Amazing work you guys do!

Thanks for that. We have a great team and the Barra’ build is really interesting. We’re well on with putting the tailplane back together now so there’ll be some more stuff on the diary soon.

Indeed i have Bill, an amazing achievement considering the amount of detail.

I’ve often wondered if Yeovilton have ever looked into the possibility of attempting to run their RR Eagle in VR137 !

Rob

I caused mild panic in the ranks last time I was there by swinging from the prop to see if I could turn it and can confirm that a fat lad dangling from a blade didn’t budge it a millimetre. I asked if we could bring the team down and get a tune out of it but I reckon I’ll look good in Speedos before that ever happens. Would be fantastic to do, though. Will ask again next time.

Bill

BTW two birds with one stone, how about a Barracuda with floats!

Could we make it any uglier? Only its mother could love it as it is! 🙂

ZRX61 I think that is a little unfair.

Just remember who SHE is and have a little respect for her wishes.

I am and always have been a supporter of Bluebird and I too wish to see her as run on Coniston so I am in no way trying to derail Bill’s teams attempts to run Bluebird in Coniston.

I just think you should have a little respect for the families wishes even if it means that they are going against the flow.

Good luck with the project Bill/Mike and team.

We’ve always had much respect for the family’s wishes but recent developments are for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. The project involves a great many companies organisations and individuals who have worked damned hard towards a certain goal so it is more than a little unreasonable to try and move the goalposts at this late stage. Hopefully common sense will prevail and, in the meantime, thanks for your support. Much appreciated.

Something we plan for the Barra’ project site is to collect stories of the people who knew the Barra’ and put as many of them together in one place as we can. So if there’s any stories to be told feel free to send them over and we’ll get them properly recorded for posterity.

Ahh, that’s what I was after – thanks for that. An intact Grumman Avenger turned up in the Firth of Forth a few years back in only about 40ft of water so there’s bound to be a Barra’ lying around. Time to dig out the sonar equipment, methinks.

We’re rebuilding the tailplane of our Barra’ at the moment, the fin is in excellent condition so that’s OK but we’re short of some rudder and portside elevator bits so all options are being looked at.

Sunken Barra’

As some of you know we’re rebuilding a Barra’ for the FAAM. The new website is under construction at barracudaproject.co.uk if anyone want to look-see. Not there much at the mo but we’re adding on a daily basis.

What I’d really like to research is any Barra’s lost in sheltered water because locating things on the bottom of the sea or in lakes is our specialty. I’ve looked at many of the usual references to Barra’s that crashed or were ditched but what there doesn’t seem to be is any more than a vague position for any of them. Does anyone know of one lost in water where we could narrow the search down to a mile or so?

Gas gives a nice flat weld whereas TIG tends to have more bulk but heat flows through aluminium at such a rate that, in my experience at least, there’s nothing to choose between the state of the metal whether you use gas or TIG. I started on gas and now use TIG exclusively.
You still have a large area of material very close to meting point as you go and it normalizes in the same way when you take the heat off. If there’s any doubt you can rub some soap on it and heat until the soap turns black to anneal the metal. By far the most important factor with wheeling welded seams is getting the metal back to the original thickness before you begin. If someone can tell me how to post pics on here I’ll pop a few on.