RESTORATION
(Photo from Harald Harnang)
Engine for our Norseman!
February 15th. 2007
Since last update, big things have happened in our project!
For some months now we have been the happy owners of a P&W R-1340. The engine was traded from our friends at the Aviodrome-Museum in Holland.
Already all the cylinders are disconnected from the block, preserved and the new finish is planned to be applied in the not so distant future. The cylinders will be completed before the dismantling of the rest of the engine. The last days of activity has seen the arrival of three new members for the engine team and we have now altogether four eager beavers working on this important part of the Norseman.
All the flooring, windows and luggage compartment are ready together with lots of smaller details.
Both pilot seats have received their upholstery and our specialist, Roy is well on his way on the first of the cabin seats. Our plans are to install a stretcher on the right side of the cabin to show to our museum visitors how this was done. We are still missing the aft seat but we have hopes to solve also this problem on our planned visit to Canada in the month of April.
Most of the covers in the nose of the
fuselage are repaired and ready for painting.
Photo: Jan-Arild Bøe, Roy Rusten and
Arvid Martinussen
February 20th 2006
The main instrument panel plus steering stick of LN-PAB.
The instrument panel is being restored by Jorgen Nordal BLHF.
January 31th 2006
Another steering stick for the Norseman, gifted by Per Lilleng,
Tromsø.
Jan A. Boe is making the R.H. side window frame for the cabin.
The instrument panel, almost ready.
John Skogoy, BLHF is busy restoring the L.H. side aft entrance
door.
Great progress
January
16th
2006
The
basis for what is being done today was laid down 2004.
Important, missing parts were found 2005. We have now collected
parts like floats, belly-tanks, cockpit details, instruments and
lots of other details for our project. The parts are found all
over the world.
We have for some time now been cooperating with the Aviodrome
Museum in Lelystad, Holland. Two visits to this museum have
enabled us to make drawings of the missing structure parts. We
now have made several of these parts like window frames, luggage
compartment, fuselage formers and lots of other details.
The rudder was traded from our friends from Østerdalen, down
south in Norway.
A donation from the Bodo Aviation Historical Society has enabled
us to purchase some of the missing parts from abroad. In
addition to “adopting” the project, members of the society is
working Tuesday evenings on a voluntary basis.
To show some progress, we have had two persons doing the
structures of the wings.
The original wooden parts were of a poor quality, useable only
as patterns for new parts. However, most of the steel fittings
inside the wings were reusable.
Ivan and Halvor have done sterling work on the construction of
the first wing in addition to making most of the details for the
second wing.
Still needed are lots of smaller parts for the project. Hopes
are great for new parts coming from Canada but we will have no
delays in the project because of missing parts.
Original parts from our airplane were recovered last summer
(2005) from their storage about 8 Km from the crash-site. At
present the finishing touches are done to the main instrument
panels, supplied from Canada.
A year from now we will be able to show great progress in our
project Norseman!
Fuselage of LN-PAB is being rebuilt
March 30th
2003
Finishing the necessary corrosion treatment
of the fuselage,
the damaged parts have been removed.
We now have completed the main construction in the fuselage and
the fuselage starts to look like a Norseman once more!
The tailplane is made out of wood. This part has been completely
rebuilt.
Other details to go into the fuselage are restored.
The pictures are showing a good progress in the restoring of
LN-PAB.
The collection of further details for the fuselage of the
Norseman
is to continue this summer.
The fuselage of LN-PAB
taken into the workshop
October
29th 2002
The
preparations for the rebuild of LN-PAB have just started.
Tuesday 29th we made space for the fuselage inside
the workshop. We now have a period of making pictures of all the
details still left inside the fuselage before starting the
process of dismantling. From the Sola Aviation Museum we have
got a parts catalog for the Norseman. This will help us a lot in
the preparations.
For
some of the details the process of restoring have already
started. The left hand side flaps is almost ready for covering
and work have started on the wing strut.
Parallel to this we will in the weeks to come have a period of
collecting as much as possible of original parts. Already a
surprisingly large numbers of parts have been found.
Norways
first Norseman on
civilian register recovered!
The
wreckage of the first Norseman on civilian register in Norway.
LN-PAB, S.no. 44-70546 was recovered from its resting place
inside the National Park of Anarjokka, North Norway the first
days of august. The recovery was done by a team from the
Norwegian Aviation Museum, Bodø and the wreckage was airlifted
by a Sea-King helicopter belonging to 330 Sqdn. Based at Banak
AFB.
The Norseman was first registered to the company Polarfly A/S
based in the town of Narvik, North Norway. Operating as many as
three Norsemans on floats in the northern regions of Norway
until 17.th of December 1948, the Polarfly company then merged
into Widerøe’s Flyveselskap. (Now Widerøes)
Thus also becoming one of the first Norsemans in use by this
company, it was formally registered to Widerøe’s july 8th.
1949.
Sustaining damage in a landing accident august 17th.
1950, at Fornebu, Oslo is part of the history. Repairs completed,
it was mostly operating in the northern part of Norway until
hitting the shoreline when landing at the lake of Gavnevann,
close to the border of Finland, September 3rd. 1952.
After the
crash, technicians from the Widerøe’s Flyveselskap removed
useful parts as floats, engine and instruments. The remains now
recovered had surprisingly little corrosion on components and
although the wooden ribs and stringers had rotted away, there is
a feel at the museum that together with spare parts already
collected, the wreckage will be a fine basis for a rebuild.
The
recovery of this particular aircraft, links up to another
project currently underway at Norsk Luftfartsmuseum. (The
rebuild of a Sääski biplane) One of the shareholders of Polarfly
A/S was the aviation pioneer Gidsken Jakobsen. (Her first airplane
was the Sääski.)
It is also
said that LN-PAB was on duty for the Norwegian Secret Service
when crashing at Gavnevann. So this Norseman is also truly a
warrior from the Cold War era!
Two more
Norsemans are currently on display inside museums in Norway, one
at Gardermoen near Oslo and one at Sola, Stavanger.
Facts:
Type: Norduyn Morseman Mk VI.
Serial: 44-70546.
C/N: 811
Built: 28.02.1945
Transferred EEurope: 29.03.1045.
Reg Polarfly A/S: LN-PAB -
17.07.1947.
Reg. Widerøe's Flyveselskap & Polarfly A/S: 08.07.1949.
Chrashed at Gavnevann: 03.09.1952.
Cancelled from register: 05.11.1953.
1947 Polarfly
Copyrights©Bengt Stangvik 2003
1948 From Polarfly -> wideroe
Copyrights©Bengt Stangvik 2003
1952 Wideroe
Copyrights©Bengt Stangvik 2003
Parts
for LN-PAB found
per 2002:
2
pilot seats: from
Øyvind Ellingsen, Oslo
P&W R-1340 A-1 engine,
Carburetor intake duct:
Thore Virik, Sandefjord
Rudder + details: Erling Revheim, Ulset
Engine Cowling,
Lower Firewall,
Cabin Flooring,
Propeller,
Both cabin entrance doors,
Both cockpit entance doors
Oil tank cover,
Air shield aft of engine,
+ details: Sola Aviation Museum.
A big thank you for all the valuable parts offered to us.
If you happen to have parts that will fit into the Norseman,
please let us know!