PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[airnutz]

As usual, nice work! Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas to the 'Poon crew!

[SaxMan]

It's been great watching this thread. Helping out with Jack Kosko's TBM restoration definitely has given me a whole different perspective on the work you've been doing. The fabrication work you are doing is simply amazing, and the attention to even the most minute detail in bringing the plane back to 1944 condition is almost mind boggling...right down to using World War II era trucks to help lift the plane!

Also kudos on bringing in the 16 year old and encouraging him to help out. Without "new blood" to pass the knowledge along to, these wonderful old birds would one day likely end up becoming static or even discarded instead of being where they belong...in the air.

[K5DH]

Speaking of Harpoon restoration candidates, I spied this one in storage at Cavanaugh Flight Museum yesterday:





Needs a little work yet...

[Taylor Stevenson]

That's the former CAF WI Wing bird. They did a great job on it... Just was a bit too big of a bite to chew, I guess. Got a PT instead.

Here's one of the interior from my cell...



The CFM guys are great at what they do, so hopefully we'll see it in the air in the future...

T

[Taigh Ramey]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Things have been crazy in the shop which is a lame excuse.

Soon I will post some shots of the nose gun mount which is the latest casting project. Some recent parts acquisitions are in the works too and Mark has been wiring up the ARC-5 set.

In the mean time I came across this awesome video. When was the last time two Howard 500's were seen together? Dee Howard must be smiling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HBmeWL-or0

Last edited by Taigh Ramey on Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

[airnutz]

Thanks Taigh, but your link didn't work for me. Here's a direct one....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HBmeWL-or0

Nice to see they've got a great home! Beautimous machines!!!

[Taigh Ramey]

Oops, sorry about that. I fixed it.

Thanks for the heads up

[me109g4]

Fantastic video. many thanks for the link. Watching it I was amazed at the performance level, very quick and appears to be very "nimble".

[mustanglover]

Oops, sorry about that. I fixed it.

Thanks for the heads up

The "Lady of the Night" is finally home.

[CAPFlyer]

Awesome video. Yes, the Howards are very nimble planes. Their speed performance is pretty well shown in the breakaway shot near the end where both Howards have their flaps partially extended to let them "stay with" the T-6. They are speed demon aircraft, but that's what they were designed for - speed of a jet with the room of a much larger airplane for less cost (since back then jets were very expensive since they were "all new" and the R2800's, props, and other parts were a dime a dozen since the airlines were retiring their propliners).

[Taigh Ramey]

That video makes me want to work on our Super Ventura, a Howard modified PV-1 Ventura. Since the PV-2 showed up the poor old Super Ventura has suffered considerably.

I have been told that the Super Ventura is the fastest of the Howard line as it uses the same engines and props, has all of the same bells and whistles as the 500 but it is not pressurized. As a result is it a lot lighter and faster than the 500. I hear 300 plus knots in economy cruise.

The cool thing for me is that our Super Ventura project is still certificated as a PV-1 so the type rating is the same for both the Super Ventura/PV-1 and the PV-2 Harpoon.

Here is a link to a web page about our Super Ventura project. This project makes the PV-2 look like a cake walk by comparison. Some assembly required:

http://www.twinbeech.com/PV-1superventuraN183PL.htm

[Travisd80elcam]

Taigh, is it the hope of you and the crew to restore the PV-1 back to her original condition, if funding can be found or keep her trimmed out as she is but safely updated and airborne? And as always thank you for your Awesome updates. I thoroughly enjoy reading your updates, as I know it takes a good amount of your free time to update us here. Thanks

Travis

[Taigh Ramey]

Hello Travis,

Thanks for the kind words. Sometimes it is hard to find the time to keep the updates timely so I have to play catch up and things often slip through the cracks. I'm doing what I can and once again I appreciate the positive feedback.

I would love nothing better than to make our PV-1 stock and original but I am afraid it is almost too far gone to contemplate. By too far gone I mean its modifications are so extensive that it is hard to find anything Lockheed or PV-1.

I crawled inside the fuselage structure looking to see where PV-1 stopped and Howard began and it just isn't there. It's all Howard. They did such a complete renovation and modification that there is no signs of the PV-1 that flew coastal patrol off of Northern Canada in WWII for over 500 hours.

