Warbirds (Historical, Veteran & Vintage Military Aircraft)

[ngatimozart]

There is / was a Tempest restoration project in Canada and they have a Napier Sabre engine. I know one of the Kiwis working on it. He's been converting all their drawings into AutoCAD plus doing new drawings as and when required. They went down to visit Kermit at FOF in Florida and FWI they did various measurements, photos etc., off his Napier Sabre engine. I'll drop him a message during the week to see where they're at.

 

[Owly]

Looks interesting. I actually wonder how good the aircraft would've been if they had been able to fit RR Merlins to it, or even the Bristol Hercules radials. Could've been a different story then especially at altitude and possibly allowed the carriage of more fuel, extending its range.

Yep, saw that on a social media page that I belong to. US$12 million is a lot though. I think the Mosquitoes were / are running at about US$7-8 million each so $12 million looks a bit steep.

 

[Owly]

Westland went on to build the Welkin - a Whilwind like airframe with Merlins - but the Mosquito was faster etc so only a handful were built.

 

[At lakes]

There is / was a Tempest restoration project in Canada and they have a Napier Sabre engine. I know one of the Kiwis working on it. He's been converting all their drawings into AutoCAD plus doing new drawings as and when required. They went down to visit Kermit at FOF in Florida and FWI they did various measurements, photos etc., off his Napier Sabre engine. I'll drop him a message during the week to see where they're at.

Hawker Tempest II - MW376 Restoration

You are very correct there is a well-advanced restoration proceeding in Canada. This restoration is a Tempest II and it has a radial engine. As MW376 was built at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in Banwell in 1944 I would assume it has the 18 cylinder Bristol Centaurus radial engine. The Tempest II was later developed into the Hawker Sea Fury.

The Kermit Weeks restoration is that of a Tempest V and it has the liquid cooled 2,235 hp Sabre IIA series engine, which had the distinctive chin radiator,

The Canadian aircraft was the one that was in New Zealand it was owned by an American Eric Hertz who was resident in NZ. In 2012 he contracted Pioneer restorations to get it back to airworthy condition. In 2013 Hertz and his wife were killed in an aircraft accident and the family on sold the airframe 2014 to KF Aerospace who are doing the restoration.

 

[At lakes]

There is / was a Tempest restoration project in Canada and they have a Napier Sabre engine. I know one of the Kiwis working on it. He's been converting all their drawings into AutoCAD plus doing new drawings as and when required. They went down to visit Kermit at FOF in Florida and FWI they did various measurements, photos etc., off his Napier Sabre engine. I'll drop him a message during the week to see where they're at.

The reason I suspect your friend went to see Kermit Weeks for measurements photo' etc is that Weeks has two Tempests under restoration a Tempest II and a Tempest V. The Tempest V is the one that had the inline liquid cooled engine, with the Tempest II the radial engine. Also Air leasing Restorations in the UK also have a Tempest II under restoration as well. So that is four projects running.

+Tempest Fugit – The Resurrection of Two of Hawkers’ Finest Fighters

Aircraft Restoration | airleasing.co.uk

 

[ngatimozart]

Hawker Tempest II - MW376 Restoration

You are very correct there is a well-advanced restoration proceeding in Canada. This restoration is a Tempest II and it has a radial engine. As MW376 was built at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in Banwell in 1944 I would assume it has the 18 cylinder Bristol Centaurus radial engine. The Tempest II was later developed into the Hawker Sea Fury.

The Kermit Weeks restoration is that of a Tempest V and it has the liquid cooled 2,235 hp Sabre IIA series engine, which had the distinctive chin radiator,

The Canadian aircraft was the one that was in New Zealand it was owned by an American Eric Hertz who was resident in NZ. In 2012 he contracted Pioneer restorations to get it back to airworthy condition. In 2013 Hertz and his wife were killed in an aircraft accident and the family on sold the airframe 2014 to KF Aerospace who are doing the restoration.

Yep I remember when Eric Hertz and his wife went missing. It was off the west coast of the North Island and the RNZN used Manawanui III to find and recover the aircraft wreckage, along with the Hertz couple remains.

 

[At lakes]

Recently whilst reading the News Channel Flight Global I came across this story. US Special Ops want to replace the MV22 with an airframe with jet speed.

USAF Special Ops wants VTOL aircraft with ‘jet speed’ to replace CV-22

I thought the Poms had designed the concept already way back in the 50’s. The Fairy Rotodyne whilst not Jet speed could carry 44 passengers/troops and had rather a good lifting capability. The you tube video shows how easily it can pick up a small bridge. But unfortunately, it had problems it sent the passengers and the ground crew deaf and not being of jet speed the concept would not be any improvement on the MV22 and as such it never got past the one prototype being built before it was scraped.

