WIX Archives
Re: YAM, Halifax Friday the Thirteenth, debate
Posted by Steve T on Mon Nov 17, 2003 07:35:47 PM
In reply top YAM, Halifax Friday the Thirteenth, debate posted by Cees Broere on Mon Nov 17, 2003 01:37:38 PM
Hi Cees--
: We all know the stories and the opinions in warbird land a
: bout the Halifax restoration that Yorkshire Air Museum car
: ried out during the late eighties and early nineties.
:
: The major concern was that it was not a Halifax but a seri
: al soup using a lot of fabricated parts, the wings from a
: Hastings and newbuilt tail and nose sections.
I'd call HR792-et-cetera a sort of reincarnation rather than a restoration. YAM did, in effect, MORE than they could with what they had to work with! The Hastings wings were a fortuitous stroke as they're structurally so close to late-mark Halifax units. Should the chunks of HR792 and of other Hallies have been left as found and displayed that way? Well, maybe...IF a certain other Halifax found in much more complete state had been restored for display as once intended. But I think YAM wanted to replicate the "presence" of a Halifax, as they were when hundreds of them were operating in anger. I for one applaud the effort to, in effect, bring a type (Halifax III) not only back from the brink, but back from OVER the brink! As far as I know no attempt has ever been made by YAM to suggest that the reconstituted Hali is either the "real" Friday the 13th or, indeed, genuinely one particular Halifax at all. So, for me, there isn't any controversy; everyone knows this is a composite/semi-replica, representing Halifaxes long gone.
: The tail was built by apprentices at BAe Brough, so was do
: ne in a good way. The nose was built by retired volunteers
: by using wooden frames and aluminium stringers and skin.
Yes--of course building a replica nose wasn't YAM's first choice (as you suggest below)...far as I know at least.
: Now, suppose the IWM willing to give up their nose section
: from PN323 now on show at Lambeth and that was fitted to
: the Halifax airframe at Elvington. What would the general
: opinion regarding the authenticity of the airframe be then
: ?
My understanding is that there's NO chance of this happening; but hypothetically, the result, in my mind, would be more a composite original than a re-creation. Were I listing Halifaxes, that one would be quoted as PN323/HR792 composite (with the notation that it incorporates many non-original components). As it now is, I call it a semi-replica based on components of HR792. None of which prevents it from being a must-see on my next UK voyage!
(Of course, the foregoing is to a degree predicated on W1048 being the only known complete Hali at the time YAM's project began; the YAM effort was very far along by the time NA337 was discovered and salvaged for Trenton. I have to think YAM might have gone after that one instead if the timing had been different. But the end result--more or less--is three Halifaxes in museums instead of two; and how can that be a bad thing!)
S.