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Technical drawings at archives
Hi Guys.
A friend of mine is involved in restoring old aircraft. Most of the times they have to make patterns and then only drawings to rebuild a part. Have any of you ever seen any section at the UK archives that may have any technical drawings?? In our archives in S Africa some may be found in our 31 Group section. I am sure there are MU's and assembly units that have files that can be found at eg Kew in England. Any ideas. Thx Stefaan |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi Stefaan
The National Archives at Kew is essentially a government archive i.e. mainly contains material created by the government and its ministries and agencies. As such it has very little material of the type you describe, although occasionally you’ll find an odd drawing attached to correspondence with the Air Ministry about, say, an aircraft modification. Surviving MU records tend to be just ORBs and aircraft output reports. Most drawings would have stayed with the aircraft’s manufacturers and indeed Westland, BAE at Brough and Adwest (Miles) still have (some of) them. Others have subsequently their way into Museums: The RAF Museum at Hendon holds drawings of some Gloster, Fairey, Bristol and Sopwith types together with some 50,000 Supermarine drawings which were due to be burned. Fortunately a Supermarine employee got in touch with the museum just in time. When Handley Page went to the wall a consortium including the RAF Museum and the IWM bought a lot of historical material from the receiver and I think the drawings went to the IWM. Other museums such as Brooklands, Solent Sky and, I’m sure, others also have some of this sort of material. I’m sure others know more, but hope this helps. Niall |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi Niall.
Thanks a mil for replying. My friend is involved in the Stirling Project, but he does not visit this forum. I do not know if any of the guys involved visits here. I am sitting in S Africa, so do not have access to any of the sites, but have been to Kew. Is there a chance that any of Short's drawings went to any of these museums you mentioned. It would be a grate help if any of our members can help these guys. Thx Stefaan |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
hello Stefaan,
gegroet, if you are looking for sterling drawings you might contact the sterling aircraft association in England,i don't have here with me the address but i can have a look for it maybe on the internet its also there. goedendag phil |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi Phil.
Thanks for your interest.They are in contact with the Stirling association. They get some gen from them but the detailed drawings are still a mystery. Thx Stefaan |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Stefaan,
there is also a New zealander on ebay who's selling a lot of technical german and allied books . what you can do is try to contact RAF museum at Hendon england. goedendag phil |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi Phil.
They have been to Hendon, and IWM etc. Will keep an eye on ebay. Thx Stefaan |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi,
Stefaan, some time ago I did a very basic list of some of the material that the National Archives hold on the Stirling for a research project which hasn't yet got under way. As said above, what you will find there are a lot of technical reports on the aircraft, its performance, technical developments (many failed ideas as well as those put into service). There will be a number of Short Brothers drawings to be spread throughout those files and would not be surprised to find perhaps 200+ drawings, but with only one or two in a file and no way of knowing what is there without going and looking in the files - and there are a lot of files. 200 drawings is going to be nowhere near enough to build a Stirling but, knowing the Stirling project fairly well, I would imagine there will be one or two in there that will be of use to them. It wouldn't surprise me to find they've already had a look around in the archives, but it is time consuming. At the moment I'm busy with flying boat research but if I ever make a start on the Stirling work then my intention is to create a list of any drawings found so the project can decide what might be of use to them. If anybody else wants to have a go before me, then they would have my support. Worth asking the project first so as not to duplicate work already done though AllanK |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Hi Allen.
Thanks for this. I have forwarded it to my friend who works on the project, and see if he knows about this. Is the 200+ the name for technical drawings??? Thanks Stefaan |
Re: Technical drawings at archives
Quote:
I'm due to meet some of the project members next weekend and will ask as well. They are doing good work. Allan |
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