Hawker Typhoon Restoration
Donation protected
About the Company:
Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. is a Canadian corporation formed for the sole purpose of preserving the memory of Typhoon Pilots and crew through the airworthy rebuild of Hawker Typhoon JP843.
Typhoon JP843:
Hawker Typhoon JP843 was the fourth production batch of 600 aircraft built by Gloster Aircraft during 1943. Initially delivered to 197 Squadron 22 September 1943 with the early "car door" canopy, JP843 was later modified with the later bubble canopy and delivered to 609 Squadron June 8th 1944. During the chaotic days following the D-Day landings, she was flown by many pilots in 198 and 609 Squadrons on operations. On the 27 of July 1944 JP843 and 20 year old New Zealander Peter March Price were lost while conducting operations in support of the army near Tilly-la-Campagne. P/O Peter Price had just arrived at 609 Sqn in early June 1944, and had just 10 missions flown at the time of his death, he and his aircraft were later found 7km south east of the battle. Initially buried at the scene, he was later reinterred at Rainville 9Km north east of Caen.
Use of funding:
The funding goal will cover the costs for the remaining material and specialty services (machine shop, and heat treatment etc.) for the airframe rebuild of JP843. The facility, tooling, labor and certification are all available at no cost through the company founder, the amazing team of volunteers and current corporate sponsorship. Every penny of profit we raise goes directly to building JP843.
The Typhoon's systems (engine, propeller, landing gear etc.) are still being evaluated as technical information is sorted. These items are highly complex and will be very expensive, fundraising and corporate sponsorship is continuing to be sought as specific system components are engineered. Any funds remaining after airframe construction, or raised above our goal will go to these next steps.
With the funding requested, a complete airworthy airframe will be completed, minus serviceable engine, propeller and electric / hydraulic / pneumatic systems.
Project status:
Website: www.typhoonlegacy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hawkertyphoonjp843/
Cowling: under production, material on hand.
Monocoque fuselage sections: Engineering near completion, production imminent. Production material and jig construction material on hand.
Cockpit Structure: Near complete static, requires rebuild to airworthy condition.
Tail: Small parts in production, fin and rudder research underway. Material on hand.
Wing and flight controls: 3D geometry scanned, CAD design underway to reverse engineer missing component drawings.
Landing gear: Unserviceable main and tail gear on hand, main gear linkage missing. Source located for data, overhaul/repair required.
Napier Sabre: Damaged engine and most accessories on hand, extensive data available. Sourcing additional engines, components and researching reverse engineering possibilities.
Propeller: Recovered hub and blades on hand, hub assessment to be completed. Blades unserviceable, options being sought including use of a 4 blade propeller or new composite blades.
Hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical: Many components available; research ongoing.
Fuel and Oil: Some design data available, research ongoing.
Cooling System: Technical data available, production being evaluated.
Reference Material:
Several thousand component drawings, design standards and volumes of material and technical data have been collected for the aircraft, engine and systems; including a massive library of related maintenance manuals. A substantial amount of data representing well over a decade of research.
About the Typhoon:
The Hawker Typhoon is a single seat fighter-bomber built during the Second World War and flown by pilots from many nations including Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and many more. Typhoon pilots flew some of the most dangerous missions of the war, often low level, high speed attacks which left them very susceptible to ground fire. These attacks were carried out in an aircraft which was pushed into service as the only allied aircraft that could counter the speed of the German FW 190; as a result, losses were also suffered because of early technical problems. In the latter years of the war, the Typhoon played a major role in the D-Day landings and the ensuing Allied advance through, and liberation of Europe. During the four month Normandy campaign, 151 Typhoon pilots were killed, 36 captured, and 274 planes were lost to enemy action. Quickly replaced by more modern aircraft post-war, the Typhoons were almost completely scrapped. With only one original Typhoon (MN235 currently RAF Museum static display) remaining out of 3,317 built; our objective is to return Hawker Typhoon JP843 to the air and tell the story of the men who gave everything flying these amazing machines.
Who and Why: I (Ian Slater) founded Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. after acquiring enough parts and data to move forward with my plans of restoring a Typhoon; a goal I have been working on since my early teens.
Once founded, several highly skilled volunteers have come forward to offer their expertise to the success of the project. With a total of six primary team members, and many more casual specialists, we have experience and capabilities for engineering, CAD design, aircraft structures and engine and systems specialists.
We have also secured three corporate sponsors covering tooling, marketing, and a further aircraft maintenance facility with CNC routing capabilities.
About Me:
I discovered the Typhoon in 1991 when I was 12. I had been interested in Second World War aviation for a few years, but had never seen anything quite like the Typhoon. A brutish aircraft fitted with the largest engine available, and armed to the teeth.
At the time I worked at the Vancouver airport washing small planes. I committed myself to learning everything I could about the aircraft over the next few years, and became so interested that I devoted all efforts to the idea of a restoration. Understanding that the most significant costs for a project of this size would be labor (and with my fascination with Air Force history), I joined the Canadian Air Force and trained as an Aircraft Structures Technician (I was 18 at the time). All of my free time was spent studying the Typhoon, learning and developing metal shaping techniques, and building tooling and equipment that I knew would be needed for my future project.
