Warbird Information Exchange

The thread on Iraqi Furies reminded me of the Hawker Tempest IIs recovered from India in the 1980s by (I think) Ormond Haydon-Baillie. Is one of them the basis of Kermit Weeks Napier Sabre Tempest V restoration? How many were there and what happened to the rest?

_________________
"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Kermit's project is based on the fuselage of a Tempest V from a tech school in the Netherlands and a pair of Tempest II wings recovered from India by the RAF Museum.

The Tempest IIs were recovered by Doug Arnold, with the remaining examples supposedly being bulldozed after he had had his pick of those to recover. Details of the survivors can be found here.

http://www.hawkertempest.se/Summary.htm

Amazing that in this day and age, none have yet flown over 30 years from their initial recovery from India. If they'd have been Spitfires or P-51s (or even Sea Furies)...............

Isn't it a matter of the engine? I think that's what Kermit has said, that there are only two Napier Saber engines left in the world (that are known, at least) and he has both of them?

_________________
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

there's more than two saber's(ive seen at least two and not Kermit's)though possible airworthy one may be different.
the tempest's recovered from India were tempest ii's with centaurus engines so they could be replaced by either a r3350 or r2800 if they were in the us but the uk caa wont let a reengining program go ahead

Has anybody made a formal application to them?

Here is Kermits Tempest II.




Mark Fidler

There's a Sabre engine on display at the Canada Aerospace Museum in Ottawa. Although since it's a cutaway it's obviously not a candidate for an airworthy restoration.



I supposed it's possible that Kermit may have the only two potentially runnable Sabres in existence.

SN

Ah, okay...clarifiation...his are the only two privately owned.

http://blog.kermitweeks.com/?p=1337

_________________
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Quite a few of the surviving Sabres have been sectioned for museum display.

They were a bear to keep running back in the day, I suspect that it would be a real challenge to keep a Sabre-engines Tempest in the air today, even if enough Sabres could be collected to make an airworthy one from.

I'm still surprised that nobody has put a 3350 in a Tempest II yet, though.

Visibly flying the plane is not a easy deal too.

The late and great Ray Hanna had logged a few hours on the beast and did'nt kept a good memory about it.

The French Ace Pierre Clostermann, invited for a commemoration on an RAF Airbase at the end of the 40's, was invited to pilot again a Tempest (specially painted in the marking of his plane during WWII). He politely declined the invitation saying something close to "I accepted to fly this type of airplane because the situation of the war required it, but I refuse to risk my life without a good reason".
When you red his book "Le grand Cirque" (The Big Show in english) is revelating to saw the number of accident with this plane during take-off or landing...

_________________
Sorry for my bad English:-(

Nelson Ezell has one (via exchange/sale from the New England Air Museum) he has been working on for many years when he gets time away from all of the other projects for customers. He has done his usual great work and has had to make many none existent parts from scratch, such as the tail gear assembly.

http://www.EzellAviation.com/

Pirate Lex

_________________
An ego is no match for gravity.

In actual fact Ray had first refusal on the Tempest V project that is now with Kermit Weeks. He only turned it down after an engineering survey revealed the amount of work that would be required to get it flying again. So his memories of flying it can't have been all that bad.

Here is a photo I took of the Tempest II at the New England Air Museum at Bradley on 6 July 1989.

Hmmmm, I thought a few years ago some fella from the UK reported here on WIX, that someone there had amassed enough Sabre and Typhoon or Tempest bits to complete an example...as a project, just add money. I guess I'm remembering wrong.

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

They were done by the apprentices at Napiers back in the day. The world is almost littered with sectioned examples. I don't recommend anyone look too closely at one as it imparts a fairly strong desire to throw your toolbox in the nearest river & walk away I think the one at Dx came out of Cambs Uni.

_________________
Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.