  
Anson Restoration Project
By
Colin Ainsworth, Project Leader
31 August 2006
During
the past month Phil Weedon, Mark Lapointe and Dustin Colwell, worked
on the Jacob's engine donated from the Shearwater Aviation Museum. This
particular engine came with a lot of items that were missing from our
aircraft engines. After removing and overhauling the starter, ignition
magneto and the distributor they were then installed on our Anson
engines.
 Mark
Lapointe installed the new exhaust clamps that had been manufactured by
the 14 Wing ACS workshop.
The
Shearwater engine is now being cleaned and refurbished for display in
the museums aircraft engine display area.
Ernie
Killen, Mike Dandurand, Peter Campagna, and Keith Brenson, worked on
installing the rest of outer skin on the port wing. After the lower wing
surface had been completed, the wing was then rotated and the covering
of the upper surface began.
Peter
Miller and Butch Fleury started the restoration work on the four fuel
tanks that will be installed in the wings. First the tanks had to
be cleaned and all the surface paint removed by bead blasting, after
this was completed the original electrical wiring was replaced, and
the tanks repainted. When
all this is finished the four tanks will be re-installed in the
wings for the first time in nearly sixty years.
Al
Sheppard and myself have just about finished cleaning and repainting the
aircraft instruments prior to them being re-installed in the aircraft
instrument panel.
This
month's "Anson Trivia' is taken from an article "Aircraft of
the BCATP" by Dan Bragg in "The Aerospace Museum Of
Calgary FlyPast Magazine #7.
A
strange feature of the Anson MK11 production story is the use of both US
and British standard parts (nuts, bolts etc.) on the same aircraft. The
RCAF decided, for whatever reason, the assemblies designed in Canada
would use US standards while those designed in Britain would retain
British standard. Obviously this situation created its share of problems
when a workman, searching for a nut, had to look for a small, barely
readable mark on one of the faces to see whether it was US or British
standard.
There
was no prototype of the Mark11 as it was built by more than one
manufacturer. For statistical reasons, it is generally conceded that
RCAF 7069, which flew on August 21 1941, was the prototype. However, the
first Mark 11 to actually get into the air was RCAF 7070 on August 14,
1941.
On
May 26 1943 the last of over 1830 Mark 11 Ansons were delivered.
The
Anson Mark 11 was widely used by the BCATP, particularly for Pilot
training at Service Flying Training Schools. However, on just about
every BCATP airdrome the Mark 11 was a familiar sight. It helped train
thousands of Navigators, Observers and Bombardiers and was used for
light transportation duties. In addition to being used in Canada, 50
Mark 11s saw service with the United States Army Air Force under the
designation "Federal AT-20" Serials 43-8181 to 8230)
Next month we will continue with more stories from "Aircraft Of The
BCATP" by Dan Bragg
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