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Re: And how about..............EN199

Posted by Robert M on Tue May 13, 2003 03:44:47 PM

In reply top Re: And how about..............EN199 posted by PeterA on Tue May 13, 2003 02:07:18 PM

There are some close up shots of EN199, and the Hurricane before the fuselage was covered, here:

http://www.searchmalta.com/cgi-local/photos/main.cgi?genreid=26&type=6&brand=0

They both looked good to me when I visited in 2001, The Hurricane will be fitted with a Merlin that has already been run on a test bed, allowing it to taxi.

Robert M.


: Cees
: Against all the odds this project made it despite being di
: scarded to the scap heap on two occasions.
: After initially being donated to the local Boy Scouts in M
: ay 1947, it degraded in their care to the point where it b
: ecame used as a Civil Defence training aid and finally bru
: ised and dismembered ended up at Targa gap. In the early 1
: 970's I made an approach to the then Prime Minister seekin
: g the possibility of acquiring the wings for a joint Seafi
: re project I was engaged on with with Neville Franklin. Th
: e request was politeley acknowledged with the response tha
: t the parts had now been collected for a proposed War Muse
: um. Visiting Malta for the first time in 1985 I enquired o
: f EN199 to be told that the 'x' number of pieces the fusel
: age was in had been consigned to a scrap yard after repeat
: ed complaints that cars were scraping it in the tight muse
: um car park..... and the wings. The wings it transpired we
: re thought to be in a storage facility that literally had
: not had the doors open for some years. After some long and
: protracted negotiation these were eventually traded to me
: and were the key to my proposed Mk XII project, EN224. To
: a subsequent group of new and enthused museum supporters,
: who re-located and recoverd the fuselage pieces, the loss
: of 'their' wings was taken in good spirit. They set too a
: nd rebuilt/reconstructed two wings using the leading edges
: of BR108 and Rib 1's supplied from the UK. Although I am
: sure the Maltese would be the first to agree that their f
: irst venture into aircraft sheet metal on the fuselage usi
: ng principally pop rivets and commercial grade aluminium a
: nd a very limited budget could perhaps be described as 'ad
: equate'. The overall restoration however, from the display
: point of view, is first class.
: My understanding is that lessons learned on the Spitfire a
: nd later restorations are turning the recoverd Hurricane i
: nto something quite special and I look forward to seeing i
: t on my next visit.
:
: : the maltese Spitfire EN199.
: :
: : How about that restoration considering the standard of r
: ec
: : onstruction?
: :
: : Not that I am dismissing this airframe, but I am just cu
: ri
: : ous how one can ressurect a seaminly dead aircraft into
: a
: : beautiful museum piece
: :
: : Cees
: :

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