Heinkel 115 the project has reached a new small milestone in that the center section has now been put in place in the "iron bed" that we have built. The purpose of the facility is for the center section to lie in it while work is being done on the wing and the float attachments.
We are now in the process of building and installing jigs that will help us fix them 8 wing the fasteners when these are to be re-mounted on the center section.
The Aviation History Museum Sola is currently an ongoing and large construction project here. In addition, a major regrouping of the aircraft that we have on display will be done in our old exhibition hall. The high level of activity leads to a great need for voluntary efforts from the museum's members. This also affects the amount of work we are able to do on the Heinkel He 115 project.
Nevertheless, Egil Thomsen managed to make a new pilot's seat during the autumn. When the aircraft was raised in 2012, much of the equipment needed to adjust the pilot's seat height was still intact. In addition, the reinforced plate behind and under the seat was in good condition. The pilot seat itself, with associated frame made of aluminum tubes, however, was completely gone.
Egil has reconstructed the tube frame and then made a new seat pan itself. This is bolted to the tube frame. The result has been very good. To be able to raise and lower the seating height, the seating arrangement was equipped with a separate hydraulic system. A hand pump was mounted on the side of the seat. The hydraulic pump and some of the valves that have been in the system are still in good condition. Egil is now working on finalizing and assembling this entire system. We are not yet ready to be able to reassemble the seat arrangement in the cockpit again. This will therefore be exhibited for a period in the museum's exhibition.
Throughout the winter, we will continue to work on reassembling equipment in the cockpit and Kanzel. This is equipment that we have previously taken out of the sections in order to preserve it
The center section has corrosion damage throughout 8 wing mounts with associated structure. The same applies to all four float mounts. In order to work with these injuries, the center section must be placed in a "crib". In addition to the "crib", we need jigs to ensure that we are able to reassemble the wing mounts in the correct position. The National Antiquities has given us financial support to be able to build a jig with an associated "crib". Work on building these is now well under way. We plan to be able to start work on repairing the corrosion damage to the center section during 2024.
The museum services in Rogaland by conservator Eirik Aarebrot have preserved the aircraft's starter batteries for us. These are two twelve volt acid batteries that we in 2012 found at the back of the tunnel in the center section. The batteries were behind 70 years on the fjord bed still in a usable condition. We have attached some of the content of the reports that Eirik made after the conservation was finished.
Conservation of batteries:
"The batteries had heavy deposits on the surface that resembled rust. There were also some holes and penetrations in the steel boxes. The battery terminals and lead contacts on top of the battery had some white deposits and corrosion. The top, which was made of pitch, had a number of cracks. All the acid meters, which is part of the corks, had broken off and fallen into the batteries.
The caps were removed and the batteries were rinsed out with warm water.
The steel cases were scraped clean of deposits using a scalpel. It turned out that the condition was much better than first thought. Large parts of the steel plate still had their fine original black surface. However, there were some minor holes which means that the batteries are leaking. These were sealed with Cosmoloid 80, which is a microcrystalline wax with a melting temperature of 80°C. The steel plates were preheated with a heat gun and melted wax was poured into the holes.
The battery poles with connection points were cleaned by knocking off the deposits with a small hammer. The battery cells were filled with Fluidfilm Liquid A, which is a thin lanolin oil.
The following materials have been used in connection with the conservation:
Cosmoloid H80 (Microcrystalline wax)
Fluidfilm Liquid A (Thin lanolin oil)
Loctite Repair Extreme ( Glue used on corks and acid meter tubes )»
It is time again for summer and holidays. There will still be some work on the cockpit section in the coming months. When the plane was raised, the pilot's seat was completely corroded. Fortunately, everything was suspended, brackets, armrests, much of the hydraulic system, as well as the reinforced plate still intact. This summer's project will be to make a new tubular frame for the seat.
