New acquisition at Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa
Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:23 pm
Just find this:
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/medi ... ec06.shtml
Very nice and unexpected addition to the collection.
Looking at the date of the press release I add: Thank you Santa Claus
J-F St-Pierre
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/medi ... ec06.shtml
Very nice and unexpected addition to the collection.
Looking at the date of the press release I add: Thank you Santa Claus
J-F St-Pierre
Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:31 pm
HAC News and Updates
December 2006
Aero Vintage acquires a Heinkel 162
Aero Vintage has acquired a potentially airworthy Heinkel 162 in a complex exchange with the Canada Aviation Museum (formally the National Aviation Museum).
Bristol Fighter (G-AANM, D-7889) has been exchanged with the Canada Aviation Museum’s duplicate Heinkel 162 (Wk. nr. 120076, Air Ministry 59, RAF serial VH-523). The Bristol arrived in Canada in early December, and the Heinkel was due imminently in the UK.
The exchange also included rare aero engines which will enable Aero Vintage to complete restoration work. In the package is an extremely scarce Siddeley Puma in excellent condition, now destined for their DH9 (E-8894, G-CDLI), which is to be made airworthy.
Said Guy: - “It was a major wrench to lose the Bristol, but to enable the DH9 to fly we badly needed a Puma. I also like serious engineering challenges, and this rather quirky aircraft has always held a fascination for me. It is in fantastic condition and totally complete; with modern technology the aircraft’s weaknesses - poor brakes, low engine power and bad fuel economy can surely be resolved. In the meantime it will be placed in storage pending a decision on its future”.
Eric (‘Winkle’) Brown, who extensively tested the type after a number were captured in Germany at the end of the war, found the aircraft a delight to fly and far better than austere contempory reports suggested. Alleged structural problems are simply not true and the loss through structural failure of 120072 at Farnborough on the 9th of November 1945 was due to a badly executed flick roll manoeuvre, which the aircraft was not cleared for.
Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:45 pm
I was very, very sad to hear that 20 years work to rebuild this Bristol Fighter to fly ends with a matter of minutes in the air, then the aircraft is to be entombed forever in a mausoleum, sorry, museum. I'm sure it will be well looked after in its new home, but I doubt it will ever fly again. 
It only made 2 public appearances, the Saturday of Flying Legends last July (the Sunday being too windy), then the following Saturday evening at Old Warden, both times in formation with the only two other airworthy examples on the planet.
Fortunately, I managed to catch both instances of this never-to-be-repeated formation. The 3 airframes are now dispersed across 3 continents, with TFC's example now flying with Peter Jackson in New Zealand
It only made 2 public appearances, the Saturday of Flying Legends last July (the Sunday being too windy), then the following Saturday evening at Old Warden, both times in formation with the only two other airworthy examples on the planet.
Fortunately, I managed to catch both instances of this never-to-be-repeated formation. The 3 airframes are now dispersed across 3 continents, with TFC's example now flying with Peter Jackson in New Zealand
Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:15 pm
Mike et al--
Those pix are certainly to be cherished. Even though I look forward to seeing the F2B at Rockcliffe, I must admit to mixed feelings about it, seeing, as you say, how it's been in the air mere minutes after so very much effort. I hope CAvM will at least run the Falcon up once in a while (as they used to do with the Kestrel on their Hawker Hind)...but given the location of the WWI section in the museum, it would be a major job just to achieve the move of the Bristol to the hangar doors.
Noticed a detail in the VA article above: the ref to CAvM's "duplicate" Heinkel 162. CAvM do indeed have two Volksjagers, but two questions occur to me. First, the Berlin museum was to be obtaining an He162 "from Canada"--which would have to be one of CAvMs as they are the only 162s in the country; has that deal not gone through? Second, and perhaps a relevant point, the VA piece refers specifically to WNr 120076. That is the 162 that had actually been on display (back in the 70s), so is not really the "duplicate" airframe. It is rather unlikely, with the Bf109F and Me163 already on show in CAvM's WWII display, that either He162 would have gone on show in the foreseeable future; the resulting question is, are both He162s departing the CAvM collection?
S.
Those pix are certainly to be cherished. Even though I look forward to seeing the F2B at Rockcliffe, I must admit to mixed feelings about it, seeing, as you say, how it's been in the air mere minutes after so very much effort. I hope CAvM will at least run the Falcon up once in a while (as they used to do with the Kestrel on their Hawker Hind)...but given the location of the WWI section in the museum, it would be a major job just to achieve the move of the Bristol to the hangar doors.
Noticed a detail in the VA article above: the ref to CAvM's "duplicate" Heinkel 162. CAvM do indeed have two Volksjagers, but two questions occur to me. First, the Berlin museum was to be obtaining an He162 "from Canada"--which would have to be one of CAvMs as they are the only 162s in the country; has that deal not gone through? Second, and perhaps a relevant point, the VA piece refers specifically to WNr 120076. That is the 162 that had actually been on display (back in the 70s), so is not really the "duplicate" airframe. It is rather unlikely, with the Bf109F and Me163 already on show in CAvM's WWII display, that either He162 would have gone on show in the foreseeable future; the resulting question is, are both He162s departing the CAvM collection?
S.