The Barracuda Project

[Renegadenemo]

Maybe a Ronseal wood stain chart is required Rob.

Never a truer word said in jest, or whatever the expression is...

[Mike Bull]

Personally, I think he's just taken to drinking the Ardrox. That's brown and sticky, just like his taste in 'tea'.

[rob565uk]

Personally, I think he's just taken to drinking the Ardrox. That's brown and sticky, just like his taste in 'tea'.

No, I am with Rob on the matter of milk in tea. The tea should only JUST be introduced to the milk, so to speak. Rob knows what I mean

[Mike Bull]

Personally, I think he's just taken to drinking the Ardrox. That's brown and sticky, just like his taste in 'tea'.

No, I am with Rob on the matter of milk in tea. The tea should only JUST be introduced to the milk, so to speak. Rob knows what I mean

Yeah, but you always bring those bloomin' 'orrible 500% proof Yorkshire tea bags, made from squeezed-out whippet and melted down flat caps!

[rob565uk]

Nah then, nowt wrong wi Yorkshire tea, tha knows

[JackTheGeordieLad]

I'm sorry Rob, I'm trying, I really am!

[bluebirdsback]

OK Jack we will say no more about it, Try using them nice tea bags Checkie Rob brings up, your in with half a chance then.

[DamienB]

Many years ago, in my museum days (but after Filching) I worked for a company that sourced warbirds for collectors to restore. I went to Syberia (no, I wasn't sent there) to look at a Ju87, which turned out to have landed vertically at about 400 mph, and we were flown out into 'no where land' in a Mil Mi2. That had wooden rotor blades, and that worried me no end!!! Apparently quite common (the blades, not being worried).

Yeah, plenty of wooden rotors out there. Wood and fabric. Wood and steel sandwiches with fabric or fibreglass covering, all sorts of mixes. So many people think rotors must be made of solid metal but you can imagine what the weight of them would be like!

[mtskull]

One thing I noticed in the photos of the Barra being craned out of the boggy pool where they found it is that it appeared to have wooden prop blades. That Merlin outside the Ruskin also has wooden prop blades. Was there a mass-producer of wooden blades in WWII?

If it is a Rotol prop then the blades are most likely to have been made of stuff called "Hydulignum" which is laminated wood which has been compressed to inrease its density and, presumably, its strength.
As well as saving scarce materials, Hydulignum blades actually performed better than aluminium in some applications.
There is bound to be a suitable prop lurking in a museum's stores somewhere I would have thought, but failing that, Hydulignum is still being manufactured......

[Mike Bull]

Of course, we'll need blades that can stand up to a ground running Merlin...