Further searching I found a video of the Avro Rotodyne this aircraft had an alleged speed of 460mph, and was allegedly silent. This design I think shows more promise, beef it up a bit with more powerful engines etc etc you never know what you could come up with. The design never went past the CGI video in the attached video. To be honest I think it looks like a design from a video game.

 

[John Fedup]

You would think the graphics should have been BA, not Air France.

 

[ngatimozart]

You would think the graphics should have been BA, not Air France.

Might have been a French national who did the graphics. Looks like they were done on MS FS2004.

Nice HAFU video on the Mk-9 Spitfire at Ohakea. Brendan Deere also acquired the P-51D from John Smiths collection at Mapua. It has very low hours on it.

 

[At lakes]

A brief comment was made on the RNZAF thread by Ngati that Pioneer Aviation have the remains of a Sea Hornet and that the restoration would start soon.

Reading Pioneer’s web site news items dated Jul 2020 it would suggest that some work has already started.

It reads that they have 4 P40’s under restoration, three P40E’s and a P40N and there also has been a flurry of activity on the Hornet but more on that later. The remains of the aircraft came from Canadian dump after being in a children’s playground for a long time.

A shed full of P40’s.

Sea Hornet Resurrection – de Havilland’s Finest Fighter Set for Rebirth

 

[ngatimozart]

John Smith Collection, Mapua, NZ.

DH Mosquito NZ2336.
I have to be careful what I post here because I belong to the private Facebook group that has been set up for the restoration of the aircraft and not all the material such as images, is for general publication.

It had just over 80 hours on it when it was withdrawn service and although John did what he could to preserve it, the aircraft is not in any condition to be made airworthy, nor is that the intention of the family. It is to be restored to display condition.

Over the last few months it has been dismantled to the point where it could be transported to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. Today the fuselage undertook that journey. The engines had been removed about 2 or 3 weeks ago and transported over. The tailplane assembly had also been removed and transported to Omaka previously.

As well as the aircraft, numerous Mosquito spares were located as well. Apparently it was a treasure trove. Whilst sorting through the shed around the NZ2336, they found another Mosquito which no one knew that John had. It's mostly the fuselage from the wing forward along with spares etc., and the makers data plate. A lot of the Mosquito spares have gone to AVSPECS in Ardmore. The importance of the makers data plate cannot be overstated, because from that is the legal identity for an airworthy restoration.

P-51D Mustang NZ2423.
John's Mustang is now part of Brendan Deere's Biggin Hill Centre at Ohakea. It arrived a couple of weeks ago and in the last few days the Packard Merlin engine was removed from the airframe. They reckon that this is the first time that the engine has been removed since the was installed in July 1945. The aircraft itself has flown about 480 hours. The engine will be sent away for rebuilding and the aircraft is being restored to airworthy condition.

 

[John Fedup]

Interesting article about the YF-12A/B/C, the world’s fastest and highest flying interceptor. It was derived from the A-12, the program that eventually resulted in the SR-71 and the F-12B interceptor that was ordered by the USAF but cancelled due the Vietnam War and new Russian ICBMs which replaced the bomber threat. Apparently one of its most important roles was by announcing the YF-12, it provided a cover for testing the more important SR-71 spy plane version.

America's YF-12 was an SR-71 armed with air-to-air missiles

The SR-71 Blackbird may be among the most iconic airframes of the Cold War, but this incredibly fast design wasn't always intended to serve only as a

www.sandboxx.us

 

[At lakes]

Valkyrie Aircraft - Bing video

Valkyrie Aircraft - Bing video

XB-70 Valkyrie – Aviation Facts and Trivia

Like the YF12A detailed by John Fedup in #52 the XB70 was also killed off by the advent if the ICBM and very high flying surface to air missiles. The XB70 was described as the fastest bomber that never was. The idea was thought up in the 1950’s and in 1957 the general design took shape with the contracts issued in 1959. First flight was in 1961 after a series of on again off again decisions about what it was going to be used for. It first was a high level strategic bomber then recon/strike but the problem was it was designed to fly at very high level and was not very moveable at mach 3. The heat signature from the six massive jet engines made it a perfect target for SAM’s. So, of the initial order for 12 only 2 were completed. The attached you tube video shows the loss of airframe 1 which I am sure most of you have seen at some time. The second video is airframe 2 and that suffered major issues on landing. Airframe 2 continued in service with NASA, engaged in high speed and high level research until 1969 when it was placed in a museum.

