8AF H2X Mickey radome found

[RAMC181]

At long last I've managed to find a proper genuine 8AF H2X PFF radome!
(Well, part of one anyway )

Crushed, torn and burnt in one spot, but it's virtually all there, including the attachment fittings around the edge:



Most of the fibre is still rock solid under the grey paint:



This was buried about 10 feet down in the USAAF dump mentioned on here before.
I'll leave it to dry out a bit over the next few days before cleaning it up and working out how best to conserve it.

This "football" antenna casing came out of the same hole:



All the best,
PB

[gary1954]

Great Find!! Awesome

[Pat Carry]

Pretty darn kool!

[Taigh Ramey]

I concur; awesome find! Well done.

[RAMC181]

Thanks chaps.

I'll post some new photos up when it's a bit cleaner, the inside is a lot better than the outside.

All the best,
PB

[RAMC181]

Righto chaps and chapesses,

Does anyone have any advice on how I can stabilise this radome?
Other than the burnt patch and the two small areas that have been cut out, the fabric is all there.
I'm thinking along the lines of fabricating a male and female framework to support it in it's original position while replacing the resin binder somehow to give it back the structural integrity.
I'm hoping to avoid having to add anything that can't be removed in the future, or will be an obvious add-on.

All the best,
PB

[51fixer]

Righto chaps and chapesses,

Does anyone have any advice on how I can stabilise this radome?
Other than the burnt patch and the two small areas that have been cut out, the fabric is all there.
I'm thinking along the lines of fabricating a male and female framework to support it in it's original position while replacing the resin binder somehow to give it back the structural integrity.
I'm hoping to avoid having to add anything that can't be removed in the future, or will be an obvious add-on.

All the best,
PB

You could try making a couple of circles of plywood with a 1" bore hole in the center. Make the dia of one so it will roughly sit maybe 6" from the top (small end) and the other so it is close to the bottom (open end).
Use a 1" wooden dowel or similar to insert into the 1" holes in each plywood circle and you have a hat rack of a sort to rest the radome on. You would need to figure the best way to make a base for it to sit on.
You might have to vary the size of the circles and placement vertically based on the radome remains.