilots head armour.
hoping to report some positive progress news soon so watch this space
take care
John
12jaguarMorning all
many thanks for the advice received, certainly some food for thought
John
12jaguarPM sent 🙂
John
12jaguarIndeed
12jaguarThanks TA
We’ve got lots of things on the go and will continue updating, hopefully without too much fettling
John
12jaguarMorning all
Not too much to relate today unfortunately, as yesterday was spent in fettling and correcting some issues with work carried out recently. This is the downside when you’re having to make one-offs based on scant information; new info comes along which necessitates some tweaks or in this case starting afresh…ho hum!
However, long term friend of the project John Scott, has oce again come up trumps and has machined the transverse I beams that sit directly under the Pilots seats at Fr4. A short history of these components is that whilst the overall profile of the beams is available as an extrusion, the webs are too thick and all have to be machined down to 0.1″ flange thickness; this is a complex job as if done incorrectly it can cause the base extrusion to relieve the inbuilt stresses and warp.
You may recall that this where the aileron pulley bracket made earlier this year is installed and also is critical to the construction of the platform that the autopilot servos sit on. Once again I’d like to thank John and the members of the Bedford Model Engineers who have allowed the use of their facilities to fabricate these complicated components.
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