Napier Sabre engines in New Zealand

[Dave Homewood]

There's a discussion going on at the FlyPast forum about surviving Napier Sabres.

I remember in the early 1990's the RNZAF Musuem used to have one on display in the main aircraft hall, but I don't recall seeing it on more recent trips.

James Kightly has put a photo on the FlyPast thread of one in Nelson, at the World of Wearable Art Museum, of all places.

Here's the museum's site
www.wowcars.co.nz/introduction.html

And here is the thread with the photo
forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1347985&posted=1#post1347985

Can anyone confirm, is this the same engine? Is it on loan from Wigram? Or are there two in New Zealand?

Does anyone know of others in this country?

[shorty]

Let me tell you the story of the Napier Sabre you were asking about. Richard Shuttleworth from nelson had a bunch of Kestrels (at least one of which he cut in half to try and make a V 6 out of it!) and he swapped a Kestrel for a Sabre from somewhere in the UK, rumour has it he thought the Sabre was a complete engine, not sectioned.
When the RNZAF was setting up the Historical Collection he loaned it to them. I was at Woodbourne at TCPC at the time (early 82) and was asked if I wanted to restore the engine which was a TTS.
With a bit of occaisional help from F/S Brian Selwyn I stripped it down and removed the surface corrosion, had the Elotroplating Bay re-chrome and re-nickel all the shiny bits and I repainted the rest. It was green originally but I was told to re do the exterior in the hammer glaze silver.
For one person it was quite a task, being such a large engine, but by August 82 I had it completed and ready for display.
It later went to the Museum at Wigram and apparently (from what I was told) Richard didn't like the way it was displayed and removed it to the Wearable Arts Centre at Nelson.
I was a bit suprised to see in the recent photo that the exhaust stubs and prop have been painted white, as you can see the stubs were nickled and the prop stubs polished and lacquered..
The three photos show it as received and following it's face lift.

[baz62]

I didn't realise you had done the engine Shorty. I used to look at that engine whenever I happened to pass by it when it was in 7 hangar and admire the work done to it. Nice job.

[Dave Homewood]

Brilliant Shorty, yes the state of it in your photos, minus the white paint, is how I recall it from the days at Wigram.

I had the great honour to talk with Richard Shuttleworth a few months back, as he'd flown Vildebeest and Hudsons with No. 2 (GR) Squadron in WWII. Sadly the interview was all too brief as he'd leant his logbook to someone and was going to get it back. He asked me to call him again in a few weeks, but then I was told by Roy West that Dick had died in the meantime. So I undoubtedly missed out on some great stories for the book. Roy said he was still restoring engines as recently as last year, well into his 90's.

So there has only ever been one Sabre in NZ then I guess. I'm pleased to discover the Sabre I saw belonged to Richard Shuttleworth DFC.

[JDK]

Jan 13, 2009 13:05:27 GMT 12 shorty said:

Let me tell you the story of the Napier Sabre you were asking about. Richard Shuttleworth from nelson had a bunch of Kestrels (at least one of which he cut in half to try and make a V 6 out of it!) and he swapped a Kestrel for a Sabre from somewhere in the UK, rumour has it he thought the Sabre was a complete engine, not sectioned.

Great job, Shorty. Yes, the white paint's bizarre to say the least. There's the half-Kestrel at WoW too.

[rebelp51d]

I was at the Wow Car Museum last week and a guy came up to the front desk in quite an excited state saying he'd just seen a Napier Sabre being loaded onto a truck out the back! I had seen it many times displayed there but it wasn't labelled or identified in any way, but my feelings were from the size of it it must have been a Sabre. Anyway it's on the move and from the discussion that ensued most likely to Kermit Weeks or another restoration in Canada? Does anyone have any more info possibly?

[shorty]

I wonder if it's going to the Typhoon rebuild to help sort out the engine installation?

[ZacYates]

Oct 21, 2021 10:31:27 GMT 12 shorty said:

I wonder if it's going to the Typhoon rebuild to help sort out the engine installation?

To the Canadian restoration or the UK restoration? I was about to say I'd be surprised if it was off to Kermit due to his being on hold but he's done stranger things.

