Rare/Priceless? aircraft

I think the term “rare” best describes something, when there is only a few left, when there were originally thousands. When there is only a sole survivor of a type, I believe this is best called “priceless”, or “unique”, ie Hawker Typhoon, Defiant, etc.

Given that someone with enough money these days, can pretty much get his/her favorite aircraft made from new, however rare the type may be, a rare or priceless tag for an aircraft can make it very desireable for the collector. For example, who would have thought 20 years ago that we would be seeing airworthy numerous Rata’s, Polikarpovs, Zeros, Yaks, Me262’s, Me109’s, Fw190’s, etc?

These types are still rare, given the small production runs, even if some are new-builds.

There are projects to do several other unique aircraft. In the UK there is the Stirling Project and The Hornet Project to name but two. Say these were both flying new-builds. The tooling, materials, labour, space, etc. could be more for a stirling (possibly 2-3 times), but I guess that a Hornet would be more desireable to a potential collector because of its performance, and potential re-sale value, in comparison.

Hence, why the above named desireable fighters get limited new-build production runs, and equally historically significant, but less desireable aircraft are ignored.

I did not know that this type was made of brass, and considerably thinner than the aluminium type.

In the light of this information, it may be possible to make a press tool from several layers of cheap MDF, inlaid with steel wire (forming the male half of the swage form). The female half of the MDF tool can simply be routed with a rounded cutter, to match the same profile(allowing for material thickness).

Large diameter rod can be used to locate the two halves of the tool, then put in a flypress. I have done this on a similar application, and seems to work well. Ideal for the “cockpit builder” working on a tight budget, or for prototyping generally.

Two farmers in Suffolk have these engines, I believe. Their collection consists of a couple of griffons, Hendons Beverly centaurus’ and numerous radials. Fantastic well maintained and stored collection.

Historic aviation use of CAD/CAE software

All

Modern CAD software has been mentioned several times in recent months, in several threads. I thought that you may be interested in some information on the subject.

Firstly CAD, it is merely a 2 dimensional, or 3 dimensional drawing tool. There are no magic buttons to press “design me a car/aeroplane/ship”, etc. A good design engineer still has to have a good brain! There are methods now where this 2D/3D information can be sent to a machine that mills/turns tooling or finished components, but generally you have to work with a toolmaker or manufacturing guy.

I use 3D CAD for my project. It is worth its weight in gold, to help piece fragmented remains together. But when you start with a complete airframe, it is probably not necessary. You cannot improve on the original significantly. The Flug Werk 190’s were drawn by a guy in Herts, and the “more efficient propellors” developed, we’re probably done only so their profiles and twist matched the selected engine properties better, and materials specified? Otherwise, why change?

Several people have asked me to produce CAD models of their wings and fuselages. This is a relatively easy thing to do, as long as key information is supplied. ie. sections, dimensions and photographs.

Also, Self financed, and self taught!

You can hand make most things. What I’m doing is fit for purpose. My project won’t (unfortunately) be pulling +6g at 450mph, but helping to display what original Hornet parts still exist. Funhouse (Dave) will probably agree with me that what we are doing on our projects, is equivalent to prototype parts. Our tooling is considerably cheaper though.

cheers!

Further praise!

Funhouse

You are still churning out some good parts!

Looking at your seat. Have you used pop-rivets, or solid csk/mush-head type?

If they are the counter-sink head type. What chamfer angle are you using, as I am just about to do a load of solid rivetting, and haven’t the correct cutter yet?