Update February 2015

5th February 2015

It has been quite some time since this blog was first posted, so an update is well overdue!

 

Over the last 18 months, the focus has mainly been on gathering and completing parts for the many aircraft systems.  Even over this relatively short period of time, original parts have become increasingly harder to locate, and a lot of effort has gone into fabricating replacement items. This means that although there has not been a great deal of visible progress, when the airframe is complete, the systems should be ready to install also. This should avoid the 80% complete- 80% to go scenario that is so often mentioned.

An overview of recent progress is as follows. 

The canopy has been structurally completed. With the new bubble fitted into new frame components. An original butterfly release mechanism was sourced and reproduced, as well as components of the jettison mechanism.

Work continues of aligning the windscreen assembly, and new Perspex is being cut and formed.

 In the cockpit, a ventilator mechanism has been made, and fabrication and fitment of the many electrical component and system mount brackets has begun. Sourcing of the electrical system components continues. Most of the windscreen de-icer system components are on hand, including a new fluid tank and mount brackets. The supporting structure for the flight control components has been refurbished, with just a small amount of painting required. However, this structure will be left out of the aircraft, to allow installation of the multitude of pneumatic pipes in the surrounding area.

 

The flight control systems have received a lot of attention, with nearly all the required components on hand. Many of the components had received some form of attention prior to arrival in Scone. Unfortunately there was little in the way of accompanying paperwork, and to ensure that all were in good and serviceable condition beneath the layers of new paint, complete dismantling and detailed inspection was required. 

The rudder pedal adjuster assemblies are complete, except for the installation of the foot pedal castings – one of which is awaiting approval of a minor repair.

The rudder and elevator lever assembly which is mounted in the aircraft tail has been completely refurbished, as has the aileron quadrant in the wings. Both of these assemblies being a mix of new and refurbished original parts. The elevator lever assembly that sits on fuselage frame 11 has been refurbished, and the attaching pushrod assembly has been sourced new. Overhaul has commenced on the control column assembly and associated aileron cable drum.

 

The refurbishment of the rudder and elevator trim components is well underway, with all the components except new chains now on hand. We were very pleased to finally be able to obtain the elusive ( until now )original elevator trim hand wheel unit.

Continuing with cockpit related parts – the shut-off and release mechanism components for the belly tank jettison system are now all on hand, and refurbishment of them is underway. 

 

All the throttle control system parts are now on hand. Pushrods for the hand control, and boost control units have been made and assembled locally, and the throttle cross shaft and mount parts at the fuselage firewall have all been made, awaiting assembly.

The hand control unit for the carburettor air filter shutter has been made, including the special Morse lever housing. The mechanism for operating the shutter, which is mounted on the air intake duct, has also been made.

 

Aft of the cockpit resides the pneumatic system components. Several sets of air bottles have been sourced, and the special top and bottom fittings ( the lower items also double as the lower mount points for the bottles ) have been made locally. The upper mount brackets, pneumatic panel assembly and all the associated pneumatic components are now on hand.

All the components required for the installation of a static oxygen system are now on hand, and work continues on the various mounting brackets required.

Immediately forward of the cockpit area, all the components for the fire baffle have been completed, and now on hand ready for installation. This will be done in conjunction with the lower fuel tank installation.

 

The lower fuel tank has now been structurally completed by Pioneer Aero, and all the various attaching plumbing fittings, elbows etc have been made locally.  The upper tank was received with the original project kit in a half complete state, This has now had the missing sheet metal parts and machined fittings made, including a new dipstick assembly as well as all the special plumbing connections. 

Also, the parts required for the installation of a float valve for the wing fuel tanks transfer system have been made.

 

Regarding the landing gear system.  New retraction ram assemblies are now on hand, and all the components for the CO2 emergency blow down system have been sourced. However, the search for parts to complete the undercarriage selector in the cockpit continues.

