Guy
Black of Retrotec and the Historic Aircraft Collection, his firms that
specialise in restoring Hawker biplanes and operating them, came to
Kingston on 11 November to tell us about his life and work. He was
apprenticed to Weslake engineering, racing car engine designers and
builders, became involved in racing car restorations and formed Lynx
Cars Ltd which restored and built replicas of Jaguar sports-racing
cars. He sold the Company in 1995 to concentrate on aircraft, founding
Aero Vintage Ltd, now named Retrotec.
For his first project he wanted a simple type to build and
chose the Sopwith Pup, for which he got drawings from John Crampton at
Kingston in 1977. He also found a LeRhone engine. Unfortunately the
aircraft was lost when the Shuttleworth CTP, who was rather short and
had refused a cushion, stalled it 100 ft. Having found a Frog flying
model Hart in an attic Guy was inspired to find a Hawker biplane to
restore so bought for £100 the rather ropy remains of a Nimrod I from
the RAF Museum reserve collection. The tubular framework stainless
steel joining plates were all in good condition, but that was about all.
Restoring
And Operating Hawker Biplanes
![top top](../hasharedfiles/hunteruptrans.gif)
![top top](../hasharedfiles/hunteruptrans.gif)
![top top](../hasharedfiles/hunteruptrans.gif)
As for drawings, he found some of the larger C and B size ones in
Denmark but not the D size GAs or the small As. So, he set up a DO. BAe
at Farnborough would let him look at drawings they still had but would
not let them be copied for fear of product liability implications.
However, by subterfuge it was sometimes possible. By "getting into the
minds" of the original designers the DO was able to make an intelligent
guess at the detail designs.
A
manufacturing problem was presented by the Hawker fuselage construction
method: high tensile steel tubes with squared ends joined by steel
plates attached using tubular rivets, ferules and distance pieces. No
welding was employed because the Ministry specified that repair
overseas under primitive conditions was to be possible. To square the
tubes a machine was built from a photograph of the original HAL
machine. In a South African scrap yard a quantity of various Hawker
airframe parts and material was found including some wheels in mint
condition. He found an ex-HAL hexagonal spar rolling machine and got
the steel strip for the spars made in Switzerland. Originally Guy had
intended to sub-contract some of the restoration work but Aerovintage
ended up doing everything because of the poor standards existing in
these firms.
Engines,
Rolls-Royce Kestrels, are rare and there are no spares available,
although the Dutch Air Force has some but they can't be got out of the
stores. However, Guy found ten engines in dreadful condition so he went
to museums to swap these, plus a 'sweetener', for examples of
restorable ones. Again, unable to find a high enough quality contractor
all engine rebuilds are done in-house. R-R had made things difficult;
the Kestrel was complex and parts were not interchangeable. For example
the Daimler Benz engine in the Me109 has one third the number of parts
in the Merlin, of which the Kestrel is essentially a two thirds scale
version. Also, R-R destroyed all the drawings. Using specially made
tools it takes about three years to rebuild a flight-worthy Kestrel.
Even magnesium alloy supercharger impellers had to be made, special
sparking plugs had to be ordered from Lodge ( £30,000 minimum charge so
they have plenty at about £70 each!) and plug leads and braid specially
made.
A master at discovering
original parts, when on family holidays Guy searches out local scrap
yards. In Australia he found a crate full of sparking plugs and in
South Africa discovered another Nimrod I, a Nimrod II and a Fury
together with a Fiat CR42, a Miles Master and some Harvards; but the
Fiat and Master ended up down a mine shaft before he could save them.
There were no 'pilot's notes' or other flight data available for the
Nimrod I, so Guy took Viv Bellamy's advice, "Just go!". The first
flight on the aircraft, which had been restored by only fifteen men
aged 55 to 60, went well. From its Paddock Wood, Historic Aircraft
Collection, base it attends air shows throughout the year. Guy's Nimrod
II was completed in 2006 as reported in NL 16, Spring 2007.
Four Hinds had been found in Kabul, and the Afghan Government had given
them to the RAF Museum, the Shuttleworth Trust and the Canadian
National Aviation Museum who got two. They gave one as pay for
restoration of the Museum example. Guy offered the Canadian a set of
Fury components for the Hind and he agreed. Back in England the Hind
was found to be free of corrosion and was essentially complete except
for the engine and cowlings. Restoration of L7181, the serial number
found on a strut dated 29.7.37, is currently under way. Guy's Fury
should fly this year, 2009, after a six year restoration.
Retrotec use original parts if possible but otherwise strive to make
new parts using original material specifications by original methods,
tools and machines. Sometimes this is not possible as material
specifications have changed so modern equivalents are used. If not
available in original form tools and machines to the original designs
are recreated from photographs if there are no drawings. Modern health
and safety rules sometimes preclude using original materials, seat belt
webbing, for example, and fire walls which used to be
asbestos-aluminium sandwiches.
The vote of thanks was given by Duncan Simpson who quoted Sir Sydney
Camm as saying, "I love the 'art." How pleased he would have been to
see his beautiful biplanes being restored so meticulously.