Whirlwind Fighter Project: August 2014

Chris Hayward

Hi all welcome to the newsletter for August.

First things first, the team would like to welcome Rob Bowater to the project, as many of you know Rob is the author of a number of books one being the "263 and 137 Whirlwind years" and has agreed to run our web and shop site hopefully a lot better than I could.

If you want a copy of Robs book you can contact him on...

rob.bowater@virginmedia.com.

Thanks this month go to a lot of people all of whom I will try to mention. First off Lee (fighterbomber) for your donation towards the flap ram that we managed to get from Ebay, and also to John Harris for his kind donation.

There has also been mention of a couple of Magnetos turning up, if I find out more I will let you know.

As you will know we have been able to acquire a few bits and pieces to go towards our build however one of the things that rarely happens is a donation of parts,

Last month I thanked Matt and Simon Denning for the parts that they donated to the project, so as I now have a picture of those parts, it now gives me an excuse to thank them again for their kind donation.

Oxygen supply valve and Bayonet fitting

Thanks to Jim Munro and Colin Smithson with their help in obtaining these two other important items from eBay.
First on the left was this Breeze Trim Handle. It's off a Beaufighter (or similar) sent all the way from an eBay seller in Australia. It should help us build a Whirlwind styled version as they appear to be very similar.

On the right we have the flap ram recovered from P7118 in Norfolk which crashed 29th May 1942 and which we can add to the growing collection of Whirlwind relic items and help fill in the details for the CAD. (See last months issue for further details on the Flap ram). Jim has also been able to purchase from Ebay a second radiator track (Below) of which the Whirlwind had four and gives us a far clearer picture of how it would have worked this was from P6966.

We were also alerted to a Coffman Starter on Ebay by one of our members who wanted to see if it was any good for our purpose sadly it wasn't - Ours needs the five chambers, and looks more like this one in the picture below.

So if you have one stuffed in a cupboard or up in the loft some where can you let us know.

And a plea from Stuart.

Hi...

It's been some time since the WFP started collecting material to build a replica Whirlwind, but after 2 years we are at last making good progress with our CAD Whirly that's coming along very nicely. We've started to get around to the people who have or know of any remaining parts of wreckage that we can measure, photograph, trace or scan to fill in some of areas that we are lacking from any of the surviving drawings or photos that we now have... We're also looking into viable crash sites that may be worth investigating, with a view to maybe retrieving any parts that they might contain.

One of which is the Fox Tor Mires site on Dartmoor, where both P6975 & P6978 Whirlwinds crashed on 29th December 1940

We're asking for any information of the actual crash site position so we may visit and make an appraisal for a possible future dig...

We have a number of other sites that we are presently visiting and are proceeding with exploratory excavations at all of them, Fox Tor Mires is probably going to be the most difficult and if successful will provide a wealth of material that would otherwise be lost to the project, which would be a great shame, so please any info or lead you might know of will greatly received...

Many Thanks

Stuart.

I would just like to point out further to Stuarts plea that "Any item borrowed will be returned" to it's owner as soon as measurements and pictures are taken.

A short film from Gunnar, he told me that he saw this while out fishing! well you know what they say about fishermen I wonder how much Aquavit was involved.

Whirlwind Stories

                                                                        P7119

                                                          Bellows Argentina No5

Delivered to 48MU on the 11th of November 1941 and then on to 137 Squadron on the 5th of February 1942.On the 5th of June she was flown to Westland for repair and then returned to her unit on the 26th of June. She was again damaged by flack when attacking shipping off Boulogne. FO Furber was unhurt. She was then repaired on site. On the 19th of February 1943 she was in collision with P7114 while taxiing at Manston she caught fire and her bombs exploded. Lt Neville Freeman (SAAF) was killed.

Thanks to Niall Corduroys book Whirlwind for the above information, also to R N Pearson for the profile image.

