I would like to see Kermit Weekes Tempest 5 in taxiable condition with its Napier Sabre roaring down the runway lifting the tail on the flight line.
That alone would be enough for me!

Graham

re james mays programme some weeks ago, surely its feasable to construct a stirling using the same methods etc ,this would then give more impetus to the project as there would be a solid example to spur the initative along and afford people the opportunity to view this much maligned aircraft quicker than waiting for the rebuild/construction to be completed,which is likely to be some time.

You dont have to use exactly the same method, as the criteria was for the spit to be picked up and made like a plastic kit.
If the drawings were available one could CNC machine the structure out of a suitable material MDF etc [ might be a bit heavy ] another sheet material that is strong and rigid perhaps. Then the outside could be clad in Alumininium etc and you would end up with a convincing end product. Forget plastics it is too expensive. You would need some internal metal bracing for the wings to hold itself together. I bet after getting halfway through all this you would wish you had started to build a proper replica!

Nice shots Dreyerce , is there a reason for the large pool of water in front of the Shack at the end of the ground run sequence?!

GrahamF, do you mean this one?

Pic Walter Vice

There were two SAAF Shackletons flying, 1716 was on its way to Fairford for the RIAT air display when it was crash landed in the Sahara, and 1722 is the one being disscussed above.

Throttles are mounted on pedestals on each side, between the pilots seats and cockpit side wall.

Yes thanks, thats the one, it looks as though reusable parts have been retrieved [ I often wondered ] or perhaps they were smashed off on Landing?

Graham

.. a very rough sounding Merlin or Griffon running up in the dark. Any ideas?

Won’t be a Griffon all the late spits got rid of.:(

The CBFS are beginning the next phase of our Hurricane Mk1 restoration – recreating a set of early fabric-covered wings. As far as we know, this has not been attempted before – any thoughts, offers of help, comments, suggestions and best of all relevant pictures / drawings (can’t have too many of those) welcome.

I’ll keep this thread up-to-date with situation reports as we go along. At the moment we are assembling front and rear spars, and building an inventory of diagonal truss pieces and plug ends.

Make sure you look at the hurricane in the science museum [ the only survivor with fabric wings ]
Good luck, if you need any CNC machined parts I may be able to help.

Graham

Mixed feelings about the show. Entertaining certainly, but exactly what the point of it all was, I don’t know. Clearly, the kids (apart from one) didn’t give a stuff about Airfix kits (no surprise there). They also don’t give a stuff about Spitfires. James May clearly does though, so why did we have to go through the nonsense of pretending that he was somehow crusading to drag kids away from their computers and on to kits? What nonsense!

Likewise, I was disappointed that he just had to include a typically Top Gear-esque sneering remark about the pilot figure being like his “gay lover” – nice line to reinforce prejudice amongst the kids that he was supposedly preaching to. I’m also still not sure how he managed to twist a programme about Airfix kits so that he ends-up joyriding in a Spitfire!

Oh well – Airfix/Hornby will have got some great promotion out of the show. I wonder who paid for what? Did the Beeb (ie the license payer) cough-up for the Spitfire or did Hornby pay for that I wonder? Bet the budget would make fascinating reading! Basically, there were too many conflicting ideas, themes and aims all mixed together so that the end result was a little like a Chinese takeaway – superficially filling but leaving you with a slightly empty sensation shortly afterwards!

I think one has to be careful in critisizing a program which contains a subject we all know and love if it is aimed at the general public, the best this sort of exposure can do is create some ‘street cred’ for our hobby. If we are too picky and unfriendly about this it will put kids off because we are then perceived as ‘Nurds’, so top marks for JM for his enthusiasm.
And in this period of enlightened public finances scrutiny, who cares about the cost? If they run out of money these days they just print more or find even more devious ways to tax us, and lets face it we never complain or do anything about that.

Graham

If Key Publishing would put that photograph on the front cover of Flypast, that would be OK then?

If by simply putting as a header of the thread
Gordon Ramsey flies a Spitfire, (Graphic language content) that would be OK for four letter swearwords? What next?

This is a family forum where fathers sit with son’s and pass down their aviation enthusiasm and knowledge, not trying to explain ‘Graphic image content’

It’s easy to find stuff like this elsewhere on the web, I just don’t think there is a need to put it on this forum, however hard you try to justify it.

I think really this is the reality of war and its a difficult subject, My main fear is that you only need a UK jobs worth to see this and then the powers that be will stop the aviation archeology boys.
We must remember this happened in Russia and unlike the UK they can step off the tarmac unnoticed.

Graham