We have flown the Harpoon a few times to shows and most recently for our Torpedo Camp which was held the Friday after Bomber Camp. The old gal is running nicely.
A few things to report on:
We finally have new fabric on the rudders. They look and fly great. One more project knocked out.
The guns are pretty much finished and we decided to use them in the B-17G and B-24J for Bomber Camp. The new sim fire system worked great. Here is a video of them installed in the tail of the B-17G 909:
https://www.facebook.com/taigh.ramey/videos/10155327329097640/Now we are pressing forward with fabricating the mountings for the guns to get them in the nose of the Harpoon. We made the guns just like the originals so that we can change them back and forth for the different types of mountings found in different WWII aircraft which will make them more versatile for fun museum projects like Bomber Camp and our upcoming Aerial Gunnery Symposium.
The front gun mount fittings in the Harpoon are roughly circular castings that mounted to edgewater adapters for recoil and allowed the guns to pivot in azimuth and elevation for boresighting. We have made the edgewater adapters and now are looking at the ring mounts. I made one pattern and casted up the prototype that was covered a while ago in a previous post which will work but now we are looking at machining them. We will replicate the same quick release type of mounting as per the original installation which is great for authenticity as well as ease of removal for cleaning, service and use elsewhere.
Having all 8 guns going off in the nose of the Harpoon has been an exciting prospect for a while now and thanks to the generous donations of a few gracious individuals we are closer than ever.
Jon has spent countless hours designing and testing the guns, much to the consternation of our neighbors here at the airport! The guns look and sound great as you can see in the video above. Next stop; a set of 8 fireballs out the front of the Harpoons nose at a cyclic rate of 650 rounds per minute per gun. That's 5200 muzzle flashes per minute or 86.6 per second! I'm all giddy at the thought.
We also have made progress on the torpedo restoration front and I will post more on that in the future. I will also post photos of the above mentioned projects and well as the other progress by our volunteers.
More to come.
_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:
to this in 3 months:
Help us get her all the way back
All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'
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