                            And a short story from Robert Allen in Washington USA

The only thing I can offer is an anecdote via an Internet friend with whom I used to correspond on another board. His uncle was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot with JG 26 along the channel front who served for virtually all the war there. The one allied fighter he respected the most was not the Spitfire or the Mustang, but the Whirlwind, because of its speed at low level and concentrated firepower. According to him, whenever possible, the German fighter pilots would simply avoid the Whirlwinds.

It's not the first time that I have heard that said, it's a shame we can't get more information from the other side, or can we, it's over to you, can you help?

The new book on Teddy Petter is now available,

"From Lysander to Lightning: Teddy Petter, Aircraft Designer"
 
Its available from Amazon for �8.99 Kindle or �13.51 Paperback.

Fellowship of the Bellows

The story below has been taken from the Daily Telegraph published on the 25th of May 1942.

Argentine Aid to R.A.F

16 Fighters brought

Dairy Telegraph Reporter

Sixteen Whirlwind two-engined fighter planes flying with the R.A.F have been paid for by the “ Fellowship of the Bellows” which after having begun in a small way in Buenos Aries only a little more than a year ago, now has about 70,000 members.

Each month each member pays a cent about 1/2d for every axis ‘plane brought down by the RAF in the previous month. The money is sent to the Ministry of Aircraft Production, which so far has received a total of £105,007.

The Ministry receives from the Air Ministry the number of axis planes destroyed each month. The figure is cabled to the Fellowship and from Mexico to Argentina Britons, Americans, and Latin Americans meet for their monthly “Blow to it” and pay up their cents according to the cabled figures.

All the titles of the fellowship have an association with wind. Their password is “Blow to it”. Instead of a president each branch has a High Wind; the treasurer is the receiver of windfalls.

All beginners are Whiffs. After 1000 ‘planes have been brought down and the Whiff has paid in at least 10 Dollars he or she becomes a Puff. Puff to Gust is 2,500 ‘planes; Gust to Hurricane requires 5,000 destroyed.

No Fellow can graduate faster by giving more money than the prescribed cent per ‘plane. Though extra money is welcomed as a windfall.

The Ministry of Aircraft Production has entered into this wind nomenclature by selecting Whirlwinds to be brought with the money. Started as a British and American Fellowship the Latin –Americans now “Blow it” so much that the rule books have been printed in Spanish.

Here are some extracts from "BIZZY" which was a cartoon style magazine published in Buenos Aries in 1947 and tells a little more about the "Fellowship of the Bellows"

Many thanks to Maurice Romboll for the above, he is the eldest son of E.A.Romboll whose
father was involved in the Fellowship of the Bellows with two (or three) other bright advertising    agency colleagues - Eric Henderson, Bob Mann, Bob Botting.

                                  Part two of this article will appear next month.

                                          Shop talk

Baseball caps are now back it stock and cost £13.00 which includes P&P

For the moment these can be obtained direct from me at the contact details at the bottom of this issue.
Also still available are the T Shirts in sizes L and XL these are available for £10.00 which includes P&P and are now at limited stock so help us get rid of these so we can get some more stock in.

Further to our wants list.

Item Number	Description	Ref Numbers (AM or other)	NOTES
20.	ASI correction card holder	6A/387 or 6A/409
39.	Hyd. Acc. Pressure gauge	Dowty 5001	Dowty Gauge Pressure
44.	Hydraulic system pressure gauge. 0-1600 lb	Ref. No. 1208 Part No. AHO.5404	Dunlop "Eureka" Pressure gauge, Mk1a guage
45	Wireless remote controller	TR9D/TR9F	Standard TR9D/TR9F component
47	Voltmeter	5A/1693	24-volt version
55.	Elevator trim tab handle	Ref. No. 3074 Part No. 81468 Mat Spec. DTD.59A Class of Store. C	Same as Lysander

If you can help it would be really appreciated.

Contact , The Secretary, 57 Bramblefield Lane, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2SX

chris-hayward@outlook.com

Copyright The Whirlwind Fighter Project 2011-2014

Friday 1 August 2014

News for August