The Stirling Aircraft Project Update

This is the section where you can find all the latest news of the rebuilt of the Short Stirling.
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GuyMassey
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by GuyMassey »

Hi JL, Thanks for the reply, it is good that there is such an enthusiastic bunch of people out there. A few years ago I recall seeing a report in Aeroplane about full sized Stirling cockpit & front fuselage being built in someones garage. I remember that it was mainly wooden and not 100% accurate but it was very impressive non the less. It even had all the cockpit frame in place. I'd be interested to know what has happened to it.
Guy
"The purpose of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave with a well-preserved body, but rather to Slide in Sideways, completely used up, yelling and screaming, what a ride!" anon.
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

Hi Guy

If it's the one I think you're thinking of then it's this one linked on our very own forum here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=708

It was created by Peter van Gelderen and if you do a search on Stirling Bomber pages (IIRC) then it should take you to his website. Not seen it myself in the flesh but it is supposed to be impressive

cheers

JL
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

A quick progress update:

Here's some pics of a stiffener bracket (in grey) under the Pilots seat, this bracket acts as a stiffener to the seat beams and supports some flying control sprockets

JL
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

Here's a couple of pics of our next major project, where we will attach the seat bearers to the seat rails. The photos show the new cast roller support brackets alongside originals attached to some wreckage recovered from BK710 which has kindly been loaned to us by a Dutch recovery group. As you can see they are a very close match and were made to original drawings.

JL
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GuyMassey
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by GuyMassey »

Looking good, it's great to see all the progress being made in the new premises. You have obviously settled in well.
Guy
"The purpose of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave with a well-preserved body, but rather to Slide in Sideways, completely used up, yelling and screaming, what a ride!" anon.
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

Thanks Guy, we've really cracked on this year despite a few teething problems and not helped by 2 attempted break ins.

With any luck 2012 will be as productive 8-)

JL
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GuyMassey
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by GuyMassey »

TWO attempted break-ins??? There are times that I am so grateful to live where we do. Tell me, I am intrigued, were MkIII's used as glider tugs? MkIV's had the front turret deleted, but the project has both turret and glider release! I agree that once the forward fuselage is finally complete it will look far more impressive with the turret in situ, but the question just has to be asked! lol
Keep up the excellent work.
Regards
Guy
"The purpose of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave with a well-preserved body, but rather to Slide in Sideways, completely used up, yelling and screaming, what a ride!" anon.
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

A very good question Guy......

I personally have only seen pics of Mk 1's and III's used on trials, although my Chairman assures me that some Mk III's were configured as both. I'm afraid I'm not expert enough to contradict him (he's scary!!).

At the end of the day, the only thing definitely MkIV is the Throttle box and as we have the turret the obvious choice is a Mk I or III so unless we de-mod the throttle box we're sort of stuck with a hybrid, which I will now go out on a limb and say the cockpit is one of the Mk IIIs used in the original trials ;)

As for the break ins, thankfully on both occasions the little thieving toerags were foiled by our security measures, our workshop is in the middle of houses and thankfully the neighbours don't mind us being there and they kep an eye out for us. Unfortunately we can't really rely on the Rozzers to watch out for us

cheers

John L
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

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A quick update.

I may have mentioned that the next major project will be the fitting of the seats and mounting structure. Having a rummage through our box of bits that we've retrieved over the years from the old SEBRO site, I came across an original special bolt and rollers for the seat adjustment mechanism. Don't know which aircraft they came from but definitely Stirling and will be incorporated into the build. The photo below shows these and an elevator control bellcrank recovered from BK710 which was donated to us. This bellcrank gives the dimensions for the control under the P1 seat and has an original control cable shackle which will also be used

cheers

John
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Stirling Project
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Re: The Stirling Aircraft Project

Post by Stirling Project »

Here's a link to our recovery of Stirling LJ628 that took place in January 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdu29Vjc ... 0TBVcZ_hvv

As you can see the weather conditions were far from ideal!

JL
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