Cockpit:

Nicolas Walter has been hard at work building recently reverse engineered components (e3D Technology) into his CAD design of the Typhoon’s cockpit, as you can see in the image below, these parts represent some of the most important components of the assembly and provide many of the answers needed to complete critical fixture design work for the area. Nicolas has also included some of the surviving Typhoon JP914 parts, which were kindly loaned by Jocelyn Leclercq

Monocoque and Fin:

With the addition of Martin Oldfield to our design team, December saw the start of design work on the rear monocoque and fin structure. The work is progressing very nicely, and design completion is expected to coincide with the forward monocoque.

Sabre:

With the disassembly work now complete on the Sabre IIA supercharger, the main components have been sent to e3D for reverse engineering work.
The engine itself is also slowly coming apart, also with the intent of reverse engineering each component.

Shop Closure:

Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. remains closed for tours while we prepare the shop for construction of fixtures and structure, we appreciate your patience during this period, and will update this page as soon as viewing can resume.

The team at e3D Technology Corp. have been working diligently to reverse engineer many key surviving parts for the restoration of JP843. The attached images show some of their work on the primary fittings which will be used by our team to complete the cockpit fixture design before moving on to make new components.

Due to the very high tolerances required for such critical machined parts, the team at e3D set their equipment to adjust for the thermal expansion of each material being measured before collecting data. The larger external surfaces were then measured with 3D scanning equipment, and the critical bores and angles were measured with a FARO Arm CMM. Upon completion of measurements, the data was combined and built into a production ready CAD file which was thoroughly inspected and verified to be well within the manufacturers tolerances before release.

When measuring such old components, corrosion and wear may hide the true dimensions; we are very fortunate to have enough surviving data and a sponsor with the skills and cutting edge equipment to ensure the original design is adhered to!”

e3D Technology Corp. Website

It appears as though October is international “Typhoon Wing Month”! During October of 2015 we were able to complete the important task of scanning the wing of MN235 in Ottawa; and this year during October, we were able to secure almost 14 feet of surviving Typhoon wing structure! The JP843 team pulled all stops to make this acquisition happen, and the fruits of these combined efforts will be amazing when combined with the scan data.

We take great efforts as a team to only collect surviving parts if they will be needed for reverse engineering where drawings are missing, primarily because almost every part will need to be built new for this airworthy restoration, but also because many of these items would be better suited as memorial displays in Museums. Every effort will be made to preserve this amazing collection of original parts once we are done compiling the required data for our work on JP843.

We are delighted to announce that e3D Technology Corp has come forward to be a service sponsor for the restoration of Typhoon JP843.e3D is an engineering company which specialises in the handling of complex 3-dimentional shapes using sophisticated digital technologies for design, quality and measurement. With their extensive engineering experience, and with equipment at the forefront of modern computerised technology, the team at e3D have the exacting skills and capabilities required to not only reverse engineer the critical machined fittings and components for JP843, but to also calibrate our jigs and fixtures. We will follow up this announcement in the coming weeks and months with detailed descriptions on the services e3D provides, and how these services will be used to significantly advance the restoration work on Hawker Typhoon JP843.

A great show at Wings and Wheels in Campbell river, there were so many people who stopped by with Typhoon connections that it’s left us boggled! We were delighted to spend some time with John Sessions and Kermit Weeks, some very nice guys!

Thank you for all who came out, we hope to see you next year!

Events:

We’ve had a busy few months here at Typhoon Legacy, our Meet and Greet on May 31st went very well and Harry Hardy DFC of 440 Squadron was an amazing guest, keeping on our toes with his detailed accounts of his time on Typhoons, and a vibrant sense of humour!

Shortly after this event, team member Graeme Sutherland put on a wonderful JP843 display at the D-Day airshow in New Zealand and has continued with his in depth research and development of our history on Peter Price.
Coming up in the 16th of July, we have the Wings and Wheels event in Campbell River British Columbia, where we will be displaying the cockpit section of JP843. This event is bound to be a busy one, and we hope to bring the history of this aircraft and the crews to a welcoming new audience.
We have several large private groups coming through later in July to learn more about the Typhoon and its role in the Second World War. We are always happy to include interested parties in our project, and welcome contact from individuals or groups that would like to make an appointment to see this amazing piece of history.

July 27th marks the 72nd anniversary of Peter Price’s loss in JP843, a very hectic time during the war, and one in which many men lost their lives on both sides. We will remember them.

Other Activities:

Earlier this year we had been granted permission from the MOD to recover the remaining surface parts from Typhoon MN532, but unfortunately were too late in our arrival and all components had been recovered. We continue to seek surviving parts from crash sites with permissions from proper authority, and are even more interested in contact with people who may have Typhoon parts in private collections. Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. is not interested in collecting surviving components for permanent display, but we are very interested in borrowing parts that may survive which will help reverse engineer what we need for this airworthy restoration; any borrowed parts will always be returned to their owners and names and locations will be protected if the owner wishes to remain anonymous.

The tank for which we will be soaking our Sabre is now under construction, driven by team member Cam Wallace; and we hope to have the engine submerged by this fall with the intent of a minimum of six months storage.

Fixture design is underway for the monocoque, cockpit, and the radiator fairing; with the new parts in production, we are hoping to have the fixtures ready for component assembly as the components become available. To complete our cockpit fixture, disassembly will be required for final dimensions to be collected, we will do our best to have new large assemblies ready for next show season!

Many people have come forwards with new information regarding privately held parts from the Typhoon and Sabre, please help by sharing our story so we can locate more missing items to put JP843 back in the air!

Wing spar fittings still needed:

We have officially launched our gofundme campaign to help raise funds for the construction of JP843’s airframe. While we have some material, a facility, equipment and a dedicated and experienced team for this project; we still need your help to pay for specialty services such as machine work and heat treatment, along with an extensive list of materials. Please help support the airworthy restoration of Hawker Typhoon JP843:

After years of hard work, engineering work and many dead ends; we’ve now started the construction of new parts for JP843! Frame “Q” of the radiator fairing is the first item formed, one of many that are ready for the hammer!

We’ve been very busy lately preparing products for the launch of our online store, but it hasn’t slowed us down! Amazing progress has been made with research and reference material, fuselage form design, and radiator fairing progress.

 

Our logo has been completed, and will be added to new product development very soon!