Online Edition No: 4 November 2015
Just click on the tabs below to read the various articles. There are two banks of tabs so be sure to scroll down the page so you don’t miss anything![/x_text]
We often report on pilots connected with the Fighter Collection who have won awards. 
This time it is our pleasure to report that a pilot a bit closer to home has been presented, in recognition of his many years of guidance and support of historic aircraft and aviation, and for his early support of the Historic Aircraft Association, that the recipient of the HAA 2015 Darrol Stinton Memorial Trophy is Stephen Grey, owner and operator of The Fighter Collection. The HAA unanimously considered that Stephen Grey’s contribution of more than 35 years to the operation and preservation of historic aircraft flying to be well worthy of this award. Something we would all probably agree with.
Yes, we know, Christmas should stay in December but if you are planning presents it starts in November. We have put a few special bundles together this year.
So please scroll down to our Gift tab below (after you have read all the aircraft news of course). We also have one of our world famous quizzes for you – just one simple question – answer correctly for a chance to win a Friends of TFC goodie bag.
The latest acquisition to the hangar arrived a few days ago and very nice it is too.
Martin Espin with a few of the TFC volunteers looking pleased with the new toolkit.
Through the generosity and efforts of ‘Friends of the Fighter Collection’ we have obtained a brand new and fully equipped company tool kit; we looked long and hard at the market place and decided the tool control system afforded by TENG TOOLS met our requirements perfectly. The brands ‘Get Organised’ philosophy aligns well with our own which when coupled with the overall quality of the hand tools made the decision straightforward. The tool kit affords us greater flexibility with how we can best utilise the time our volunteers give us whilst still retaining positive control of the tools in use.
Okay, so it’s a poorly worded pun on the opening phrase of a soliloquy in the “Nunnery Scene” of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet! In the speech a despondent Prince Hamlet bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternative might be still worse; much the same headache then as when recently we had cause to produce replacement parts for the throttle levers for the firewall cross shaft on Spitfire MkV EP120.
The levers were originally made from an BS 6L1 light alloy forging and then locally machined. With no OEM drawing to refer to a new CAD drawing was needed to allow us to manufacture new parts. The forged parts have draft angles on all sides and elevations to permit the forging to be ejected from the die or hammer after being struck; drawing the complexities of those shapes in 2D was going to be a challenge (least while it was for the author) and after several iterations it became clear the only way to be sure of attaining the correct shape and form was to model the levers in a 3D CAD program. (Here it’s worthwhile pointing out that at any time during this process we could have simplified the shape of the lever and modified the cross shaft to suit, but were possible and attainable we stick with the OEM design).
Our original 2D drawing was taken by our new ‘best friend’ Rob Littlewood at LEADA Ltd
(who’s crayons are much sharper than ours) from which he produced a 3D model of the finished lever(s). From this CAD drawing a machine code .igs file is generated which we can then pass to our machine shop to allow the parts to be machined and profiled in such a way that it follows the original design intent.
You can download a 3D animated version of this drawing here: [wpdm_package id=’14739′]
