The Stirling Project was awarded Charitable Status in August 1999 and is now registered as a Charitable Trust. As a consequence the treasurer has been able to reclaim several thousand pounds of tax relief from the Inland Revenue. Since the abolition of the £250 minimum donation for tax refund made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the last budget, all gift aid donations made by UK tax payers to the Project will now qualify for a 28% tax refund. This will greatly increase our funds.

Some years ago I had acquired a 0.303 Browning machine gun from the crash site of Stirling W7467. This gun is in remarkable condition despite surviving a crash and being buried for 40 years. I intend to use this gun for display in our FN5 Stirling gun turret, as it actually comes from a Stirling. For the restoration, we would eventually need two of these guns to complete the turret. During early 1999, I had been offered another Browning, again from a Stirling, which had crashed in Denmark. This aircraft had taken off from Marham and failed to return from a minelaying operation in the Baltic. The Stirling, a Mark I N6071 of 218 Sq., had crashed at Lyne, 30 km north of Ejsberg, Denmark on 18th May 1942. The aircraft was hit by flak and the crew baled out. During the descent one crewmember was killed and three others injured. The survivors became prisoners of war. This second Browning machine gun was to be generously donated to us by a Danish aviation group, ‘Danmarks Flyvehistoriske Selskab’. The gun had been removed from the wreck by local people at the farm where the Stirling had crashed and been hidden from the Germans. It had been kept at a Danish airforce base for safe keeping since the war but we were faced with the problem that the gun had not been de-activated in accordance with Home Office regulations. Our first attempt to get the gun back to the UK was by a Royal Navy ship in August 1999. After lengthy negotiations, arrangements were made via the British Embassy in Copenhagen and a date was set for collection of the weapon. However, the keyholder of the store where the gun was kept failed to appear at the right time, and the opportunity was lost. Some time later, a second attempt based on a planned Danish airforce flight to Coningsby last January met a similar fate because of “operational difficulties”. Finally, after much further frustration, a Danish airforce aircraft brought the Browning to RAF Shawbury on 10th April, nearly 60 years after Stirlings were last based there. Several weeks later the Browning was collected from Shawbury by a special arrangement with Manton Arms in Birmingham. There the necessary work was undertaken to render the gun permanently de-activated. It was then taken to the Birmingham proof house for its deactivation to be certified. I then drove to Birmingham to collect it and The Stirling Project now has its two Brownings, shown below, both in fine fettle.

The FN5 Fraser Nash front gun turret in our workshop is still under restoration. The photo below shows one of the gunner's two control handles, before and after considerable renovation.

Undercarriage Parts

The next photograph shows the enthusiasm for The Stirling Project has now spread across a pretty wide age spectrum! The two delightful daughters of Martin Smith, our Acquisition Officer, are expressing their approval over the acquisition of the lower fork brace of a Stirling main undercarriage. While on the subject of undercarriages, the Project also has a pair of Stirling tailwheel legs. Lou Brown was instrumental in acquiring the pair from a dealer in Cirencester. Both were fairly badly corroded and needed much energetic restoration work. Martin Smith has tackled one, while the Chairman has taken on the other. The lower photos show the leg parts before and after blast-cleaning.

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Cockpit Instrumentation

The photographs below show the considerable array of genuine period instruments assembled for eventual installation in the panel. They are arranged in front of a Mk XIV Bombsight Computer (top), computer with cover removed showing internals and our Acquistion Officer, Martin Smith with an array of Stirling cockpit and fuselage components. The whole assembly is the fruit of “trawls” through many aerojumbles. Lastly, our Secretary, Geoff Edwards acting as “delivery boy” with the Mk.XIV bombsight he has collected in his plane from an aerojumble.

Stirling Pilots Control Wheels

The Chairman has arranged for a pair of pilots control wheels to be cast in aluminium alloy and coated authentically in nylon. Experienced observers declare the finished articles (below) to be indistinguishable from originals.

Less glamorous than many of the above acquisitions, but probably no less important in the long run, a considerable stock of aircraft aluminium sheet has been acquired by the Project. Estimates put the total quantity in the vicinity of a half-ton in all. This was collected by road from the Bournemouth area by the ever-resourceful Giuseppe Lombardi and John Lathwell, shortly before Easter. It would be no surprise to learn that some of it has already been transformed into Stirling components.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother gave a reception at Clarence House on Wednesday the 23rd of February 2000 for sixty members of the Bomber Command Association. Among the sixty, our Patron, Lord Mackie of Benshie (left) and the Chairman were honoured guests, as was Charles Lofthouse, a new trustee of the Stirling Project Charity. Naturally, our representatives had the opportunity to acquaint Her Majesty with the Stirling Project.

Since our last newsletter we are pleased to welcome Sqn. Ldr. Charles Lofthouse O.B.E., D.F.C.(Ret’d), Mr. Bob Coles A.R.Ae.S. and Mr. Lou Brown onto our Committee as trustees.

