March 2011 Newsletter
AGT Newsletter, March 2011
In 2010 the education figures for the Trust were the best on record with over 6500 students from primary to post-graduate ages attending educational workshops and lectures in both visits and workshop environments. Once again the Trust has continued to develop links with educational establishments throughout the West Midlands and Nationally. The Engineering Diplomas have continued to be a big success and in Feb 2011 the Trust completed Engineering Diploma Level 3, Maintaining Engineering Systems and Products with Lutterworth College (Leicester), which has not been approached before.
Above Left: Students from Lutterworth College completing tasks on a wire locking rig.
Above Right: Chief Tech Nick Bowles supervising a rotor change.
The TCAT (Telford College of Arts & Technology) Engineering Apprentices that undertake a placement here at Shawbury every Friday are currently working alongside the AGT Model Wing. As part of their course the students are placed in a working environment for one day out of the week to learn new hand skills and gather an understanding about basic engineering principles. Frank Fletcher has been working hard with the students over recent months to teach them about construction techniques on model aircraft.
Horsa MK1 Replica Cockpit
Above: Cockpit built by Michael Lillistone
September 2005 to July 2010
Why I became involved in the Assault Glider Trust.
I first became aware of the Horsa Glider Project when my wife met Ray Conningham, the previous Chairman of The Assault Glider Trust on several courses they were both attending. They were both smokers so they often had to go outside to have a cigarette. On one of these occasions Ray described how he had set up the Assault Glider Trust (AGT) at RAF Shawbury to build a full size replica of the Horsa MK1 Glider so that future generations would remember the men of the WW11 Allied Airborne Forces. Ray invited my wife to RAF Shawbury to see the project and I accompanied her.
We were discussing the Horsa Project with friends in our village before we went to Shawbury and one of the ladies, Dianis, said that her father was a Horsa Glider pilot during the WW11. He was Staff Sgt. Bill Rowland of the Glider Pilot Regiment and piloted a Horsa on both Operations Market Garden and Varsity. On operation Market Garden he successfully landed, and took part in the fierce fighting in and around Oosterbeek and Arnhem for 9 days, with very limited food and drink rations. He eventually had to swim across the Rhine, under heavy enemy fire, to avoid capture by the Germans. On Operation Varsity his was the second Horsa to land. Unfortunately his co-pilot was killed as they approached the landing area and after half the port wing was shot off he brought the glider under control sufficiently to fly straight and level until a head-on crash was inevitable. Of the 32 people on board only 8 survived the crash including my friend’s father Bill Rowland who lost his right leg and right arm during the crash landing.
Because Dianis’ father was a Horsa Pilot, the AGT invited both her and her brother Bill to view the build of the replica Horsa. In discussion with one of the AGT volunteers, Godfrey Yardley, who served in the Oxf & Bucks, a Glider Regiment of the 6th Airborne Division, said he was part of the Operation Varsity and that his glider crash landed and only 8 survived. It turned out to their amazement that the volunteer, Godfrey was actually on the same glider as Dianis and Bill’s father was piloting.
Sometime later when my wife and I went to view the project, Ray Conningham invited me to become a volunteer. I accepted and felt that I was destined to become involved in the AGT out of respect for my friends father and the coincidence of an AGT volunteer being on his glider.
My task.
I joined the AGT in 2005 and was asked to build a Cockpit for the Silent Wings Museum. My first reaction was that I hadn’t a clue how to go about it. The last time I did any carpentry was at school over 50 plus years ago. However in my working life I was a Professional Mechanical Engineer, so I thought I was well qualified to attempt the task.
The AGT had a number of Horsa Drawings but in many cases the dimensions were illegible or it referred to Sheet 2 of the drawing which we didn’t have a copy of.
So with the help of Bryan Tomkinson and David Baker I commenced what appeared to be a very challenging task. It has taken me almost 5 years to get the cockpit to its almost finished condition working about 10 hours per week which adds up to a total of around 2400 hours.
Shipment to Lubbock.
I was hoping that to a lay person the cockpit would appear to be complete in time to ship it to Lubbock for your WW11 Airborne Veterans Annual Reunion in October 2010.
However due to other unforeseen commitments I have not been able to finish it and the main outstanding job is to fit the windscreens. I was about to do this when we were visited on the 11th June 2010 by John McCullough and Joe Hays both of whom are connected with the Silent Wings Museum. They stressed the importance of having the cockpit at Lubbock for the reunion on the 7th, 8th and 9th October and asked if it could be sent in its present condition.
This was agreed with Doug Flynn, the Chairman of the Silent Wings Foundation and several loose items will be shipped with it for completion by the Silent Wings Museum
Michael Lillistone
September 2010.
Our Aircraft
Horsa
Over the last few months fantastic progress has been made on the Horsa wing sections.
Over the last few months fantastic progress has been made on the Horsa wing sections. 
Above: The Port Container Bay is nearly completed. Once painting has been finished the Bay will be put on display next to the Horsa.
Above: The Starboard Container Bay will be completed once painting is complete on the Port Bay. 
