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Post by beagle on Aug 12, 2007 18:58:04 GMT 12
While watching the videos, I saw the part where Tim brought into the country a few broken up ME110's . What happened to these.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 12, 2007 19:24:21 GMT 12
One is now restored to static display standard and is in the in the Berlin Museum.
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Post by beagle on Aug 12, 2007 20:59:47 GMT 12
it was restored here or overseas
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 12, 2007 21:32:27 GMT 12
At Berlin I think, certainly not here. I think they got parts from two of the three wrecks the AFC had.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 12, 2007 21:41:12 GMT 12
Here's an old article from a newspaper in about 1994
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Post by skyhawkdon on Aug 14, 2007 15:23:24 GMT 12
I was fortunate to get a look at the collection of ME-110 and FW-190 wrecks at Wigram in the 1990's (I didn't have my camera with me unfortunately!). The FW-190's were particularly interesting, being dismantled but substantially complete. They had all suffered battle damage and forced landing damage. I think they had all been recovered from Russia by Tim Wallis and his associates. At that time they were actively restoring/rebuilding parts for the FW-190's, but not long after I visited the whole operation closed its doors and just disappeared. I later heard that the CIA were after the owner (but whether that was true I don't know). A shame as Wigram was the perfect place to set up a warbird restoration facility. I'm surprised no one else has tried.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 14, 2007 15:30:35 GMT 12
There was certainly some very dodgy things going on in that workshop if you believe the scuttlebuck surrounding it. I don't know the full details and it maybe just rumour but the word is the AFC was basically conned by the Yank who ran the business contracted to rebuild these aircraft. People say that a lot of the FW stuff was not genuine.
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Post by denysjones on Aug 16, 2007 19:55:29 GMT 12
Peter Aherns was certainly dodgy and was extradited to the US where if memory serves me correctly he was wanted in respect of insurance fraud over a hangar fire.
There was a disposal auction held on site and we at Ferrymead benefitted by Mike Nicholls gicing us a heap of new sheet metal that he got as part of a job lot he wanted. Everything else went here there and everywhere.
The whole operation was suspect as before it fell over we had a guy visit us at Ferrymead to have a look at aircraft as he was a car panel man and he'd just got a job there and admitted he had no real idea what he'd gotten into.
I reacll seeing the 110s and would have said they went from 75% to 55% to 35% complete but that's just based on a quick flick over something I have no hands on knowledge of.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 16, 2007 21:25:07 GMT 12
At least the Ferrymead collection benefitted in the end, that's good to hear.
I see Mike Nicholls' old P-40 has now flown at Ardmore too.
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