 

The NOS wheel hubs have had new brake drums fitted and line- machined, and complete NOS brake units, including the pneumatic bags, are on hand.



  The rudder and elevator are on hand awaiting fabric covering, which will be carried out at a time closer to aircraft completion.

 

Moving to the “business end’ of the aircraft. The overhaul of the Merlin 70 engine is continuing in conjunction with another engine rebuild. The sourcing of the required replacement parts, and overhaul of others is ongoing. We have so far collected 10 of the required 12 exhaust stacks – the remaining 2 items continue to be elusive !

The propeller components are currently in England being inspected for suitability for overhaul. A set of 4 new Hoffmann propeller blades is also on hand.

A complete original spinner assembly is waiting its turn for refurbishment. A new nose cone is on hand to be fitted.

The radiators for the engine coolant and oil cooling systems are currently being manufactured, with completion imminent. A full set of new copper pipes and most of the required seal and coupling parts are on hand.

A complete original large capacity oil tank is also on hand waiting to be rebuilt.

 

Showing more in the way of visual progress are the wings. A lot of effort has gone into the alignment and correct positioning of the wing flaps, and trailing edge area. At first glance, this area appears quite simple and straight forward, but everything had to be in an exact position for everything to work correctly and faultlessly. The wing skins, with their many joggled portions and rebates, are well underway, and work has also commenced on the assembly of the various access doors for the armament and flight control systems. The parts for all doors are on hand, including locally made catches and receptacles.

Work has also been carried out on reproducing the armament mounting parts, to allow the installation of replica guns if desired.  To enable this to happen, some of the wing ribs have required additional structural parts to be made.

 

 

 

Also, minor changes to the wing structure are being incorporated to accommodate the wing fuel tanks in the cannon and ammunition bays, in accordance with the Spitfire TR9 variant .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wing tip assemblies are on hand, and these will be able to be fitted when the wings can be removed from their assembly fixtures in a few months time.

 

Finally, approximately half of the parts required for the wing to fuselage fairings are now on hand, with the remaining parts well underway.

 

More to follow shortly....

MH603 Spitfire Restoration so far.

Background

It is generally accepted by aircraft enthusiasts that the Spitfire was one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built. This is largely due to its flowing lines and gentle curves throughout.

From a restorers point of view, these same lines make it a somewhat difficult to rebuild, and certain parts can be a nightmare to reproduce with the usual equipment found in the average sheet metal workshop.

Further complicating matters is the fact that throughout its development life, many of the various marks were achieved by taking an existing mark of aircraft and adding or “tweaking” bits as an “interim fix” to achieve an overall performance increase. However, in a few cases the designers did start with a clean sheet of paper, and the process of modification started again.

Spitfire restorations will really soak up the hours, with a figure of 35,000 to 40,000 now becoming the generally accepted norm. Of course this will vary with how the hours are actually counted, or accounted for .  i.e.  are the hours spent on parts sourcing and research included.

Mh603 has been around for quite a while, having been started in the UK back in the 1980’s and subsequently sold to the USA, where restoration work continued on and off for a few years.  The aircraft was again put up for sale in 2009, and was purchased by Pay’s Air Service. At that stage it was essentially an ( outwardly ) completed fuselage and empennage, with the balance of the project as a kit of individual parts and minor sub assemblies. The container arrived at Scone aerodrome in late 2009, and restoration at scone commenced in March 2010.

One of the first tasks carried out was to perform a detailed assessment of what was there, what needed further work, and what was missing. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that the aircraft was far from complete, and a lot of effort was needed to be put in to sourcing the balance of the parts.

Early on it was decided to restore the aircraft as authentically as possible, and this includes the use of appropriate British hardware. At some stage, a lot of American fasteners had been installed, and these have been replaced with the correct items. The correct British “purple” rivets will be used throughout, although these are now becoming quite hard to come by, and can be expensive. In Spitfire rebuilds, rivets are generally replaced as a matter of course, because in the factory, Supermarine drawings gave the option of either the high- magnesium, or low- magnesium rivets as able to be used, and after 70-odd years, there is really no way of knowing which type was originally installed. Therefore the prudent course of action is to replace all the rivets, regardless of how sound the joint still appears....   and there are a LOT of rivets.