My intention is to get her ferriable and bring her back to Stockton and then go through the existing systems and compete a condition inspection to make her safe and airworthy. She will be a great plane to take to OSH as we can get there without fuel stops and in 6 hours. Of course, at present rate, by the time she is ready to go to OSH avgas will probably be $9 a gallon!

[CAPFlyer]

Having a restored Super Ventura alongside the Howard 500's at OSH would be a great shot. There's probably as few true Super Venturas left as 500's and even fewer true Howard 250's since most of them received "demodification" on some level to make them warbirds. Will be interested in seeing that result, but I agree with you on one thing, 100LL will probably be $9 a gallon because everyone will be running on Swift Fuel or another unleaded by then so 100LL will be a "specialty fuel".

[Taigh Ramey]

Lots of stuff going on lately at the shop. Unfortunately it hasn't let me out to play with the Harpoon nearly as much as I would like. Here are a few areas showing progress though:

Mark, our hard working radio guy, has been wiring up the ARC-5 set by making the harnesses at his home and bringing them up to install. He just finished putting together the main junction box for the Command set today.

The ARC-5 was used for short range, plane to ground and plane to plane communications and is made up of many components. The Harpoon has a junction box where a lot of the power and shared audio and mic connect together. This box is also a power distribution box not only for the ARC-5 but for the navigators station too. Power from this J box goes to the flux gate compass system, nav lighting and other points aft.

We used an existing box that Mark set up to replicate the original. He installed the terminal strips and breaker as per the drawing. He then made the buss bars from copper stock.



Mark also lubed up the dynamotor bearings for the ART-13/ATC transmitter.



Thanks Mark!


Recently I went back to Florida for Collings ground school and I was able to swing by and see Tampa Jay. We had a great time talking about the old days and swapping stories. Jay then let me look through his cool stash and I found some goodies for the PV-2. A pretty stock ARB receiver and two covers. This pretty much makes sure we will have two operating Liasion receivers. Thanks Jay!. We also found the correct cylinder head instrument with the correct Munsel green face and many other goodies like radio connectors and antenna insulators and an ARN-8 mount and some cool lights and a dynamotor for the flux gate compass and a dynamotor for the drift sight and a lolipop and...



I love the search for the puzzle pieces. Jay is the largest and best place for Warbird puzzle pieces. Thanks again Jay. You da man!



Here is another foundry project that may be a bit pre mature but hopefully not. I was concerned about ever being able to find the special castings for the guns in the nose. Since they only made 35 of our 8 gun D model harpoons, actually being able to find the real gun mounts was going to be pretty high on the difficulty scale. The next best thing is to make them.

After looking at the drawings and what little information exists, I was finally able to wrap my head around just how the guns mounted. They used a quick release kind of setup with an edgewater adapter on the front trunion of the gun. Many guns in WWII were mounted with some sort of recoil mechanism to reduce shock loads to the airframe. The guns are firing/hammering at over 10 rounds per second so it either has to be a real strong rigid mount (read heavy) or the gun installation has to have a form of shock absorption. The two most common recoil absorbing methods in WWII were the Bell oil/piston type and the Edgewater mechanical spring type.

The edgewater adapter is a can like device with internal springs that absorb the shock between the gun and the mount bolts. This whole device screws on the front of the 50. In the Harpoon these edgewater adapters mounted in a ring style mount with pivots at 90 degrees allowing for the adjustment of the guns in both azimuth and elevation. The rear of the gun mounted on a post and slide type of arrangement.

The first step to making the casting is fabricating the pattern. The pattern can be made out of anything really but I like wood for ease of fabrication. I glued up a block of nice tight grained wood for the main frame.



Then the inside is opened up with the forstner bit.





The ears are fabricated out of some marine grade plywood and glued in place





The block is sanded to dimention allowing for the contraction of the aluminum in the casting process and the finished product is checked in the aircraft to be sure it will fit







Next its time to make the mold by packing the pattern in the sand. I had to make a new cope because the part was too large for the other one.



My old jewelers furnace was also too small for our other little parts so I found a larger one on Craigslist for cheap. Now I can melt more than 15 pounds. Here it is heating up the aluminum.



It takes two hands so doing this solo means no action shots during the pour



The extra metal goes into the cast iron cup cake pan to make ingots for the next casting project



After it cools for a little while the cope and drag are seperated and the rough casting comes out to play





The sprue and other excess material is removed and the rough casting is cleaned up





One down and seven more to go. Then machining of the mounting holes and making the other parts to finish them off