Airshow season
For the last few weeks, my Dad and I have been working on our new airshow display with hopes of introducing a larger local audience to the project. We’ve just completed the first show, and are now all ready for the second one coming up in July (Wings and Wheels Campbell River July 14th). A massive thanks is owed to Bruce, Rob, Brad, Lou and Dresden for their help in set-up, manning the tables, and teardown…. this set-up is not light to move!
While it would be great to bring some a display of areas currently under construction, it is unfortunately just not worth the risk at this time. What we have put together includes some original components such as landing gear and a spinner (Hastings), and wing to give people an idea of the Typhoon’s scale. In addition to these items, we also bring with us original instrumentation, accessories and 20mm ammunition, and some detailed large format prints showing work in progress.
One of the most interesting prints that we have put together is our status board, this board shows what is currently under construction, areas that we’ve now found enough surviving parts and information to rebuild, and areas where we are still in need of information. Given that there are only 3000 or so surviving Typhoon drawings (out of likely 20-25,000 for a full set), this status board shows what an amazing amount of work has been done over the past decade to source surviving parts, reverse engineer, and design the missing information. It is one aspect of the project that is often not seen, and credit must be given to the entire team and our sponsors for this massive accomplishment.
As you can see above, there are very few areas that we are now in need of additional information. Some of the red items have near complete information, or we have access to them already, but there are issues with logistics. The cannons are a good example for logistic issues; we have donors willing to provide us with the cannons, however we’ve not been able to identify a source for the demilitarization and certification which would make transport possible.
There are some areas where we have the information required to produce the parts and assemblies, but additional information or surviving parts might speed the process up. These are areas like the wing trailing edge and rudder.
We are always looking for bits and bobs for the Typhoon, so please have a look at your Typhoon parts collection and see if there is anything you can help with!
Thank you to all who came to see us this past weekend! We are looking forward to seeing you on July 14th is you are able to make it! ~Ian