Hear hear J Boyle… however, he clearly didn’t bother to do any research into the state of what he was buying, so it is hardly surprising he’s being called names at this point.

Brian Bateson must be laughing like a drain by this point – hope he feels proud of himself.

Yes, but being called names by people who dont necessarily do their bit for aviation preservation is a bit rich and, personally would not bother me one jot! There are doers in this world and a whole legion of useless armchair critics who while away their useless time telling people how they should spend (and should have spent) their own money and whinging when those doers actually get up off their bottoms and do something, albeit a little misguided!

I take my hat off to him, yes he may have spent alot of money on this, but he had a go. In the end, the cockpit is restorable, worth saving and he will probably make much of his £15k back in scrap for the rest.

I used to have a couple of original crowbars – until I got an offer I could’nt refuse 😉 I have to say I feel they were more of a morale booster than serious escape tool – they were very light and made of hollow thin wall steel tube with solid ends, one of mine looked as though someone had tried to open a crate with it before thinking better of it. I think if I had been trapped the old one-piece escape axe would have been my preferred option!

Better chance of getting out of a Spitty than a Hunter. The Swiss bought export versions of the Hunter F4 and noted that the contract charged them for crowbars. When they quizzed Hawkers as to where these were, apparently they were told the bars were useless anyway.
The Swiss were (allegedly adamant). So HAC set up a cockpit and asked for the strongest Swiss pilot to be provided. After 1 3/4 hours all he had done was a hole about an inch! The Swiss said (allegedly) thatall very well, but weve paid for them so we want them!!

To my knowledge, only F1 & F2 aircraft carried them. Hence I have one in my F1 cockpit. The F4 still has the mounts (as does the F6 nose I have).

Bit of a delay on the reply Bruce.

Just one question for you Bruce if i may ask, was the original glass tinted on these ?.

Dave

Yes it was tinted! Dave are you open to commissions old chap? I need a frame 8 and a few other things for my project….please pm me

Oh and by the way, your work is EXCELLENT, fastidious and is on par with the best I have seen. I have a Sutton harness so will take some measurements for you

I have a set of canopies, a good main wheel tyre and instrument panel mounts apart from that no 🙂

Well done for posting those shots Colin, it is great to see what grass roots preservationists get up to. When my life has sorted itself out, I will have to come and provide a display down your way again!
Regards
TD 🙂

As you may be aware, TonyD holds the nose section of Swift F.7 XF113.

You may not be aware this was discovered in a yard nr Frome by Dr Robert Poulter who had is transported to his home nr Bath (along with his Seahawks) in the mid 80’s.

I visited this yard in ’87 and again in ’95, and the rear fuselage and (seperate) centre section of XF113 were still extant.

On my first visit it was still owned by the original family concern, and was full of wing sections, boxed & greased parts, wheels, tyres etc… the old chap even claimed he had TSR2 sections from Boscombe for scrapping !! (The Swift came from Boscombe also)

In ’95 it had become a car breakers, but the site was bigger than the (considerable) amount of cars they had, hence the ‘aeroplane’ parts hadn’t yet been touched or were likely to in the near future.

However, that was then, and now health & safety rules have affected car breakers etc… so questions i’d like to ask is: has anyone else heard of the place or can shed any light on its contents ? As i’ve not seen it mentioned to date.

Cheers….

oh p.s. No Tony isn’t interested in making his Swift whole again !

Dave is correct, apart from the last sentance, I went to see the sections in the yard tosee if anything was useful. Unfortunately most was bent and out of shape….besides they wanted £400 at that time.

Perhaps not quite what you wanted, Cees, but this is the results of “a good day down the scrapyard”. Circa 1980…. 😀

Any chance of some more photos of your lovely scrapyard grip finds 682Al me old?! 🙂