Category: News

With the week now past, I can report that collective efforts to help preserve the memory of F/Sgt William Hurrell (RAF 175 Sqn) were well received by his surviving family who had flown to Holland from Australia.

At only 21 years old, William was flying one of the most advanced, powerful fighters yet built, in some of the most dangerous missions of the war. He did this for a future that he would never have the chance to see.

We will never be able to thank William for his sacrifice; but we can honour him as we have this past week, and we can honour him by ensuring that future generations never forget his name, and never forget what it was that he fought for.

I would personally like to thank all who made it possible for me to take part in this wonderful act of remembrance. I have been so very impressed to see the efforts of the Dutch Air force, and all levels of government working together to recover the remains of this young man.

This is one of many recoveries of missing airmen expected in the coming years; a project started by the Dutch government to pay tribute to those who lost their lives fighting for our freedoms, yet have no known graves. This is an effort worthy of emulation, and one that must be highly respected.

The recovery work on this project has also sparked a new initiative to remember those who never came home. “Blue Skies”, an effort that can be attributed to Leemans Speciaalwerken, an initiative that we are honoured to take part in.

Blue Skies aims to ensure that these lost airmen can get their wings back. Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. will support this by carrying the name of each lost pilot on JP843 for a minimum of one year, upon retirement from active display on the aircraft, a panel will be hung for display to ensure the memory is not forgotten.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Normal production has been put aside for the past week or two so that we can focus on a very special project. The Cockpit Side Panel you see in the images below are part of this special project. We will be revealing full details towards the end of the month in another post.

Please note: This panel is a replica panel made from original drawings, using certified materials, but is not intended for fitment on an airworthy aircraft, it has also not been produced as part of the rebuild for JP843.

Cockpit Side Panel Work.

• 

• 

Ian Slater has been hard at work forming the individual parts that make up the starboard cockpit side panel. These are then temporarily assembled, using a wide variety of clamps to check for correct fitment of the parts, and trimmed or shaped (if needed) to ensure correct alignment.

• 

• 

The parts are then drilled for the rivets, being held together with Cleco temporary fasteners during this process.

• 

• 

• 

The parts are then dis-assembled from the Cleco fasteners and then de-greased, etched & primed for paint top coats

• 

• 

• 

The Parts are then riveted together, and then painted

• 

• 

• 

Completed starboard Cockpit Side Panel-Interior

.

• 

Completed starboard Cockpit Side Panel-Exterior

Wartime image of Hawker Typhoon JP834 with Dicky Harkness (RNZAF 609 Sqn) in the cockpit, showing the location of starboard Cockpit Side Panel, just below his hand

Working from a scan of an original blade and other data, we have now completed full CAD design work for new production blades for the Typhoon.

CAD Modeling of propeller & spinner shown attached to fuselage- underside view

• 

CAD Modeling of propeller & spinner shown attached to fuselage- topside view

CAD modeling work:

Bruce Slater has been busy drawing up & adding fuselage monocoque sections & stringers to previously modeled fuselage jig & forward fuselage framework

• 

–

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Fabrication of frames A to K

Ian Slater has been busy making patterns & form blocks for the fuselage frames, making sure each form has the required radius’s & clearances required or bending & forming the fuselage frames.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Completed Patterns, forms & blanks – ready to start producing frames

• 

Completed fuselage frames

• 

• 

• 

• 

Fitting frames to assembly jig

• 

• 

Some may have noticed that there were a few wing spar fittings showing in a previous post, these are the fittings that we’ve been trying to source for several years, and key to completing the reverse engineering of the wing for JP843.

We have been very fortunate to acquire (on loan), not only fittings, but the complete joint assembly for the wing attachment points along with the tailplane spar fittings. This was only possible through the very generous loan of parts from the Hawker Typhoon JP600 recovery in France, by Mr. Pierre Ben.

• 

• 

The parts are being used by our friends at the Jet Age Museum, and by ourselves, to completely reverse engineer each joint. It’s been an effort by many that we are all very thankful for.

To remove the wing pins, the Jet Age team requested the assistance of their sponsor, SAFRAN, and their 50 ton press.

