Wings Museum Hawker Siddeley Kestrel - Restoration Update

While the pandemic has obviously hampered the progress of many aircraft restoration projects around the world, the Wings Museum has still managed to push forwards with work on Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 XS694. As regular readers will remember, we first reported on this significant project near Balcombe in West Sussex, England several weeks ago. Aaron Simmons, the project lead, took the aircraft’s cockpit section back to his home, and he has been able to make good use of his time in refurbishing the long-neglected jump jet. There is significant damage to the cockpit skins and some of the interior framing, partly from the accident which ended the experimental jump-jet’s flying career, and partly due to vandals in subsequent years. In order to repair this damage, Simmons has had to strip the cockpit of all its components. He is close to completing this task, and has also been hard at work repairing/conserving some of the components too.

74906670 463856074260274 332291071251841024 n 1 — The process of restoring the cockpit requires removing pretty much everything inside it first. While it looks like the proverbial ‘rats nest’ in this shot, the wiring loom will eventually all go back in as outlined in the manuals. (photo via Wings Museum)

93794213 565693670743180 1376010433902673920 o — The emergency hood release mechanism removed for restoration. (image via Wings Museum)

94259646 566022250710322 8700847973480792064 o — Part of the damaged nose skin. You can just make out a faded decal noting “Emergency Hood Release Other Side”. (image via Wings Museum)

77352025 468424733803408 569334989242499072 n 1 — You can often find things written on aircraft components which date back to their original manufacture. Here you can see a note, pencilled in by one of the technicians, dating from January 31st, 1963! (photo via Wings Museum)

It has not been an easy task, mind you, as some of the steel components had seized in place, and were quite difficult to remove. One of the significant accomplishments so far has been the removal, disassembly and refurbishment of the rudder pedal assembly.

75323254 468424330470115 7296563829998092288 n 1 — The cockpit interior prior to stripping. The rudder pedal assembly is most prominent in this image, and one of the first things which Aaron Simmons tackled during the restoration. (photo via Wings Museum)

74407468 468424337136781 1314999774922932224 n 1 — A closeup of the rudder pedal assembly mounting mechanism prior to its removal from the cockpit. (photo via Wings Museum)

92344045 556450528334161 9204131609865879552 o — The rudder pedal assembly part way through the disassembly process. (image via Wings Museum)

92231845 556450545000826 6242604316125822976 o — Another view of the rudder pedal assembly looking down at the mounting point. (image via Wings Museum)

92392507 556450521667495 7172522369875968000 o — One of the rudder pedal boot assemblies following its removal from the main assembly. It is upside down in this image, and you can clearly see the master brake cylinder to the left. (image via Wings Museum)

92301995 556450561667491 3109901225357737984 o — One of the rudder pedal assembly sections as it comes apart. (image via Wings Museum)

92173027 556523168326897 1680059591217381376 o — Components from the rudder pedal assembly following cleaning. (image via Wings Museum)

92356784 556523178326896 7437746534663323648 o — More rudder pedal assembly components following cleaning. The two main rods in the center attach the pedals to the main hub assembly. (image via Wings Museum)

92400832 557263204919560 2857806719759679488 o — The rudder pedal mounting arms following their coating of primer paint. (image via Wings Museum)

92812068 558931664752714 6011071944982528000 o 1 — One of the rudder pedal mounting arms following its final paint. (image via Wings Museum)

93169905 559394931373054 8890310663218397184 o — The rudder pedal assembly coming back together again. (image via Wings Museum)

92550120 557263161586231 2415274077221552128 o — One of the rudder pedal boot holds, complete with 55 year old witness marks from where her pilots rested their feet. (image via Wings Museum)

92168403 556450551667492 29790477280608256 o — One of the rudder pedal foot rests. This will be left pretty much as-is, preserving the witness marks of her flying days. (image via Wings Museum)

