Field capacity to repair, overhall, reconstuct, and build airplanes in W.W.I.I.

"WaltBJ" wrote in message
om...
FWIW I just recently viewed a Hurricane and a Zeke 32 being
constructed from "scratch" plus a pile of badly corroded pieces to
copy. There wasn't anything I saw there that required much more that
could be made in a decently equipped 'job shop'. The two shops didn't
have any unique tools either. Just lathes, milling machines, shear,
brake, drill press, hand tools, a thousand Clecos and lots of
material. The Hurricane surprised me in that the formers for the
fuselage were partially constructed of plywood. The aft half looked
rather like a 1:1 scale model aircraft. No, I won't tell you where
they are - they don't have time to spare for a flood of visitors.

So how did they make the merlin engine, browning machine guns
and flight instrumentation ?

I've seen reconstructions of these aircraft taking place at Duxford.
Yes you can make the airframe by hand, of course it takes several
years and costs a LOT of money but without an engine its just
looks pretty.

Keith