Building has now commenced

At long last after four years the team can announce that the building of P7056 “Pride of Yeovil” has begun. The first time in over 70 years that a part for a Westland Whirlwind Fighter has been fabricated. A lot of thanks must go to the research team who dug out all the photographs and data, AgustaWestland for letting us have what plans survived and their faith in this project, Gunnar Olsen for the many hours that he spent recreating the plans from scratch and then redoing them if they were one iota out and also to Matt Bearman and Mike Eastman who put this idea together from a simple email.
Mike who is our Chairman and who also runs the Aircraft Restoration Group at his workshop near Ripon has now, with his dedicated volunteer team, cut out 3 of the frames plus the doublers and wireless tray bearers which form part of the rear fuselage structure.
Also underway is construction of the unusual and challenging angled ‘Frame 10’ fuselage join – with thanks to Steve Vizard and the team at Airframe Assemblies for their technical help.

The newsletter for may is now online..http://whirlwindfighter.blogspot.co.uk/

Chris

Great news. Keep up the good work. You are going about things the right way. Can’t wait to see this airframe grow.

Hi all.

I thought id let you know that i visited the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge last Saturday.

This is a Museum that i personally visit in the region of ten times per season, reason being there is never near enough time to take in all the displays and exhibits.it covers hundreds of displays that cover crashsites through out the Battle.

There have been quite a few new additions since last year, these are a few that spring to mind.(There are more)

Replica Boulton Paul Defiant
Stuka rear fuselage.
Stuka main wheel faring (with numerous bullet strikes)
Spitfire replica K5054 (of which once took to the skies until its sad end)
Almost certain that i see a full Stuka contol column. (rarest of the rare)
Also a lot more new displays have been added to this massive Battle of Britain collection. (The biggest collection in the World)

Some of the displays are housed in 3 of the original former airfield buildings including the original operations block,(incidently there are still remains a bullet strike through the original roof of this building, whilst it was under Luftwaffe attack)
Also the old Armoury houses uniforms aviation prints a colection of Weoponry, medals, log books, also artifacts from the likes of Lord Dowding Robert Stanford Tuck and Sir Douglas Bader and many more.

Another new addition to the Museum this year is the new 25 squadron Mess and Tea room, this is another nice improvment to the facillities, as gives you the chance to grab a cuppa and a bite to eat and take in all that you have seen so far, before entering back in to the Museum for the second part of the Journey into the Battle. (incidently i highly recommend the home made Cakes) they are to die for. (The catering on site is pleasantly provided by Laura) also on the menu there are the likes of Sandwiches, toasties crumpets, and various other lite bites..undercover seating for inclement days, as well as outside on sunny days on the newly constructed patio… you could almost be back in the 1940s.

Any questions you may need to ask and the the very friendly Volunteers are in hand to help.and beyond that there is David Brocklehurst M.B.E. there to help with any questions reference the Battle, as he is extremely knowledgeable and helpful on this subject.. (Many a time during my visit you would see him helping numerous people with there Questions.)

This Museum certainly brings home the Human side of this conflict during WW2 and tells the Story of those who thought and died in the Battle in Great detail and depth.. for anyone who hasnt as yet visited PLEASE spare the time to see the Museums Curators and Volunteers dedication and hard work..(I promise anyone that you will not be disapointed…) But be warned one visit will not be enough..

I have to admit i spent some 4 hours at Hawkinge on Saturday but seemed more like half an hour as time just flys past you…

I feel i havent done the Museum the justice it deserves but below is a link for further information.

http://www.kbobm.org/map.htm

Cheers for reading Brad..

I agree, it is a really good museum. I went there last year, and had an excellent visit.

Hi Andy,
Still here but not able to make the aero jumble unfortunately…

I am wondering if the wing parts are the elevators that were at the last one….but would appreciate it if someone could let me know (if actually wing parts then I will definitely look to try and follow up).

Dave

There were a pair of elevators. I didn’t see any wing parts. There were also two throttle boxes. One reasonable, the other only good for spares. I think the same seller had a piece of side console, but I may have misidentified it?

Worth contacting him though.

Regards,
David

P.s. excellent website. I have sent you a pm.

When dismantling Meteor F.4 EE531 at Lasham for the first (of many) time in 1972 or 73 us amateurs got quite a big surprise.

Attempting to remove the first of the engine intake cowls we had undone all the screws around the perimeter and put a strop under it suspended from a small crane. Wriggling it free the cowl unit suddenly made a dive for the ground – thankfully no one was underneath it at the time. Once on the ground we discovered how heavy the unit was – the whole leading edge of the intake ring was formed from lead.

In addition we came across steel weights in the nosewheel bay so it became obvious there had been a Centre of Gravity problem with the aircraft.

I’ve read a bit on the Meteor over the years but I don’t recall seeing what the cause of the problem was – was it a serious error in design or, more likely perhaps, something to do with the positioning of the powerplants? Anyone know?

I have always presumed that the longer noses on the T.7 and NF/TT versions compensated for this?

Roger Smith.

Hi Roger,
Having worked on TT20 and T7 versions of the Meteor, I can say that yes they do have nose weights, although on these longer variants there weren’t any in the intakes.

The TT20 had weights in the nose to compensate for the radar that had been removed, no nose guns, and the additional target drouge shoots in the rear fuselage.

I believe that both of these versions would have had a small amount of nose weights anyway, to balance out any additional equipment that would have been added to the aircraft over time.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restorations/messerschmitt-bf-109-restoration-update.html

So, an Allison powered Buchon……in a 109 profile:very_drunk: cheers!

Nice idea, and if well engineered could bring life back to some of these aircraft. They appear to be trying to improve the handling of the Buchon, to try and restore it back to ‘109 standards.

Is this addressing a perception in the US, that the potentially flyable ones are tricky to operate?

——————————-

Also, What are the differences between a Merlin and the Allison that would make this possible with one, but not the other?

Is the Merlin V-angle wider?

Or does the Allison have more conveniently positioned engine mounts?

Are the engines different weights, or lengths?

Are there greater numbers of Allison spares around?

Just curious.

Griffon Seafires had 5-blade or contra-props. These blades are too long for a Spitfire/Seafire with a much shorter u/c.

Spits with four-blade props used the smaller (Rotol) hub.

Sea Hornet used the de-Havilland prop.

Anon.

To the uneducated, please could you point out the differences between the two makes of metal prop blades of same rotational direction and, similar diameter?
One sea hornet ditched in that area too.

I certainly will be.

😀

Got around to picking up the laser cut set of ally instrument panels today for the Wyvern S.4. So now for a little fitting and fettling of the instruments when time permits!

Rob[ATTACH=CONFIG]235394[/ATTACH]

Nice work Rob,