Keith Gaff wrote:
I too would like to hear what's happening with the Beauforts that went to America.
TXCOMT wrote:
Yeah, let's hear more about the Texas Beaufort...status, location, shop, etc.?
TXCOMT
Without hijacking this Beaufighter thread into a Beaufort thread I understand the major components of 5 Beauforts along with some additional sections were recovered by Charles Darby and Monty Armstrong as part of a recovery project for Dave Tallichet from Aitape/Tadji in the mid 1970s' which also included an A-20, P-40s and P-39s, These were believed to include major and minor sections from at least T9552/A9-13, A9-182, A9-210, A9-414, A9-535, A9-555, A9-557, A9-559, A9-574 and A9-637, however the aggregate still rreally only amounted to enough components that could form the basis of 5 projects.
This is well covered in Charles Darby's book "Pacific Aircraft Wrecks and where to find them."
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/ ... index.html"two" of those Beauforts came to Australia rather than the USA and are DAP Mark V, T9552/A9-13 now at Moorabbin and DAP Mark VIII, A9-557 now in the AWM.
Of the "three" that went to the USA and were stored for a long time at Chino,
"The First" set of US parts were restored and swapped along with a P40N for Spitfire RAF gate guardians, and is now in the RAF Museum at Hendon displayed as RAF s/n DD931 a Bristol built mark 11A, but largely a hybrid of Australian DAP built mark VIII components primarily from A9-559 but also A9-478.
"The Second" set of US parts is with Graham Kilsby of the Bristol Heritage Collection in Tennessee USA, (not Texas), this is all DAP mark VIII material consisting of A9-555 cockpit and centre/rear fuselage, wing centre-section from A9-182, two stern fuselages from A9-182 and A9-574, along with wings etc and a very damaged centre/rear fuselage from A9-414.
Although this was reported to be the basis of an airworthy restoration and it was reported that work had commenced in 2003 with Stripmasters in Tennessee bead blasting the components and then the Nashville Technical College, its understood it was later relocated to Hohenwald Tennessee in 2005 and I havent seen any update on its progress since.
A very straight but very stripped hulk with all the major components, and there were many parts not with the hulks when recovered from Tadji, that would be hard to acquire in the USA today.
"The Third" set of US parts, I understand, was acquired and returned to Australia and were consumed into both the Ralph Cusack airworthy restoration (centre/rear fuselage and wing outers??) and the AWM restoration (cockpit, wing centre-section and stern fuselage) where by the AWM aquired the additional cockpit to support their own aircraft's cockpit restoration and the additional wing centre-section and additional stern fuselage to actually restore and incorporate in the restored aircraft to allow it to be restored back up onto its undercarriage etc. The original wing centre-section and stern fuselage from A9-557 are also retained by the AWM, but are still badly damaged by the aircraft's wartime forced landing and crash into jeeps and hospital, and are stored "as found" for future research of the entire airframe, which therefore consists of the conserved A9-557 and with restored replacement components discussed above, along of course with the stored original damaged parts, and the remains of the additional cockpit.
Ralph's original airframe A9-141, as acquired from Pearce Dunn in Mildura and was originally recovered from the Nhill district in Victoria, consisted of a cockpit, wing centre-section and centre/rear fuselage and stern fuselage (all war surplus in Australia, and nothing at all to do with the Aitape recoveries from PNG). However the Centre-Rear fuselage (from A9-230), was badly damaged on one side, and there were no wing outer panels, no fin etc.
Ralphs aircraft, while still identified as A9-141 a DAP Mark VII, had acquired the centre fuselage from DAP Mark VIII, A9-230 during a wartime repair. It now contains the cockpit and wing centre-section from A9-141, the centre-rear fuselage from DAP Mark VIII A9-689 and stern fuselage from A9-485.
Ralphs surplus material was acquired in 2004 by the AARG at Moorabbin to commence collecting towards an eventual Beaufort static restoration, including the restored cockpit of DAP Mark VII A9-150 which had originally being in the AARG collection in the 1970's. That material will now support the restoration of DAP Mark V T9952/A9-13.
So we are still heading for 5 complete Beauforts world wide, 3 in Australia, 1 in the UK and currently 1 in the USA, with 4 of those being recovered ex-PNG, and at least 1, possibly 2 flying, and the 5th recovery from PNG being consumed to support other restorations.
Of course the Beaufort with its P&W 1830's is a lot simplier to get airworthy in terms of engine issues as compared with the Beaufighter, however, while Ralph's aircraft is approaching flight, it has required a lot of work and a lot of substitute and additional parts to get it there, and I'm not sure how suitable the Tennessee components are for an airworthy restoration, and the Tadji recoveries were of very stripped hulks, and in fact while its a restored museum display, the RAF Museums example is largely still a stripped fuselage internally.
Graham Kilsby apparantly started the Bristol Aero Collection in the UK in 1988, (I assume he is of british origin?) and over the years has attempted to acquire a Bristol Freighter for that UK collection as well as since donating a Bolingbroke for static restoration to it, and so it is possible that his Beaufort project currently in the US may well end up with that collection in the UK as a static restoration in the longer term as well?
Scott has recently added the Beaufort type to the WIX Warbird Directory.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/beaufortregistry/beaufortregistry.htmlRegards
Mark Pilkington
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. She is finally on her gear but I wouldn't dare guess on a first flight date.
