SPRING 2018 JOURNAL OF THE SHUTTLEWORTH VETERAN AEROPLANE SOCIETY In this issue: De Dietrich to Brighton Captain AG Miller, RFC Win tickets for the Flying Proms 1 PROP-SWING SPRING 2018 Journal of the SVAS, the Friends of the Shuttleworth Collection REGISTERED CHARITY No. 800095 President: Princess Charlotte Croÿ (Twickel) Vice President: Ken Cox MBE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION Kevin Panter Paul Ferguson VICE CHAIRMAN: COMMITTEE MEMBERS Alan Reed Paul Ferguson SECRETARY: Edward Forrest James Michell Bill Grigg [email protected] Matthew Studdert-Kennedy Neil Thomas TREASURER: John Edser SVAS Contact Details: Answerphone: 01767 627909 MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Ron Panter & Rosie Hall Email: [email protected] Web: www.svasweb.org EDITORIAL PANEL Editor: Bill Grigg Shuttleworth Web Site Assistant Editor: Paul Ferguson www.shuttleworth.org PROP-SWING is printed by Character Press Limited, Unit 16 Woodside Industrial Park, Works Road, Letchworth Garden City, Herts, SG6 1LA, and published at the office of Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society, Old Warden Aerodrome, Biggleswade, SG18 9EP. We welcome letters and contributions for possible publication. These should preferably be typed. Shuttleworth-related subjects will be given priority. Prospective contributions, and also requests to reprint material from the journal, should be addressed to the Editor C/O Old Warden. PROP-SWING welcomes advertisements, which should be in pdf format. Rates on application for Whole, Half, Third or Quarter page. Discount for three or more identical consecutive insertions. Full page type height is 185mm; full type width is 120mm. Please contact the SVAS at the above address. PROP-SWING is published three times a year (Spring, Summer and Winter). Copy dates are 31st January, 31st May and 30th September. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Society. Front cover: Hawker Demon leading Hawker Nimrod MkII and Nimrod MkI Beth Braham 2 Editorial Bill Grigg e’re a bit light on aeroplane content for this issue but of course we can only print what’s submitted. I trust you’ll find something here to entertain Wyou and, as our Vehicle and Agricultural Sections have expanded greatly over the last few years what with the buses and all, we have a lot of hands-on SVAS volunteers involved in a great number of activities. In fact it has been suggested, in jest, that perhaps the ‘A’ in SVAS should be changed to ‘Allsorts’... Prompted by the hybrid Crossquiz in last Summer’s issue, SVAS member Dave Robinson has kindly compiled a ‘proper’ crossword for this issue. It’s aviation themed and we hope everyone will have a go at it. Apart from the pleasure of solving it there’s a very worthwhile prize as the first correct solution drawn from the hat on 8th May will win two tickets for this year’s Flying Proms on Saturday 18th August. Crossword and rules are on the back cover and we look forward to being inundated with entries. As a result of recent searches for anything on the web about the DLH catapult ships, subject of recent ‘Wonderings’, I discovered a book entitled ‘The Third Reich in Antarctica – The German Antarctic Expedition 1938-39’ by Cornelia Lüdecke and Colin Summerhayes which, among descriptions and results of the many scientific experiments undertaken by the expedition, includes the part played by the Schwabenland and its two Dornier ten ton Wals, D-ALOX Passat and D-AGAT Boreas without which the expedition could not have been successfully mounted. Whilst narrative specifically concerning the ship and aircraft doesn’t by any means feature as a major part of the book it was interesting to find out a bit more about the extent of discoveries made by the Germans, whose Antarctic territorial aspirations were curtailed by the imminent war. Incidentally, it also completely dispels the myths that the Nazis set up an Antarctic base in Neu-Schwabenland (named after the ship) that persisted after the war and, possibly, at one time CONTENTS contained a surviving Herr A Hitler! I also found a T shirt featuring the De Dietrich’s Progress 4 Schwabenland which, although SVAS & Collection News 11 I’m not T shirt shaped, I couldn’t resist. From the Tent 14 Lastly, on a personally sad note, Aero Workshops 18 economics dictate that this will be the last Vehicle Collection Report 23 Prop-Swing printed by Simon Feaver at Agricultural Activities 28 Character Press who has been our printer, Letters 30 under four different editors, since the Winter Do You Read Me 31 1992 issue. However, Simon will continue Anecdotes from a Guide 32 to help the editorial team compile the Wings over Stonehenge 33 magazine ready for printing. My