Postby chris willis » May 8th, 2013, 8:07 pm
This project commenced during 1998, when an almost complete Hawker Typhoon cockpit section was identified at Taylors scrap yard near Chippenham in Wiltshire.
This find became quite important, as it was from a very early Mark 1a or 1b ‘car door’ type Typhoon.
Unfortunately, when the cockpit was collected at the scrap yard, parts had been removed, such as the side cowlings and the control column had been deliberately sawn through just below the spade grip pivot joint.
All of the Typhoon aircraft were built at the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company at Brockworth near Gloucester for the Royal Air Force, and therefore an important exhibit for the museum to have on display.
An excavation was organised by Ron Murphy at a quarry near the former Royal Air Force Red Arrows base at Kemble in Gloucestershire, where state of the art ground penetrating radar equipment was employed to search the area.
Dismembered chunks of airframe from about 20 forward fuselages of Typhoons were exhumed, many of these parts were remarkably uncorroded and a few items were obtained for our project.
Other items have since been received such as landing gear legs, instruments, tyres and wheels, parts for the windscreen and car door assemblies, and many other items in various states of repair.
Regrettably it is not possible to find the original serial number for this airframe, as the nameplate was missing, therefore the project will probably be of a fictitious serial number or an aircraft having a known historic background.
The project was allocated to a museum member, Martin Clarke, who was authorised by the museum committee to name the aircraft after his late wife, Michele, who was also a life member of the museum.
Many sub-assembles have been removed from the forward fuselage frame to be worked on separately. This has also allowed the tubing to be removed and in some cases replaced. The original components are being retained or genuine replacement parts used wherever possible. Parts too damaged to be used are being reverse engineered so that they can be replicated from new.”