 

[At lakes]

Operation Jiu Jitsu

During the early part of the Cold War, Strategic Air Command (SAC) wanted to know what Capabilitys the Soviet Union had in regards of radar and its numbers of its air force. Due to the growing...

www.rafsculthorpeheritagecentre.org

.

Operation Ju-jitsu the RB45C Tornado in RAF Service.

In the early 50’s POTUS was not keen on up-setting the USSR and forbid USAF aircraft from flying over mainland USSR unless under a state of war. However, the Poms had no such issues, and when Winston Churchill was re-elected after two successive Labour governments had refused, he gave the green light for high level strategic intelligence flights to re-commence.

The USAF had the RB-45C Tornado in England and offered four to the Poms, officially they were leased to the RAF and they carried RAF markings. Crews from 35 and 115 Squadrons manned these aircraft as an interim measure until the new English Electric Canberra’s came available.

In 1952 three of these aircraft departed Germany for the USSR flying at around 36000ft they were tracked by Soviet radar and came under AA fire. The mission was aborted and they three quickly returned to Germany.

That was that last mission by the RAF using the B45 Tornado all subsequent missions were completed using the Canberra. The Canberra could operate at around 54000ft normally but the Poms had a new-fangled invention called water injection and that apparently gave the Canberra extra height as the water injection cooled the engine and allowed it to operate more efficiently and drew in more air giving it more power/lift. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I remember reading an article, the source of which escapes me, of an USAF Officer winging that he was at 35000ft and he could see the contrail of an English plane 30000 above him, which turned out to be a Canberra, why hadn’t the USAF got a plane that could do that.

Well get it they did and it was called the B57 in USAF service but that is the subject of another post.

 

[John Fedup]

The Jetliner and Arrow weren’t AVRO Canada’s only disappointments.

VZ-9 Avrocar: The Air Force's flying saucer (came from Canada)

During World War II, British and American aviators were asked to do something no one had ever done before: Hunt down and engage enemy aircraft under cover

www.sandboxx.us

 

[At lakes]

http://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-mu...selage-whole-again-at-raf-museum-cosford.html

The conservation team at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford are doing a magnificent job rebuilding wrecks from WWII. The photos show a rare Handley Page Hampden under rebuild. TB1344 was part of a flight of 32 Hampdens that took off from the Shetland Islands in September 1942. The main task for the flight was to provide protection for the convoy’s heading to Russia/Soviet Union.

TB1344 was one of eight aircraft that failed to return and three of her crew were killed whilst the two others were taken prisoner. The aircraft lay in a Russian swamp for 40 years and recovered in 1991. 30 years later they are still going, it is the longest restoration they have attempted and most likely one of the most difficult.

There are only three known complete examples of the Hampden left in the world one of which is in British Columbia Canada and the other two are in the UK. They also have a Westland Lysander on the rebuild and a Vickers Wellington Bomber.

 

[ngatimozart]

Handley-Page Hampden Fuselage Whole Again at RAF Museum Cosford

The conservation team at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford are doing a magnificent job rebuilding wrecks from WWII. The photos show a rare Handley Page Hampden under rebuild. TB1344 was part of a flight of 32 Hampdens that took off from the Shetland Islands in September 1942. The main task for the flight was to provide protection for the convoy’s heading to Russia/Soviet Union.

TB1344 was one of eight aircraft that failed to return and three of her crew were killed whilst the two others were taken prisoner. The aircraft lay in a Russian swamp for 40 years and recovered in 1991. 30 years later they are still going, it is the longest restoration they have attempted and most likely one of the most difficult.

There are only three known complete examples of the Hampden left in the world one of which is in British Columbia Canada and the other two are in the UK. They also have a Westland Lysander on the rebuild and a Vickers Wellington Bomber.

Real shame that the annual air show there is no more. It was on my bucket list if I ever made it to that part of the world.

 

[ngatimozart]

Kermit Weeks has reposted a video from a few years back when he went for a flight in the world's only flying Dornier Do-24 with Iren Dornier, the grandson of Claude Dornier the German aircraft designer. This aircraft has had its 3 Bramo radial engines replaced with 3 PT-6 turbo props.

 

[At lakes]

Hawker Typhoon RB396 – Restoration Update

Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB RB396 – Restoration Fund Raiser

Progress report on the restoration of a Napier Sabre powered Hawker Typhoon 1B in the UK.

Kermit Weeks was strong in his statement that there are two Napier Sabre Engines left in existence and the RAF Museum had one and he had the other, but he didn’t know about the Cranfield Technical College had a rebuildable one and they have gifted it to the Typhoon restoration group.

The rebuild of this engine appears to be almost half way complete.

 

[Rob c]

On this fine sunny day, had had the good fortune to watch the Ohakea Avenger circling town for about 5 minutes.