Or... Miracles take a little longer.
One day, our Chairman... the late, much-missed Tony Southern, phoned me when I was disposals officer of the Cotswold Aircraft Restoration Group; and asked me whether I thought that we could rebuild a Boulton Paul Type C. Mk II mid-upper turret for the RAF Museum's Hudson.
The remains of two were languishing in deep storage at Cardington; and he had been approached to see if the CARG "miracles take a little longer" crew could turn the remains into something that they could display alongside the Hudson exhibit. The turret aperture in old lady's fuselage had been faired in; and the turret support ring had been removed; so this would eventually be a free-standing exhibit alongside her.
The first question was "Why not Cosford?" The word was that they were up to their eyeballs with far more important jobs; and some hero at Hendon had come up with the suggestion that CARG was a possibility.
A trip was duly organised to inspect the suspects.
The turret history was as follows:
When the Aussie fly-boys pensioned their Hudsons off; many were placed into storage at RAAF Richmond in New South Wales; and offered for disposal during 1946. Many were de-militarised for freight and flying school use which involved removing armaments and ancillary Military odds and sods. The two turrets in question had been recovered from their dumping site in the Outback where they had languished under the hot Aussie sun; being subjected to being pee-d on by Dingos and Kangaroos for many years.
The inspection at Cardington turned out better than anticipated. The cupola was relatively intact; but missing most of its perspex. The gun mounts, frame hoop; armour plates and base plates were intact; one of them even still had the ammo bin and attached fixings. It was only the rotation ring that was moth-eaten... but one good one could be made up from the two examples... (Oh, foolish optimism)... but more of that later.
In fact; the remaining fittings and fixtures... right down to the ammo box locations, operating table; seat and belt feed chutes were there in various states of dilapidation; albeit the feed chutes, although complete; were bakelite mouldings and were badly cracked and warped from sun exposure.
Tony glanced at me.
"Well? can your straighten them out?"
The first thought that flashed through my mind was:
"Bakelite? I've got as much chance of that as sprouting wings and doing a couple of low circuits of the airship shed!"
But, under the dubious gaze of the Cardington custodians, and with CARG's reputation at stake; I nodded tentatively.
Arrangements were then made to collect the remains and transport them to our workshops at RAF Innsworth.
To Be Continued.
One day, our Chairman... the late, much-missed Tony Southern, phoned me when I was disposals officer of the Cotswold Aircraft Restoration Group; and asked me whether I thought that we could rebuild a Boulton Paul Type C. Mk II mid-upper turret for the RAF Museum's Hudson.
The remains of two were languishing in deep storage at Cardington; and he had been approached to see if the CARG "miracles take a little longer" crew could turn the remains into something that they could display alongside the Hudson exhibit. The turret aperture in old lady's fuselage had been faired in; and the turret support ring had been removed; so this would eventually be a free-standing exhibit alongside her.
The first question was "Why not Cosford?" The word was that they were up to their eyeballs with far more important jobs; and some hero at Hendon had come up with the suggestion that CARG was a possibility.
A trip was duly organised to inspect the suspects.
The turret history was as follows:
When the Aussie fly-boys pensioned their Hudsons off; many were placed into storage at RAAF Richmond in New South Wales; and offered for disposal during 1946. Many were de-militarised for freight and flying school use which involved removing armaments and ancillary Military odds and sods. The two turrets in question had been recovered from their dumping site in the Outback where they had languished under the hot Aussie sun; being subjected to being pee-d on by Dingos and Kangaroos for many years.
The inspection at Cardington turned out better than anticipated. The cupola was relatively intact; but missing most of its perspex. The gun mounts, frame hoop; armour plates and base plates were intact; one of them even still had the ammo bin and attached fixings. It was only the rotation ring that was moth-eaten... but one good one could be made up from the two examples... (Oh, foolish optimism)... but more of that later.
In fact; the remaining fittings and fixtures... right down to the ammo box locations, operating table; seat and belt feed chutes were there in various states of dilapidation; albeit the feed chutes, although complete; were bakelite mouldings and were badly cracked and warped from sun exposure.
Tony glanced at me.
"Well? can your straighten them out?"
The first thought that flashed through my mind was:
"Bakelite? I've got as much chance of that as sprouting wings and doing a couple of low circuits of the airship shed!"
But, under the dubious gaze of the Cardington custodians, and with CARG's reputation at stake; I nodded tentatively.
Arrangements were then made to collect the remains and transport them to our workshops at RAF Innsworth.
To Be Continued.