93236392 558931621419385 2097464755223527424 o — One of the rudder pedal boot assemblies going back together following its restoration. Note that the boot assembly has merely been conserved, rather than restored. (image via Wings Museum)

93660012 560261664619714 8149818482746195968 o — The right hand boot assembly is now affixed to the rudder pedal group. (image via Wings Museum)

92843865 557263191586228 7078510384784605184 o — The stripped cockpit, with just the rudder pedal mounting assembly left to remove. (image via Wings Museum)

93358704 558931681419379 40394571145805824 o — The rudder pedal mounting assembly following its removal from the cockpit. (image via Wings Museum)

92953455 558931691419378 2668367995939586048 o — Another view of the rudder pedal mounting assembly following its removal from the cockpit. (image via Wings Museum)

93872755 562121111100436 737383191085580288 o — The rudder pedal assembly mount following corrosion blasting and repainting. Note how pitted the piece is, but with the corrosion now inhibited, it should be fine for reassembly. (image via Wings Museum)

93691576 562121154433765 3087537678539816960 o — The rudder pedal pinion assembly being prepped for painting. (image via Wings Museum)

94143601 564349284210952 7859335645355835392 o — . (image via Wings Museum)

93797104 560734701239077 2384613190458671104 o — The rudder pedal assembly is now fully restored and ready for re-attaching to the airframe. (image via Wings Museum)

Other items which Aaron has removed and restored include cockpit air conditioning ducting, along with its associated water extractor. This device would remove water vapor from the cockpit air to prevent it from condensing in sensitive areas and on cockpit glazing.

94270255 565693654076515 2539328817382555648 o — The cockpit during its disassembly. The perforated piping is part of the cockpit air conditioning system. (image via Wings Museum)

93823048 565693640743183 8510045932551667712 o — Another view showing some of the air conditioning piping in the cockpit . (image via Wings Museum)

94021978 564989190813628 6235857644058312704 o — The water condensor for the pilots breathing system as it looked following removal from the Kestrel’s cockpit. (image via Wings Museum)

94021977 564989230813624 1515638746953809920 o — Another view of the Water Extractor prior to its cleaning and restoration. (image via Wings Museum)

94138101 564989264146954 5356997173680537600 o — The component parts of the water extractor following its disassembly, but prior to cleaning. There was quite a bit of corrosion, which was removed. The parts were then coated in a corrosion inhibitor internally prior to system reassembly. (image via Wings Museum)

94088607 564989277480286 4691334202656817152 o — Another view of the water extractor’s component parts. (image via Wings Museum)

94030329 565108264135054 4321724319483822080 o — The water extractor following its restoration in Aaron Simmons’ workshop. (image via Wings Museum)

Some of the bearings attaching the elevator torque tube to the airframe had seized, making it difficult to remove the associated assemblies. Aaron Simmons had to grind down a 2″ wrench so it would fit the restricted space surrounding the torque tube attach point housing, allowing its removal. He carefully disassembled more of the various cable assemblies and bell-crank assemblies associated with throttle controls, trim and other key pilot input mechanisms. Some of these components will be set aside for later restoration, or until replacement can be acquired, but others will be addressed straight away.

94143799 566290317350182 4291439959618879488 o 1 — The cockpit interior with the wiring harnesses removed, and part way through the component tear down. (image via Wings Museum)

93207461 558931794752701 3190925525698740224 o — With some of the flooring removed, access to the control stick mounting (center left) is now exposed. You can see a fair bit of surface corrosion in the steel tubing for the elevator torque tube. The bearings for this section were also seized, and required a good deal of ingenuity and elbow greese to remove! (image via Wings Museum)

95090642 569380570374490 1524487466210295808 o — Part of the the control stick mount following its removal. (image via Wings Museum)

94267500 565693664076514 2499321635106979840 o — The bell crank and pulley’s attached to the elevator torque tube (the rusty steel rod running up from image center bottom). (image via Wings Museum)