Fuselage

 Typically, when a restoration is commenced, the first part to be tackled is the Fuselage, and MH603 has been no exception, as this was where the most of the effort prior to arrival had been concentrated. The documentation ( the dreaded paperwork)  accompanying the kit of parts was minimal at best, so to establish a firm basis to continue on from, and to substantiate the work done to date, extensive NDT and material analysis was carried out. Fortunately, this proved that nearly everything was as it was claimed to be, with only a few parts having “ question marks “ against them. These parts have been subsequently replaced with new items.

The stub spars that the wings attach to ( also called carry-through spars) were replaced with new items as a matter of course.

  

Also, we had become aware of murmurings among the Spitfire community that the fuselage structure was out of alignment. This was checked and it was discovered that the rear wing attach points were slightly out, along with the stub spar position. This was rectified when the spars were replaced, along with the fwd fuselage skins being renewed. The four main attach points for the engine mount were also dismantled and inspected, with several items replaced in the process.

The cockpit area is another area that has a few problems, with the Right hand canopy rail not extending  far enough forward, necessitating the replacement of that rail and the adjacent skin.

Lastly , a couple of the fuselage frames had incorrect profiles, and replacement frame sections have been sourced. A couple of aft fuselage skins are also being replaced, to give a neater joint where the tail unit attaches.

Over the 2012 Christmas period, the fuselage was externally taken back to bare metal, corrosion protected with alodine and repainted with epoxy primer.  The internal surface of the fuselage was rubbed back and repainted in silver ( aluminium ) colour. The exception being the immediate cockpit area, which is almost always green. This was repainted with a slightly different shade, as matched to a paint sample from the original aircraft.

A new instrument board has been made, as well as a new cockpit ventilator system.

 

The seat and its mount/ adjuster mechanism is complete, but need some minor cosmetic rectification before it is fit for use.  A new leather seat back padding has been made as per original configuration, even including some original kapok and horse hair filling.

The fire baffle between the cockpit and fuel tank was largely missing. The task of producing this assembly was placed in the capable hands of Pioneer Aero Ltd, and the kit of parts for this unit is now largely complete.

Canopy and windscreen.

Only the canopy Perspex bubble and a few minor sheet metal parts arrived with the kit. The incredibly tricky canopy forward frame has been reproduced ( plus a few spares ) and the remainder of the canopy items are in the process of being sourced or made locally, including the latch and jettison mechanism.

The windscreen assembly has been dismantled, assessed and is currently being reassembled with new side panels being made in house. The manufacture of the  laminated glass forward screen has been outsourced locally, and is due for installation shortly. A rear vision mirror is still required.

 Wings

Upon arrival the wings were essentially a largely incomplete kit of parts, having originated from multiple sources.

One of the main concerns was that the spar booms were part of an early batch that had been made from material of insufficient strength. Fortunately, as the booms were not built into any structure, it was a relatively simple process to send them back to the UK to have them heat treated up to the required strength. They now have no flight limitations on them, and are installed in the leading edge assemblies.

The 2 wing leading edge assemblies  ( also called D- boxes because of their cross section) are now almost complete, with the skins being drilled off and trimmed for the final time before being riveted on permanently.

We have been fortunate to be able to have the use of an original set of leading edges, from which an assembly fixture was made. This has enabled us to keep everything aligned during assembly, and ensure that the correct washout is maintained. The spitfire has about 2-1/2 degrees of washout, and with its elliptical wing, this is quite tricky to measure. The spar is built flat and the angle that the ribs are attached to it progressively changes along its span.

