Stirling Project Update

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Member for

20 years 3 months

Posts: 1,494

Cor, your gopher has been busy.... :D

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 7,742

Did you make any additions to the collection on Saturday? :D

Member for

20 years 3 months

Posts: 1,494

Did you make any additions to the collection on Saturday? :D

The trailing aerial/winch and RF unit were the main aquisitions.

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 7,742

That's good to hear - always nice when items go to a good home! :)

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Thanks DC, beat me to it:D

Member for

14 years 6 months

Posts: 2,172

Good to see the list of items diminishes.

What's the plan for the construction of the cockpit itself? Forming frames or building a jig?
Peter Howell mailed me that he needed some dimensions and was going to send a drawing, but I haven't received anything yet.

Cheers
Cees

Member for

20 years 3 months

Posts: 1,494

Good to see the list of items diminishes.

What's the plan for the construction of the cockpit itself? Forming frames or building a jig?
Peter Howell mailed me that he needed some dimensions and was going to send a drawing, but I haven't received anything yet.

Cheers
Cees

Hi Cees,

The CAD model will have to be frozen at some point to allow planning, procurement of materials, and construction of the jig. This process could take about 6 months if all goes to plan, but a few dimensions still need to be defined better to get to this stage.

Beyond this, the intention is to correctly build a forward fuselage in aluminium, and then populate it with all of the components, flight deck, and turret that the project have been collecting and restoring over the past 10 years.

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Hi Cees

I will hasten Peter for you

John

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Again to prove that we're not in hibernation, here's a blank of the Nav panel that just needs a few more holes drilled.

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Member for

16 years 11 months

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We're still going although we've been a bit quite of late. In the mean time we've just had some castings made of the control column lower shroud, original on Left.

John

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16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Things still quiet of necessity but here's some pics of one of our original control column bases, that I bead blasted this week. It still needs a bit more but I think that it's come up pretty well considering that it's been in a fire and stored under various conditions for the past 65 years :cool:

John

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Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

A bit more progress to show. We've been unable to c/o any major assembly/manufacturing work as we're in the process of leaving RAF Wyton :(, however, we've been able to get some parts machined up, in this case the pilots longitudinal and transverse floor beams. These parts are critical to the next stage in the project, allowing us to assemble the seats to the beams and to give us mounting points for the control columns and rudder pedal assemblies.

Hopefully we'll soon have sorted out the new workshop and I can give you more regular progress updates.

John

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Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

A small piece of news to relate:

with immediate effect there has been a change of name for the Project to the Stirling Aircraft Project. This has been duly notified to the Charity Commission and is now recorded as such on their register.

The change of name has come about to clarify our aims and to avoid confusion with the place and the infamous misspelling (Sterling).

All email addresses etc will remain the same though for ease of communication.

We are still waiting to finalise the tenancy arrangements on our new workshop (hopefully moving in by the end of November) so all being well we'll be back to full steam ahead with more regular updates.

Cheers

John

Member for

17 years 7 months

Posts: 318

stirling

Hi John there are some bits there that look familiar .

cheers dave

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Hi Dave

which bits in particular?

john

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16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Another small piece of the jigsaw donated by a kind gentleman in the Netherlands;)

John

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 651

Another small piece of the jigsaw donated by a kind gentleman in the Netherlands;)

Sorry to be a pedant (so easy to do when you’re not the one investing the time, money and all the hard work) but you appear to have a controller for an SCR-522 (TR5043). Were Stirlings fitted with these? I only ask because the controller shown in the black and white photo is a Type 4 (10J/22) which is almost the same but there are a few very small differences.

Anne

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 1,951

Not being a pedant at all :D

I did think that there is a slight difference between the original one and the one just received, I'm not an expert in this area so I'll take your word that this is nearly but not quite correct. Looking at it I'd say that it's mounted the opposite way around ie with the lever to the rear, we may be able to modify it so that it looks correct and it will be a space model only as I'm assured that there are no innards to it.

If you've got a close up picture of the correct one it would be very much appreciated.

John

Member for

14 years 6 months

Posts: 2,172

Anne,

That's the only one I had surplus:p
IIRC these units were in use by either RAF and USAAF hence the two labels (one being Air Ministry). I had both versions and of course you know which one went into the Halifax:D

Interesting subject to bring on.
Cees

Member for

14 years 6 months

Posts: 2,172

Here's the other one fitted in the Halifax cockpit.
Cees