Corny title I know but that is what they are, the newly installed (dummy, but very realistic) guns in the rebuilt front turret of our MOTAT Short Sunderland WWII sub hunter and successful search and rescue legend.
The newly fitted turret is as close to perfection as is possible from the viewers perspective, and will become even more menacing when the turret rotation and gun elevation electrical systems are installed, which should be before Christmas. This will give our visitors yet another exciting opportunity to see some aspects of our aircraft in motion.
The enormous job of restoration and rebuild of the Sunderland front turret (which was once thought to have been lost forever) and its guns has progressed over the last few months with the aviation team, led by Steve Subritzky. The enthusiasm for the project has been so successful that a second turret rebuild is well underway, looking very close to final assembly when all of the restored and newly made parts are fitted.
The team behind this demanding project is divided into two groups with the mechanical structural side led by Ron Wilson, whose attention to detail is renowned in the aviation restoration world and well beyond the walls of MOTAT, and John Dykes designing and building, from scratch, new electrical complexities of the turret rotation and gun elevation driving mechanism.
- by Henry Swan