WIX Archives
Re: Ersatz Tempest Idea
Posted by Steve Tournay on Fri May 17, 2002 05:19:23 PM
In reply top Ersatz Tempest Idea posted by bdk on Thu May 16, 2002 07:48:01 PM
This is an interesting idea that has also occurred to me on occasion (despite my innate bias against doing anything to alter my favourite of Sir Sydney's designs!)...at first glance it sounds very workable, the Fury having started out as a lightweight Tempest variant.
The assertion that a paintjob can basically convert a Sea Fury into a Tempest II is a bit off the mark though; there are numerous structural differences and a surprising disparity of appearance between the two types, most notably involving the upper fuselage (stepped-up on the Fury, "flat" on the Tempest), fin (of course), and inner wings (greater span on the Tempest). Recall Ormond Haydon-Baillie's lovely RAF wartime-liveried Sea Fury...reminiscent of a Tempest, sure, but few ever mistook it for one!
That said, using Fury components as a shortcut in the buildup of a "new" Tempest--especially to replicate the near-extinct wartime versions--is a neat idea (that has been used before on other types: Hastings wings on YAM's Halifax; P-51 wings on the new MB-5, and I still await news that someone's having a go at building a Wellington around a set of Valletta wings!).
I like the Griffon-for-Sabre swap idea too. Back in the 70s here in Canada, well-known and colourful collector Bob Diemert got a Firefly AS.6 into the air using a chin-radiator Merlin 500 off a York--cowling, three-blader and all...the resulting airframe looked like a Mk.1 Firefly
nose tacked onto a Mk.6, but with more "surgery" it could have been made to pass very closely indeed for an FR.1. The same concept could apply to a chin-rad Griffon masquerading as a Sabre. Course it would SOUND wrong, but once the splendid machine was sitting there on the ramp, who'd care...
S.