Lou Brown started an engineering apprenticeship in August 1943 at Short Bros. Repair Organization, where his links with the Stirling were formed. He remained here until spring 1946, when he was transferred to the Main Seaplane Works situated at Rochester. He completed his apprenticeship in 1948 and moved on from Shorts to work on helicopters used in crop spraying by the firm of Pest Control, based in Cambridge. After a further two years, he moved to the de Havilland factory at Hatfield, where he worked on various aircraft including the Comet airliner and the DH 110, later to be named the Sea Vixen. In 1958, he took up the post of Lecturer at the then Hatfield Technical College, later to become the University of Hertfordshire. He retired from his teaching career in 1990, but carried on working as a part –time consultant to Copper Development Association for a further seven years.

Sqn. Ldr. Charles Lofthouse O.B.E., D.F.C.(Ret’d) entered the RAF and “took the oath” in June 1940. His first squadron service was on Wellingtons at Lossiemouth. He then converted to Stirlings in October 1941 and flew from Mildenhall and Lakenheath completing a successful tour. Later, while at 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit, Waterbeach, he led a desperate attempt to rescue the crew of a crashed bomber. He and two ACs repeatedly braved burning aviation fuel and exploding ammunition and fought for over an hour to bring out five crewmen. For this sustained act of gallantry, Charles was awarded the OBE (Mil); the ACs each received the BEM. His next posting was to No 7 Squadron (PFF) at Oakington where he converted to the Lancaster. Sadly, the good fortune that had followed him through the Stirling tour now departed: he was shot down over Berlin on the 23rd of August 1943 and spent the remaining 23 months of the war in the reviled Stalag Luft 3. His participation in the Stirling Project is greatly welcomed.

Bob Coles A.R.Ae.S. was born a short distance from Heston Aerodrome, and aeroplanes have featured in his life ever since. His fascination grew with every new variety of Allied and enemy aircraft that passed overhead during WW2. From early days as an aeromodeller, he progressed via school and a fascinating apprenticeship in the Experimental Department of Hawker Aircraft, to national service in the Army Air Corps. This turned out to be a good deal more fun than expected and even included a posting overseas: to 14 Flight, 656 Squadron, Paroi Camp, Seremban, Malaya. This posting ensured that at least one of Hawker's employees returned with “aircraft operational experience”. He returned to Hawkers, (now BAe. Systems) in 1961. It was at this time that Bob's work caught the eye of the great designer Sir Sidney Camm, who arranged for his eventual transfer, via extra studies and day-release work, to the Design Office. What Bob describes as his “forty-year passage” through Hawker/BAe, and especially the experience he gained during those years under the ever-watchful eye of Sir Sidney, has established Bob in the eyes of the CAA as a respected consultant. It underpins his current work on behalf of the Fighter Collection at Duxford. The Stirling Project is priviliged in being able to cite Bob in a consultative capacity as one of its new trustees.

The artist, Mr. Clive Kemp, has generously donated three splendid oil paintings of the Stirling to the Project. Two of these paintings have already been sold. If you are interested in purchasing the remaining painting, illustrated above, which measures roughly 24 x 20 ins at a cost of £300, please apply to the Treasurer.

Newark Air Museum Trustee Howard Heeley commented: “It is planned that a memorial in the form of a stone cairn will be built just outside the entrance to our new site and will be dedicated on Sunday 24th September 2000. As well as commemorating the personnel who served the base the memorial unveiling will coincide with the official opening of RAF Winthorpe in September 1940. The memorial will also feature part of a propeller hub of a Mk III Short Stirling EF186, from 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU), which was then based at RAF Winthorpe. The aircraft crashed out of control at Breeder Hills near Grantham, Lincs. on December 4th 1944, after entering cumulus nimbus cloud while practising recovery from unusual flight altitudes. The Stirling was carrying a crew of nine and there were no survivors. The propeller hub has been kindly donated for inclusion on the Memorial by The Stirling Project”.

This video produced by our chairman plots the career of the Stirling from 1941 to Arnhem. The video can be purchased from Brian Harris D.F.C. Dibdene, Shamley Green, Guildford, Surrey, GU5 0UA, England at a cost of £16.00 (overseas £19.00 by Air Mail).
Also available from Brian is the book STIRLING WINGS by Jonathan Falconer at a cost of £14.25 (overseas £20.00 by Air Mail)
Prices include postage and packing. Profits from the sales will go to the Stirling Project.

A stamp was issued recalling Stirling operations when used to drop weapons and ammunition to the Danish Resistance Movement. It also celebrated fifty years of Danish liberation in 1995. As far as we are aware, no other RAF bomber has ever appeared on a foreign stamp.

The Short Stirling was the Royal Air Force’s first operational four-engined bomber and in its day, was an advanced and formidable aeroplane. As far as is known, not a single example survives out of 2383 constructed and it appears that all manufacturers’ drawings have been destroyed. The Stirling Project was constituted under the Chairmanship of a former XV Squadron navigator with the immediate aim of preserving components and documentary evidence of this historic aircraft.

We are working towards the reconstruction of a Short Stirling, beginning with the front fuselage section for eventual display to the public. This is a very time consuming, complex affair and any help would be very much appreciated. As a charitable organisation, we rely on donations. We also need Stirling components, even those from crash sites, photos, original drawings and any other technical information, which you may have. Help from those with a good technical engineering background, such as ex-airframe fitters is needed. We also seek Draughtsmen for help with drawings. All these requests are vital for our goals.