I'm about to go on a trip this Saturday, but will get pics when I come back. I should be back there on Saturday, 9 Jul 2016. The airframe is basically a stock Bf 109 G-2 with a Merlin on the front. Then only really noticeably difference is that ours has fitted covers where the cannons came out, and there is a hole in the wing spar where the cannons used to go through, trimmed in Aluminum edging.
Ours had also been modified at some point for racing and had an ADI tank in the starboard outer wing that caused a piece of main spar far outboard to be removed as well as a "Y" connection in the fuel line going to the supercharger impeller for the ADI when the solenoid was actuated. When we removed the ADI tank, we (Fighter Rebuilders) patched the spar, so it is pretty much back to stock in that department. No more ADI injection. Pretty much a stock Merlin 224 with a neat new carbon fiber carburetor airscoop fabricated by Steven Hinton Jr. The lower cowling will be made MUCH more Bf 109-like since we (Fighter Rebuilders, not volunteers) relocated the oil cooler and worked specifically toward that goal.
It is about 98% ready to fly again. Hopefully sometime soon.
Interestingly, the slats are somewhat unusual in that they are basically wood with Aluminum skin. Is super glue an "approved adhesive?" I hadn't expected wood. The radiator scoop structures on the lower wing are also of wood, with metal doors at the back. Basically the flap trailing edge spreads apart for airflow exit control on both sides and the lower wooden lip of the scoop is controllable for intake size (the leading edge moves up and down). So, airflow control is mostly composed of wood parts.
I would not have known much of any of that had I not seen it and worked on it a bit. Altogether an interesting aircraft, but somewhat of a problem due to the difficulties in finding metric aircraft hardware locally. So, ours is a mixed bag of metric and SAE. Nothing wrong with metric hardware at all. We all have metric tools and are comfortable with metric anything, but finding some specific fasteners for the Bf 109 is basically NOT an exercise in sourcing standard metric parts. Many are tapered and are simply not available from standard sources. So you do the best you can and proceed. Try finding metric pushrod ends for the rudder cables that fit the Ha.1112! They are rounded with definite flats areas on them and are NOT easy to find. About all that is left is the lower cowling airscoop and a starter than developed a leak. We removed the starter last weekend and the airscoop needs a few days attention from Stevo Hinton when he isn't running hot laps around Reno.
Perhaps soon. Perhaps not. Depends on the level of interest by the museum. At least we know it runs.
https://www.facebook.com/
That was before paint. I'll get shots in a couple of weeks.
Slats had been around for long time before the Bf 109 had them ... since 1918. Not sure the F-86 owes anything to the Bf 109. Perhaps a bit to the Me 262, but mostly in the area of wing sweep. The sweep is what made the Sabre a great fighter ... well, that and the all-flying tail, which was head and shoulders better than the stab and elevator of the F-86A.
You can see slats on the Bell L-39.
That's a funny-looking plane, huh?