WIX Archives

Re: Beaufighter Update for Andy G!

Posted by Ron Henry on Tue Aug 13, 2002 12:46:10 PM

In reply top Beaufighter Update for Andy G! posted by pete rushen on Tue Aug 13, 2002 08:42:00 AM

: Beaufighter restoration has slowed but is not dead! Kym St
: azaker the main man on the project has left for pastures n
: ew in Norfolk & has not been replaced. I am continuing to
: work on items which are not immediately visible. The mater
: ial is in for the flying control spars, the ribs have been
: made for the rudder & are being made for the elevator, ai
: lerons to follow. Spar flanges are being made for the tail
: plane & the extrusions are ready for machining.
: The engine bearer has been re-designed to take a later eng
: ine. On that subject, can anybody locate any ex Hastings H
: ercules 216 powerplants? We have one powerplant & several
: engines,need another powerplant. Hope that helps.
: Peter

I really marvel at what you guys take on and achieve at TFC. The Beaufighter has been with you quite a while now, and I can't now really remember what it looked like when you first got it. What amazes me now is how much 'new' you have put into it. Leaving the engines aside, can you make a rough guesstimate % of how much will be new when it gets into the air?

Hastings powerplants and props? .......... Now if you'd asked me 24 yrs ago, I could most likely have materially helped you !! :-( I'm sure the aircraft in question went from Pershore to Honington, but I'll be surprised indeed if even a rivet from it still exists there. Sudden thought - any chance that spare Hastings engines exist in NZ?

I'm sure that you need another project in the queue like you need a hole in the head, and I realise that even the boss's cash resources must have a limit ;-) - but, has he ever considered a Battle? I doubt if they're quite his thing, but I wish somebody would do one as a sort of flying memorial to their inadequacy and awfulness, and the guys who got slaughtered in them.

Ron


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