Above and Below: The Port and Starboard wing sections have been covered in fabric and doped and will soon be ready for painting. 
Waco by Mike Horan
All the Waco team efforts during 2010 were concentrated on the wings. Julian has been working on a stub starboard wing about 0.6 metres (two feet) long which he will only be skinning on the upper surface. This will allow visitors to view into the underside and end to see the main and rear spar construction details. They will also be able to see how the end and first set of ribs are constructed and fitted.
Brian, Bob and myself have been working on the outer section of the port wing which is about 5 metres (17 feet) long. The spars were constructed during 2009 and then 2010 saw considerable progress on constructing and fitting ribs and applying about half of the plywood skin.
In late summer Ashley Letts joined the team and made a very competent start on constructing an aileron. This involves the most delicate work so far attempted as the ribs are built up using mainly 6mm square timber and even some of the stringers running the full 5 meters are only 6mm square (17 feet X 1/4"). Below: Stub wing. 
Dakota
The Dakota wingtip that was damaged a few years ago has finally been pieced back together due to the fine efforts of Instructional Officers Mr George Ewan and Mr Colin Case and Corporals Russ Anderson & Neil Ree from ACAM office, Mechanical Training Flight at RAF Cosford.
WO II Ed Gibson and CPO Mark Corcoran started the initial work on the wingtip and whilst they proceed with damage located on the leading edge of the starboard wing the ACAM Office completed work on the tip.
The Assault Glider Trust would like to say a special thanks to all the gentlemen at Cosford who helped put the tip back together and for the continued efforts of Ed and Mark who have donated much of their time to helping the Trust over recent years.
Model Wing Update by Frank Fletcher
2010 proved to be a comparatively quiet year for the Model Wing, in terms of show attendance and used as a year of consolidation. It was also a year of sad loss. Our original Horsa Glider, model LH291, some 17 years old, lost radio signal at Weston Part Model Show and was destroyed. This model was bequeathed to the Trust, by the family of Frank Hargraves, who owned the model at the time of his death in 2003. Frank was captured at Arnhem as a solder in the South Staffordshire Regiment and so it was a poignant memorial to him and all involved on that operation.
It is hoped to salvage some of the parts, to build a static exhibit, but at the time of writing, other work is a priority.
With the loss of our primary tug Dakota, it has not been easy to achieve the impact that I had originally planned for the Trust’s models to have at the shows. We have still to complete the two 1/8th scale Dakotas that, equipped with two 38cc petrol engines each, would have been more than capable of aerotowing our 20-22lb Horsa Gliders. These Dakotas are 12 feet span models and can weigh in at about 50lbs, thus requiring a CAA exemption certificate, before we can fly them at public model shows. Like the full size project, they are proving very time consuming.
All of the models have been built by very kind fellow aeromodellers, who have recognised the worth of the cause. Neil and Derek Whitfiled (1/9th scale Dakotas x 2); Rolf Banken (Horsa); Tony Corcombe (Albemarle); Fred Clarke (Waco); Kelvin Jones (1/11 scale Horsa); Chas Lloyd (Gipsy Moth); Stuart McFarlane (help on 1/8 scale Dakota); Keith Trevor (1/14th sacle and Roger Keatley (1/8 scale Dakota). We have also had considerable financial reductions for items from Whitchurch Models, so a big THANK YOU, to Martin Simmonds, the owner.
A lot of hard work, time and effort goes into the building and maintenance of the models, not to mention cost. We therefore try and minimise the financial burden of the upkeep, by trying to generate funds as we go from show to show. My wife Christine and daughter Tracy, other fellow model flyers’ wifes, Taresa Keatley and Lorraine McFarlane, help out to promote the cause, gaining donations, selling raffle tickets and generally tipping people upside down, to see what falls out of their pockets! This “ready cash” goes some way to off-setting the general day to day expenses and running costs.
I am a member of a Trade Union called Unite, which has made very generous donations to the Trust, in recognising the valuable work and historic value of the cause.
These donations also link in, with the latest sub-project, involving the “young apprentices”, who visit Shawbury every Friday from Telford College of Arts and Technology. These are a lively, but keen bunch of potential engineers, who have agreed to build a 1/9th scale model Dakota. We originally hoped to have this finished by Easter, but the weather before Christmas hindered their attendance and the freezing environment in 5 hangar, does not help wood working and gluing!!
None of these youngsters has ever built even a small flying model before, so this project is the proverbial “baptism of fire”! The fuselage is a one piece fibreglass affair and a group of four have been tasked with fitting this out. Two more groups are completing the centre and outer wing sections, including making a mould to make fibreglass cowlings. Three individuals are completing the rudder, elevators and tailplane. Steady, but significant progress is being made and a surplus of apprentices has meant that our crashed Albemarle can be rebuilt as a static exhibit. At the time of writing, the main section of fuselage is rejoined and after some structural reinforcement and cosmetic attention, we should soon see her back together and on her wheels.
A busy season of attending shows awaits at Teeside, Weston Park, East Kirkby, Cosford and Welshpool.