[markrogers]

Yes, I saw the Napier Sabre inside the back entrance of the workshop at WOW. I was just walking out of the back part of the museum, last week or so, and saw it mounted inside a frame of some kind. At the time I didn't recognize it, but I do now. Also saw the half Kestrel and a full Kestrel complete with exhausts fitted, the same type as seen on the Hawker Hind. Also saw some kind of aero engine, of an American design, I think it was an experimental one.

[ex]

The sabre along with a lot of other engines (Merlin, Allison and some gas turbines) came back thru ERS in the late 80,s for a general tidy up for display in the Wigram museum.

[nuuumannn]

A few piccies taken a year or so ago.

DSC_1115

DSC_1116

DSC_1113

DSC_1114

There's a few of these half V-12 boat engines in the museum, dotted about the place.

DSC_1149

DSC_1157

[markrogers]

That second to last photo looks like a half Packard Merlin, with Mustang exhausts fitted. Didn't see that one at WOW. Don't know what that one in the last photo is.

[planecrazy]

Those Napier Sabres are just a crazy looking thing, awesome, ugly and beautiful
at the same time, be great too hear and see one run in the flesh.

[davidd]

Check out Youtube to find the 1944 RAF recognition film for the Tempest Mk. V. There are several versions of this film floating about, one very poor, the other considerably better, but both have reasonably good sound tracks, which seem to have been spliced onto the films. You cannot record the sound of in aircraft in flight from another aircraft, unless it is the same type - perhaps that is how they do it! Sort of cheating, and would only work if you flew side by side - can anyone enlighten us on this sort of trickery? Nevertheless the recordings certainly sound convincing, like racing car engines, which is not surprising as their maximum RPM was about 3,850 from memory. Incidentally, the recognition film people seem to have used at least two 486 Squadron aircraft as their "typical specimens" for the record, which is lucky for us out here in the Antipodes.

David D

[denysjones]

The last one looks like a cut down Kestrel to me.

Yonks ago I had contact with a Dick Shuttleworth up in Nelson and in his garage he showed me several variations on cut down Kestrels, as in differing multiples of cylinders, which he was busying himself on in his retirement. He'd be long dead now I'd imagine so the ones in that and the other photos may be his products.

[shorty]

When I was busy painting the Sabre I used blue to denote the coolant galleries. I wonder why someone went crazy with the white paint?

[Dave Homewood]

Yes Dick Shuttleworth is dead now, he passed away in 2008.

[ZacYates]

Oct 27, 2021 10:42:13 GMT 12 davidd said:

Check out Youtube to find the 1944 RAF recognition film for the Tempest Mk. V.(...) the recordings certainly sound convincing, like racing car engines, which is not surprising as their maximum RPM was about 3,850 from memory.

A big part of why I get excited about restoration projects like the Typhoons, Tempest V, Stuka and so on is that we have the chance to hear what they actually sounded like compared to the films and newsreel we have today.

[emron]

Oct 27, 2021 14:43:06 GMT 12 denysjones said:

The last one looks like a cut down Kestrel to me.

Yonks ago I had contact with a Dick Shuttleworth up in Nelson and in his garage he showed me several variations on cut down Kestrels, as in differing multiples of cylinders, which he was busying himself on in his retirement. He'd be long dead now I'd imagine so the ones in that and the other photos may be his products.

It’s difficult to work out how many Kestrels and Merlins he cut up or modified. Power boat Flak Too has been recently on display at the Classic Boat Museum, Lake Rotoiti, Nelson, along with the full length Kestrel. This is the configuration that the late Dave Shuttleworth (Dick’s nephew) owned and last raced it with.

The cut down Kestrel in the last photo is the heavily modified one that was used in Flak Too in the early 1960’s when it was raced by Dick’s son Jack. I think it was run as a V6 but I can see there’s four exhausts ports down this side. You might notice that the blower housing has been turned through 180 degrees and a downdraft carb. installed in place of the original. This engine was mounted forward of the driver's cockpit but with prop shaft to the rear, pusher style and angled so the crankshaft and gearbox were in line with the prop drive shaft.

[denysjones]

Thanks for that insight Ron.

The contact I had with Dick was his looking for some Merlin bits, I can't now recall what they were, but we had them and I delivered them to him as I was passing through Nelson. So I ended up having a bit of a tour of the workshop and just have an overview memory of it. Have better memory of the "that took longer than you said it would" response that greeted my eventual return to the car