Hope you like the improvised sanding machine David/dcollins103.

Anon.

Absolutely! This is just the kind of low-tech, hi-ingenuity solution that makes our hobby possible 😀

*Very happy to report that the Whirlwind Fighter Project had an excellent day down in Yeovil yesterday, at the families day laid on by AgustaWestland at the Yeovil factory airfield to celebrate 100 years of Westland Aircraft. Mike was able to show a rear fuselage skeleton, though this was pinned together for the day and will need to go into a jig once the new premises are up and running.

As well as a great deal of interest and support from the public, we were also delighted to meet the family of WEW Petter, who spent some time on our stand discussing the Whirlwind and the designer’s legacy.*

Gunnar, Jim and I took some time out to watch the formal unveiling of a plaque to the memory of Petter by his daughter Liz, who braved the rain to give a heart-felt speech of thanks to all at Westland concerned with this memorial (the relief model Whirlwind on the plaque was created from profile data compiled by our project).

We were also greatly entertained by 263 veterans Jonnie Shellard and The Reverend George Wood, who spent the morning with us. George proved by far the best T-shirt and hat salesman!

Full details of the day, with more pics, will appear in the next newsletter. In the meantime, many thanks to AgustaWestland for having us

Great work guys.

Just a quick update to report that the rig now has several coats of primer – undercoat – Matt black top coat applied and has been temporarily fitted with its cockpit sides cut from sheet ally.
Since the photo was taken the instrument panels have also been removed and stripped of their instruments and fittings prior to some paint being applied, the cross brace for the BFP top mount has been added and a set of rudder pedals have been sourced and trial fitted. In the absence of genuine Wyvern pedals I realised that those from the Canberra B.2 are identical bar the foot rests themselves, so I have made up a bolt on ‘conversion kit’ of parts to make them appear more representative of Wyvern pedals until the real McCoy turns up (if any still exist)!

Rob[ATTACH=CONFIG]238863[/ATTACH]

Ps.. Apologies for the sideways pic, just click on it and it should right itself!

Brilliant Rob. This is really coming to life now. I can’t wait to see it.

One year at Newark, we should set up a Fleet Air Arm display. Tony Dyer has a Seafire F46 slice of cockpit, and as I also have a set of Sea Hornet PR.22 instrument panels, I could assemble them into a slice of fuselage similar to yours. There are one or two Sea Hawk cockpits floating around too.

😀 Hi All.

The July newsletter is now up and running and can be found here…http://whirlwindfighter.blogspot.co.uk/

Chris.

Excellent newsletter and very interesting explaination.

The hornet was also a low-wing monoplane that didnt use wing root fairings, and was good for speeds approaching 500mph. Coupled with long range, low weight and low drag.
DH also challenged the accepted aerodynamic conventions, and bettered them too.

Aluminium.

That makes it more viable.

DoraNineFan,

Thank you very much for sharing the video and link, I had yet to find a company that worked on projects like this start to finish. A good deal of the complexities known in the Sabre are eliminated through use of modern CNC, the tooling that Napier developed was simply amazing at the time, and would be incredibly difficult and expensive to recreate today for a short production run of engines. There is no doubt that the costs in a new build small batch of Sabres will be very steep, but through the use of 3D scanning, mould printing and machining it takes some of the sting out!

While 3D scanning can only capture accessible geometry, it can also be used in conjunction with known data to reverse engineer a good portion of the wing for the Typhoon. Through the use of remaining drawings, articles and the AP; most of the internal structures material specifications and profiles can be obtained. Using 3D scanning the external geometry can be captured complete with accurate positioning data from each component based on rivet lines, add some careful inspection through access holes to determine the location of lightening holes and small brackets, and I’m one step closer to a new wing. A slow process though, at the moment I’ve been passed between Hendon and Ottawa with each saying the other should be approached to grant access to MN235.

Nothing is impossible….. Just expensive! 🙂

Did you buy Rogers Sabre engine? Did he/you ever manage to dismantle it? I only saw it the once the day he collected it, so didnt get a good look. Does it look straight enough to measure?

The thing about digital scanning is that you wil still have to make a full 3d cad model of every part leaving “material-on” to allow for machining and shrinkage using the scan data as a guide.

I think im correct in saying that Vintage aviator in NZ use new-made original design engines, in their flying reproductions.

A thank you to all who displayed. Not a small undertaking to move a cockpit across the UK and I hope those exhibited enjoyed the event as much as many of the visitors clearly did.

Indeed. We are all interested in aviation, to to see each others different projects: small/large/civil/military/modern/old is a treat for all.

Here is the Hornet F1 cockpit displayed at this years Cockpit-Fest.