thanks to C&S Pullman Cars 37 Simon and his wife Susan for helping us - Captain AG Miller, RFC 41 and sometimes pulling my chestnuts out of the fire - over many years. Prize Crossword Rear Cover 3 Marlene’s (the de Dietrich) Recent History Tim King hen I joined the Vehicle Section in 2011, Marlene was already in the workshop, on axle stands and with the body removed. A short time later I Wwas asked to rebuild the steering box - the steering shaft was bent and the brass outer sleeve had become detached from the casing. It also needed new thrust bearings. The rest of the box was usable and the rebuild went ahead. Then it was time to look at the transmission: on stripping it down we found there was a LOT of wear on shafts, bearings and gears; also two bronze thrust blocks were missing from the differential. The shaft journals were skimmed and new split bearings made to suit, installed and scraped true. New differential thrust blocks were made, installed and the gear meshing set. One gear, first/reverse, was replaced. The UJs on the drive shaft were in very poor condition so the bores were reamed and new pins made. On stripping the engine we discovered that all the crankshaft bearings were in a very sorry state so it was decided to do everything necessary to build a reliable engine. 4 The crankshaft was ground and new white metal bearings made, installed and line- bored to suit. All the camshaft bearings were made, installed and scraped true; the main crankshaft thrust bearing was also renewed. All of the above is perfectly straightforward and relatively simple, it just took time for parts to be made and assembly completed. A lot of thought and care is essential when working on these lovely old vehicles. The above work completed, we then discussed the possibility of re-instating the original low tension ignition system, so I agreed to look into it. This was not so straightforward or simple although it probably was in 1903. Luckily, we still had some of the original parts to give us an idea of the thinking back then. We had: a useable camshaft; 3 useable roller followers, 1 broken; 4 igniter bases; 4 badly burned fixed contacts; 2 badly burned moving contacts and 3 useable rocker arms (1 missing). We did not have: external actuators and LT magneto. Once we’d made the decision to reinstate the system info was sought on the internet and found for several different methods of LT operation. Then all the existing parts were laid out and examined for possible use. The contacts, fixed and moving, were condemned and I made new replacements. The cam follower and rocker arm were made and installed. Then one external actuator was designed, made and tried out. It proved to be too frail for the duty and soon broke so a Mk2 was designed and made which was much better and showed great promise. This, with a little tidying up, was the final version - four were made and installed and the timing set up. The LT magneto came from the collection of vintage vehicle enthusiast brothers, David and Toby Ward - we had an old, incomplete, single cylinder engine that they were keen to acquire so we did a swap. I selected two magnetos to try, one of which turned out to be exactly right, both dimensionally and electrically, for the engine. The other was returned with our grateful thanks. The chosen magneto is a four pole design and driven at camshaft speed. Because of this it is not possible to hand crank the engine fast enough to get an output so for starting we had to install a battery, induction coil and a change over switch. With the rebuild complete, it was time to see if the old lady would run. Yes, she would, but only on about two and a half cylinders! Several different induction coils were tried with no improvement so, finally, we bought a ‘proper’ induction coil, designed for LT ignition. While waiting for the coil we finalised the wiring and switch position and generally tidied everything up. With the new coil installed we tried again. Wow, what a difference, a full set of cylinders and she sounded great. We switched over to the magneto and she continued to run perfectly, to my great relief! I wasn’t certain that the timing of the mag and igniters was correct, but I must have got it right. Then, in late 2016, a first drive: gears were noisy, but that was expected and the brakes, not good but adequate - come on she’s an old car! I did manage to get into second gear, but that was enough. After that she was prepared for hibernation in the hangar and left to rest. Last year, she was brought out and checked over after which she was paraded 5 Unloading at cockcrow Debbie Land at all the flying days and proved to be easy to start, drive and, most important, to be reliable.