Top of the New Year to all our supporters and members at H57RC and BCMC and to those following the Halifax bomber rebuild and restoration.

One battle may not win a war, but when you string together the battles won, you will have Victory in the end.

So, while you were hanging out over Christmas and New Years, the Halifax Project scored another success with the rebuild of our first Halifax Hercules rare engine cowling, that little darling which is a 3 layered cowl – aluminium, inside and outside – and 4 foot steel ring in the middle. Held together by about 250 nuts and bolts and fasteners!

Years ago Tim Moore of Skysport Engineering saved 5 of these special cowlings for Halifaxes, laying in a Cheltenham scrapyard. He passed them on to us for the Halifax rebuild. I shipped across the first one from the UK and dived into its restoration, cold turkey, with some expert guidance from aircraft engineers on the Mosquito  RS700 project, Jack McWilliam and Dick Snider.

See the first 2 photos of the Hercules cowling in its ”raw” state with more rash and acne on it than an excited teenager.

Then de-assembled over the past 12 weeks, the Halifax cowling was carefully glass beaded to get the corrosion off it plus I took the original inner steel ring to Tuffer Metal Services and they were able to replicate it and donate their services, all for the Halifax rebuild. Thanks Mel.

THEN after assembling the cowling ring twice to practice the mysterious workings of all things British, with a few choice ”bless you’s”, camouflaged with vernacular phrases of colourful descriptions – plus the gathering of 200 plus 1/4 inch bolts, final assembly started just before Christmas.

BUT first, feast your eyes on our pet monster Hercules No. 2 engine in this 5 minute VIDEO, with a run down on our latest work and improvements on her in ignition timing, oil and fuel system improvements, and a new Bristol cowling ring, a black scarf you might say, fresh from the ”BCMC factory”.

Honourable mention must go out to Hugh Gilchrist, retired pro heavy duty mechanic now on our Hercules engine team, for it is he – named after his Uncle Hugh Gilchrist – RCAF pilot of RAF 44 Squadron who was KIA in 1944, who has done such good work on improvements and repairs on the Hercules engines.

See photo of Hercules No. 2 leaning on Hugh, for support.

Then see some close-ups of the cowling ring in situ.

Of course, this is the point at which ”rivet counters” will jump in and say, ”you know this is only 1 cowling ring and last time I looked there were 4 of these things on the front edge of the Halifax wing.”

This where I murmur under my breath “sweet nothings” for such a gifted comment  but graciously say out loud ”way ahead of you, 100 octane breath, we have 4 more cowling rings in the UK” – They are ready to come over to BCMC along with 1 porcupine tail pipe AND  3 heating inner-pipes – thanks Darren Speechley – that go inside the porcupine pipe, which can be copied to make the ones missing.

See NEXT photos of these trinkets you CANNOT buy at Canadian Tire or Tesco for a Halifax bomber.

ALSO, an exciting new Halifax recovery is possible if all the stars align and someone up there likes us, I hope to be able to make an announcement soon on the possibilities in the near future. You do not know the half of it, YET!

Remember, we need your support with your DONATIONS as we prepare for another year of discoveries and recoveries, stick with us — it will not be boring!

2023 Tax Receipts for all your DONATIONS are in the works as we speak and will be sent out by the end of this month of January.

So we press on, for all the Bomber Boys.

Freedom is not free, they paid for you!

WE LEAVE NO HALIFAX BEHIND

Cheers, KK