As my knowledge and inventory of equipment grew, I knew the next limitation was licencing and certification. Without being able to complete the work and certify components, the project costs would skyrocket. I released from the military, challenged my license and began taking on larger structures projects.
In 2009, after becoming daunted by the enormous task of locating enough parts to complete a Typhoon, I located a significant volume of Hawker drawings. I was given a time limit to purchase them so immediately sold everything I could to raise funds. Luckily, (with little time to spare!) I succeeded, and was able to secure the drawings.
With limited surviving parts, and the reality of recovering a restorable Typhoon being very bleak, my next goal was to find enough identifiable remains of a Typhoon to justify building the aircraft.
At this time, Canada was in a recession and I was laid off from my civilian employment. With my military experience, and the conflict in Afghanistan, I re-enlisted and was quickly sent overseas to do my part. After 15 months deployed (9 month tour plus training), I returned home and began re-focusing on my next Typhoon goal; a facility big enough to do the work. I served an additional 3 years and used my extra pay from overseas to fund construction. To keep costs low, I did as much of the work as I could myself or by recruiting the help of friends.
Shortly after the building was complete I was able to purchase an extensive collection of parts which included a cockpit section and serialized components from Typhoon JP843.
From here the mission was a go! Despite the complexity and rareness of the aircraft and engine, I move forward with a full understanding of what I've gotten myself into. I am joined by an ever-increasing group of amazing, skilled volunteers who are giving their time and expertise to seeing this project succeed.
Believe it or not, my amazing wife and children fully support my Typhoon induced illness, and even give me a little extra push when need be.
Over almost 20 years, I’ve gathered many key parts, and volumes of important information. Within the last year, with the help of the volunteer team, we have significantly increased the information on hand, have completed important design work, and have started producing new components.
With this additional funding, we will be able to complete the second Hawker Typhoon airframe in the world, and pay tribute to the men who risked everything for the freedom that far too many take for granted today.
What happens to JP843 once complete?
Once complete, JP843 will be maintained and flown in remembrance to those who flew and maintained Typhoons during the war.
Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. and JP843 will not be sold, arrangements are being made to ensure that Typhoon JP843 will be donated to a museum upon cessation of Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. operations; with the understanding that she will be maintained and flown.
Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. is a Canadian corporation formed for the sole purpose of preserving the memory of Typhoon Pilots and crew through the airworthy rebuild of Hawker Typhoon JP843.
Typhoon JP843:
Hawker Typhoon JP843 was the fourth production batch of 600 aircraft built by Gloster Aircraft during 1943. Initially delivered to 197 Squadron 22 September 1943 with the early "car door" canopy, JP843 was later modified with the later bubble canopy and delivered to 609 Squadron June 8th 1944. During the chaotic days following the D-Day landings, she was flown by many pilots in 198 and 609 Squadrons on operations. On the 27 of July 1944 JP843 and 20 year old New Zealander Peter March Price were lost while conducting operations in support of the army near Tilly-la-Campagne. P/O Peter Price had just arrived at 609 Sqn in early June 1944, and had just 10 missions flown at the time of his death, he and his aircraft were later found 7km south east of the battle. Initially buried at the scene, he was later reinterred at Rainville 9Km north east of Caen.
Use of funding:
The funding goal will cover the costs for the remaining material and specialty services (machine shop, and heat treatment etc.) for the airframe rebuild of JP843. The facility, tooling, labor and certification are all available at no cost through the company founder, the amazing team of volunteers and current corporate sponsorship. Every penny of profit we raise goes directly to building JP843.
The Typhoon's systems (engine, propeller, landing gear etc.) are still being evaluated as technical information is sorted. These items are highly complex and will be very expensive, fundraising and corporate sponsorship is continuing to be sought as specific system components are engineered. Any funds remaining after airframe construction, or raised above our goal will go to these next steps.
With the funding requested, a complete airworthy airframe will be completed, minus serviceable engine, propeller and electric / hydraulic / pneumatic systems.
Project status:
Website: www.typhoonlegacy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hawkertyphoonjp843/
Cowling: under production, material on hand.
Monocoque fuselage sections: Engineering near completion, production imminent. Production material and jig construction material on hand.
Cockpit Structure: Near complete static, requires rebuild to airworthy condition.
Tail: Small parts in production, fin and rudder research underway. Material on hand.
Wing and flight controls: 3D geometry scanned, CAD design underway to reverse engineer missing component drawings.
Landing gear: Unserviceable main and tail gear on hand, main gear linkage missing. Source located for data, overhaul/repair required.
Napier Sabre: Damaged engine and most accessories on hand, extensive data available. Sourcing additional engines, components and researching reverse engineering possibilities.
