Australian National Aviation Museumacquires Beaufort project

[Mark_Pilkington]

Readers here may be interested to learn that the Australian Aircraft Restoration Group, operators of the Australian National Aviation Museum at Moorabbin Victoria have acquired the major components of a DAP Beaufort to commence a long term restoration project for static display.

http://www.aarg.com.au/Beaufort.htm


regards

Mark Pilkington[/url]

[RMAllnutt]

That's terriffic news! It'll be great to see another one of these magnificent, unsung beasts restored and on display. Incidentally, how is the Ralph Cusack beaufort restoration-to-fly project coming along?

http://www.beaufortrestoration.com.au/

The site does not appear to have been updated since 2003. I remember in an article a couple of years back that there was some difficulty in locating an airworthy spar cap. Does anyone know what the solution to this was? Did they have a new one made?

Cheers,
Richard

[Jungle Bob]

A replacement Beaufort spar cap for Ralphs flying project was sourced from Goodenough Island PNG via Rob Greinert back in 1998.

An amusing story is recounted as to how Rob and Ralph were out in the heat of the day, 40 plus degrees, tall kunai grass and a spar cap was selected for salvage. Ralph was as pleased as punch but took to Robs suggestion that since there were a few caps lying around maybe he should take another "just in case".

Upon return to Brisbane, the first spar cap at 20 odd feet long managed to fail the NDT inspection. The one brought back just in case now sits in the aeroplane.

By the way, the salvage was conducted with the approval of the National Museum who have been several times to see the Beaufort themselves.

And for the conspiracy theorists out there, Rob provided the spar cap, transport and all for free.

[Mark_Pilkington]

for those interested?

Here are some pics of the DAP Beaufort Bomber project at the Australian National Aviation Museum at Moorabbin Airport, showing the restored cockpit undertaken by Ralph Cusack, and the unrestored fuselage sections - part of the massive amount of Beaufort spares acquired from Ralph Cusack as surplus to his airworthy restoration of A9-141.

The Museum is dispatching a 40 foot container to Brisbane to acquire the remaining parts acquired which include tailplane, wing outer panels, narcelle structure and dis-assembled flying control surfaces.

When completed the Museum's Beaufort will become one of 6 remaining world wide.



Regards

Mark Pilkington

http://aarg.com.au/Beaufort.htm