94572706 566290360683511 7054318801101258752 o — One of the control line pulley assemblies associated with the elevator in the cockpit prior to its removal. Aaron Simmons placed the reflective tape on the cables to identify them for later re-installation once the restoration starts coming back together again. (image via Wings Museum)

94787165 566290374016843 7545766804698693632 o — One of the rudder/stabilizer control line pulleys from the cockpit displaying some damage from the accident that ended XS694’s flying career. (image via Wings Museum)

95411500 569380567041157 8504623373131710464 o — The seized bearing from the elevator torque tube mount. This had seized, and took a great deal of effort to remove. (image via Wings Museum)

95145672 569380580374489 4507332276073267200 o — A closeup showing one of the two elevator torque tube mounting points. Aaron Simmons had to grind down the sides of a 2″ wrench to create a specialized tool to fit the 11/64″ wide gap for removing the locking ring! You can just see the flat edge of the locking ring which Simmon’s modified wrench had to negotiate in this image. (image via Wings Museum)

95244399 569586067020607 4826589010639978496 o — One of the two elevator torque tube ends following its removal from the airframe. The mount (with its seized bearing) is on the left, while the torque tube shaft end is on the right. (image via Wings Museum)

95388811 569586127020601 4875147197923983360 o — The seized bearing, and its housing, which Aaron Simmons was able to remove from the elevator control torque tube assembly. (image via Wings Museum)

94878153 569586150353932 6361762449972002816 o — The elevator torque tube bearing following its separation from the mount. (image via Wings Museum)

95435430 569586087020605 5781990067429965824 o — The seized roller bearing from one end of the elevator torque tube following a little cleaning to reveal its part numbers. This piece needs replacing. (image via Wings Museum)

93152905 558931744752706 959036574807359488 o — An access hole in the cockpit floor roughly below where the left rudder pedal would sit. This allows access to one of the control linkages. You can just see it deep inside the hole. Aaron Simmons has already freed the locking plate restricting movement of the mounting bolt. (image via Wings Museum)

One interesting detail emerged when Aaron removed the plate covering a hole in the cockpit floor for allowing access to the aileron cable tension regulator. The plate happened to have the aircraft’s serial number stenciled on it; yet another interesting confirmation of the airframe’s identity.

93032709 562121174433763 7454800479701172224 o 1 — When Aaron Simmons removed the cover plate to the aileron cable tension regulator, which sits along the right side of the cockpit floor, he found that the aircraft’s serial number was stenciled on its reverse side. (photo via Wings Museum)

77414919 474113283234553 2105926682610237440 n 1 1 — The gutted interior of the Kestrel’s cockpit. You can see the access panel for the elevator cable tension regulator before its removal. It is on the cockpit floor half way up the right side, and is shaped like a slice of cheesecake. (photo via Wings Museum)

93491214 562121151100432 2478472549592203264 o — A close up of the aileron cable tension regulator. (image via Wings Museum)

93792431 562121124433768 6945845287462109184 o — A view of the aileron cable tension regulator as seen from below the cockpit floor. (image via Wings Museum)

94222159 566290310683516 3626382153782132736 o — . (image via Wings Museum)

94080186 565494634096417 4840504610189737984 o — The aileron cable tension regulator following its removal from the Kestrel’s cockpit. (image via Wings Museum)

94212805 565494624096418 2216380506885324800 o — The aileron cable tension regulator will have to wait for a special fixture to be built before it can be disassembled, as the warning sign indicates. This is due to the high tension in the springs which form part of its assembly. (image via Wings Museum)

The Wings Museum is constantly on the lookout for relevant replacement parts and documentary evidence of the Kestrel’s history, so please be sure to contact them HERE if you find anything you think they might need. A fascinating video recently emerged which was a public relations piece done about the Kestrel Evaluation Squadron back in 1965. It shows the aircraft undergoing testing with the airmen from the RAF, USAF and West German Luftwaffe. It makes for fascinating viewing. The aircraft with the number 4 on its nose is the subject aircraft in this article, XS694!