Propeller: Recovered hub and blades on hand, hub assessment to be completed. Blades unserviceable, options being sought including use of a 4 blade propeller or new composite blades.
Hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical: Many components available; research ongoing.
Fuel and Oil: Some design data available, research ongoing.
Cooling System: Technical data available, production being evaluated.
Reference Material:
Several thousand component drawings, design standards and volumes of material and technical data have been collected for the aircraft, engine and systems; including a massive library of related maintenance manuals. A substantial amount of data representing well over a decade of research.
About the Typhoon:
The Hawker Typhoon is a single seat fighter-bomber built during the Second World War and flown by pilots from many nations including Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and many more. Typhoon pilots flew some of the most dangerous missions of the war, often low level, high speed attacks which left them very susceptible to ground fire. These attacks were carried out in an aircraft which was pushed into service as the only allied aircraft that could counter the speed of the German FW 190; as a result, losses were also suffered because of early technical problems. In the latter years of the war, the Typhoon played a major role in the D-Day landings and the ensuing Allied advance through, and liberation of Europe. During the four month Normandy campaign, 151 Typhoon pilots were killed, 36 captured, and 274 planes were lost to enemy action. Quickly replaced by more modern aircraft post-war, the Typhoons were almost completely scrapped. With only one original Typhoon (MN235 currently RAF Museum static display) remaining out of 3,317 built; our objective is to return Hawker Typhoon JP843 to the air and tell the story of the men who gave everything flying these amazing machines.
Who and Why: I (Ian Slater) founded Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. after acquiring enough parts and data to move forward with my plans of restoring a Typhoon; a goal I have been working on since my early teens.
Once founded, several highly skilled volunteers have come forward to offer their expertise to the success of the project. With a total of six primary team members, and many more casual specialists, we have experience and capabilities for engineering, CAD design, aircraft structures and engine and systems specialists.
We have also secured three corporate sponsors covering tooling, marketing, and a further aircraft maintenance facility with CNC routing capabilities.
About Me:
I discovered the Typhoon in 1991 when I was 12. I had been interested in Second World War aviation for a few years, but had never seen anything quite like the Typhoon. A brutish aircraft fitted with the largest engine available, and armed to the teeth.
At the time I worked at the Vancouver airport washing small planes. I committed myself to learning everything I could about the aircraft over the next few years, and became so interested that I devoted all efforts to the idea of a restoration. Understanding that the most significant costs for a project of this size would be labor (and with my fascination with Air Force history), I joined the Canadian Air Force and trained as an Aircraft Structures Technician (I was 18 at the time). All of my free time was spent studying the Typhoon, learning and developing metal shaping techniques, and building tooling and equipment that I knew would be needed for my future project.
As my knowledge and inventory of equipment grew, I knew the next limitation was licencing and certification. Without being able to complete the work and certify components, the project costs would skyrocket. I released from the military, challenged my license and began taking on larger structures projects.
In 2009, after becoming daunted by the enormous task of locating enough parts to complete a Typhoon, I located a significant volume of Hawker drawings. I was given a time limit to purchase them so immediately sold everything I could to raise funds. Luckily, (with little time to spare!) I succeeded, and was able to secure the drawings.
With limited surviving parts, and the reality of recovering a restorable Typhoon being very bleak, my next goal was to find enough identifiable remains of a Typhoon to justify building the aircraft.
At this time, Canada was in a recession and I was laid off from my civilian employment. With my military experience, and the conflict in Afghanistan, I re-enlisted and was quickly sent overseas to do my part. After 15 months deployed (9 month tour plus training), I returned home and began re-focusing on my next Typhoon goal; a facility big enough to do the work. I served an additional 3 years and used my extra pay from overseas to fund construction. To keep costs low, I did as much of the work as I could myself or by recruiting the help of friends.
Shortly after the building was complete I was able to purchase an extensive collection of parts which included a cockpit section and serialized components from Typhoon JP843.
From here the mission was a go! Despite the complexity and rareness of the aircraft and engine, I move forward with a full understanding of what I've gotten myself into. I am joined by an ever-increasing group of amazing, skilled volunteers who are giving their time and expertise to seeing this project succeed.
Believe it or not, my amazing wife and children fully support my Typhoon induced illness, and even give me a little extra push when need be.
Over almost 20 years, I’ve gathered many key parts, and volumes of important information. Within the last year, with the help of the volunteer team, we have significantly increased the information on hand, have completed important design work, and have started producing new components.
With this additional funding, we will be able to complete the second Hawker Typhoon airframe in the world, and pay tribute to the men who risked everything for the freedom that far too many take for granted today.
What happens to JP843 once complete?
Once complete, JP843 will be maintained and flown in remembrance to those who flew and maintained Typhoons during the war.
Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. and JP843 will not be sold, arrangements are being made to ensure that Typhoon JP843 will be donated to a museum upon cessation of Typhoon Legacy Co. Ltd. operations; with the understanding that she will be maintained and flown.
Organizer
Ian Slater
Organizer
Black Creek, BC