The  D-box rebuild is incredibly fiddly and time consuming, with a lot of double and triple handling involved.  In itself, it actually consumes almost half the labour and materials cost of the total wing rebuild, although at first glance this would not appear to be the case. The trailing edge structure from the main spar aft is relatively straight forward by comparison.

There is now a complete set of ribs on hand, with the missing parts either made in-house or sourced elsewhere.

A complete set of wing flaps is now on hand, as are the radiator fairings and flaps. The wing tips are complete, only requiring cosmetic rectification in the leading edge area. The special attach hardware for the tips are now on hand.

The ailerons, however, produced a problem which we weren’t expecting.  At first glance, they appeared to be complete and ready to fit.  A quick assessment revealed that they were in fact the “short span” type, as fitted to the MK8 and Mk14 aircraft, and therefore will need to be lengthened by some 10 inches. To achieve this a new spar will have to be installed, along with several new ribs and skins. Fortunately, these parts are now sourced and on their way to us.

The wings will have the required modifications to allow the use of “straight” axles, and it is envisaged that they will also be modified to incorporate fuel tanks in the gun and ammo bays, as per the TR9 Spitfire.

Recently, we were able to acquire a very rare genuine Spitfire bomb carrier mechanism. A pair of these will ultimately be fitted to the wings of this aircraft, and the standard wing tank configuration will be altered slightly to accommodate the internal wing structure required for these.

Airframe Assemblies Ltd in the UK is currently producing a wing to fuselage kit for the aircraft, and it is envisaged this will be on hand for when the wings are mated to the fuselage.

Empennage.

The tail portion of the fuselage is largely complete, with the exception of some cosmetic rectification required. Missing minor brackets and parts have now been sourced, with only the tailplane to fuselage fairings to be made.

The 2 halves of the tail plane are complete, however the special attach hardware still needs to be sourced. The elevator and rudder are both structurally complete, and only need covering and finishing.  This will be carried out nearer to completion of the project.

 

Systems

 Very little of the parts required for the aircraft hydraulic, pneumatic and flight control systems arrived with the aircraft.  However nearly all the required parts have now been sourced or made. All the stock Tungum tube for the pipework is on hand, as is all the connecting hardware, although some of this is now hard to find.

A full set of flight control cables and attaching parts is on hand, as is most of the mechanical system parts for the flight controls

The rudder control system has been completely dismantled, NDT’d  re-cadmium plated and reassembled.  The support structure for the flight control components has been completely rectified or replaced as necessary. In this area, a bit of “artistic license” had been previously used with some replacement parts of incorrect configuration and spec being  used. These areas have now been rectified by the use of new correct items.

Coolant and oil Systems.

A complete set of oil and coolant pipes has been completed and on hand,  and work is now underway on the associated brackets and connections.

Instruments and electrical.

 Again, very little arrived with the project, but the majority of the required parts have been sourced.

On hand is a fibreglass replica of the original radio mast, with a modern aerial for the emergency locater installed inside. An original under wing IFF aerial has been sourced, and this will be used with the modern VHF radio, maintaining a stock outward appearance. We are always on the lookout for instruments and electrical items, as usually several items of one particular unit are required before a serviceable ( airworthy) part can be assembled.  

Landing Gear

 

A complete set of landing gear components are on hand. However, the outer cylinder for the right hand main gear is corroded, and a replacement item is being sought.  New original tubes were found on site !, and original tyres have been sourced. Complete NOS brake units are on hand too, as well as new drums, yet to be fitted to the new wheels. New retraction ram assemblies currently being manufactured by  Supermarine Aero.

 Engine cowlings.

A set of blank panels for the cowls, and some of the reinforcing structure arrived with the kit. The missing parts for the panels themselves have now all been either made in-house, or sourced from overseas. A complete kit of parts for the cowling support structure has now been sourced.

A new carburettor air box has been manufactured, as well as a couple of spare items made for trading purposes.