It took 35 tons of force to get the pins out, and when they did let go, it was with one heck of a bang!. These efforts allowed the shipment of key components to our shop here in British Columbia. While the main cockpit spar sections remain in the UK, we have the pin joint assemblies here in our shop where they are undergoing full measurement and CAD design work. Upon completion, all of the data we generate will be shared between our two Typhoon groups to help Typhoon advancement as much as possible. The original parts will be re-assembled and returned to France for display.

• 

• 

For further information on JP600 how these part were recovered, please take the time to Visit Pierre Ben’s fantastic website ( link below)

https://www.somme-aviation-39-45.fr/dossiers-decouvertes/typhoon-xp-k-jp-600-toeufles-english-version.html

It’s been a little while since we have updated our website, but that does not mean that work has stopped on the typhoon, far from it. The team has been busy sourcing parts, working on tooling, fixtures & jigs, drawing up parts etc.

I have recently joined the team, to help out with social media & website updates, so that Ian Slater & the team can get on fabrication, engineering  & parts restoration.

Please find as follows an update of work in 2019.

3D CAD Work – Nicolas’s work on drawing up components continues. Many days & weeks of work can go into creating these images, but they are more than just that. The output from these then goes into the fabrication of parts, jigs & fixtures.

I must apologise to all of our project followers, as several team members (myself included) have had a bit of a spell of personal matters to attend to, resulting in minimal public activity since 2017. In addition, it’s been a while since I’ve managed to update our web page, partially due to the issues above, and partially due to my learning curve to the new site that was launched in 2017!

2019 has been very busy here in the shop, primarily building fixtures for the forward monocoque, radiator fairing, and general flight control fixture that can be used for several assemblies (elevators, rudder, fin, tail planes, ailerons, flaps, wing tips), and a huge fixture table that will be used to build the cockpit section on. We were very fortunate to have three of our designers working away on data while things were quiet, which really helped me jump back into production here in the shop. My sincerest thanks to Nicolas Walter, Martin Oldfield and Bruce Slater for their persistence during this time.

With the main fixtures ready to go, we’ve also started production on fuselage frames and radiator fairing frames (the latter you may remember from a few years ago). As this work moves forwards, preparations are being made to bring in the materials needed for cockpit production; so things are really cooking!

Aside from design and shop work, some areas can still be a bit slow, a the full team isn’t quite back at it yet. I’ve removed sale items from our webpage due to the time it was taking me to process orders, and will be looking at some better alternatives to help raise funds for materials being used in the construction. I may soon be looking for a dedicated volunteer who is tech savvy, that would like to help out with social media and fundraising, as this would really help get us in front of more interested people, and would let me stick to the metal work! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in doing this, please let me now by contacting us through this page.

Regarding the web page, there are some updates that I just can’t do; like update our sponsorship information. We now have e3D Technology doing reverse engineering and scan work, 3D-CADD Services doing CAD design work, and Sealand Aviation who has been providing logistical support, and CNC router service! One of our more skilled members will be along shortly to update the webpage with new logos as soon as they are ready.

I will leave you all with this, and promise to be a bit more involved with the web page as things progress (quick updates are always available on our facebook page).

Thank you all for your patience,

Ian

Production of two assembly fixtures is now underway, the forward monocoque and the radiator fairing.

The wing sections have safely arrived at the shop, the 4700 Km logistical issue being solved with the help of many wonderful organisations, groups and individuals;
Avro Fabrication, Baron Equipment (North Saanich), Halifax 57 Rescue, The Bomber Command Museum, Canada Spitfire, Ocean Trailer of Calgary, and of course, East West Trucking for all of their help in moving these items to our facility. The support of each of these organisations was absolutely critical in the safe transport of these rare components.
These wing components represent the bulk of the closed structure, and will be used in conjunction with our scans of Typhoon MN235 and original construction data to reverse engineer new wings for Typhoon JP843.

Our Storage building is now wired, vented and fitted with shelving units (a big thanks to team member Cam Wallace for the amazing shelves!). Components are now being moved in as part of our re-organisation project in the shop.