This spring we spent time reassembling equipment that had previously been removed from the cockpit and nose sections. Much of this is smaller details such as contacts and switches that do not show up very well in the big picture. By late autumn, we expect to have finished this reassembly. We will then permanently reassemble the cockpit and nose sections. There will then still remain some large and continuous systems that must be fitted into these sections.
We have been on a trip to Hungary to visit two businesses there that may be relevant to help us with work on the center section.
We have been out on the fjord several times this winter and this spring to look for the parts that were left on the bottom of the fjord when the plane was raised. The search shows us that the parts are still down there. The challenge is to get divers with the right qualifications to retrieve the parts for us.
A finer copy of the seat that we will rebuild in aluminium. In the picture, the hood plate is not fitted.
We have been out several times looking for remaining parts on the bottom of the fjord.
Throughout the autumn and winter, we have spent a lot of time reviewing the center section. This is to get an overview of what corrosion damage is on the section. Much of the section is undamaged, but there is corrosion on and in areas around important load-bearing parts in the section. These are damages that need to be repaired. Typically, it is mostly on the wing- and float attachments with associated structures that require intervention. We have carefully documented the damage in the form of work descriptions and photos.
Repairing the damage will require a significant number of man hours. We are now considering several options for carrying out this work.
An alternative that we are considering, is to outsource the work to an external party. We have therefore resumed our previous contact with the International Aviation Museum Foundation. Their business was established in 1992 and the workshop is located in Hungary. Since we in May 2013 had the previous owner visit, the business is split in two with different owners. The business is, after having been involved in several German and Norwegian restoration projects, well acquainted with work on German WW II aircraft. They have previously done work for us, then at Arado 96 motor cowlinger.
20 On February we again had a visit from the International Aviation Museum Foundation. This time it was Laszlo Juhasz and Ferenc Foldes who visited to take a closer look at the center section. We plan to pay them a return visit soon when we have free time for such a trip.
We have now taken the cockpit section out of the exhibition and into the workshop. This is because we will be working inside the cockpit to prepare it to be connected to Kanzel . Before we can screw the sections together, there is still a lot of work remaining to install equipment in the cockpit. These are parts that have previously been taken out to be preserved. When the parts are back in place in the aircraft, we can screw the cockpit and Kanzel together as a unit. With cockpit and Kanzel mounted together as a unit, can we install some systems that are continuous from the front of the Kanzel and all the way to the back of the cockpit. The last part of the work to finish the nose will be to screw all the windows forward in the Kanzel back into place.
There are still some parts that have remained at the bottom of Hafrsfjord after the uplift. The most important parts for us are the glass dome at the front of the nose, as well as sliding the window over the navigator's seat. In January, we were out in the fjord with an ROV to mark the position of where the parts were located. Unfortunately, the visibility at the very bottom was very poor.. The search was then given up pending better visibility on the fjord bottom. The work on marking the parts will be taken up again as soon as the visibility conditions on the fjord bottom again make it possible to work down there with an ROV.
Efforts Heinkel He 115 has in the past year been affected by the need to complete other projects. This is both for reasons of space in the workshop, and of the need to be able to move things around before work on the museum's new building is started.
Nevertheless, continuous work has been ongoing at He 115. Work on preserving parts has continued in the same form as before.
We have now come so far in this work that we will now shift our focus from preserving components from the Kanzel and cockpit, to reassemble these parts in the aircraft. Initially, we will prioritize parts taken from Kanzel. As we now get more space around us in the workshop, we will also reassemble the Kanzel and cockpit sections.
When the aircraft was raised in 2012 was the big cassette, where in it was stored 5 PCS. M.G. 15 spectacle magazines, completely destroyed. Fortunately, we have photos of the remnants that were left of the cassette. We also have three black and white photos showing parts of this magazine. We have also benefited from an overview drawing which, among other things,. shows this cassette. After a lot of good thinking, as well as good craftsmanship, we now have a copy of such a cassette. This was built in the workshop and also consists of some remaining parts from the original cassette. It will now be fitted into the Kanzel.
Heinkel He 115 the project is approaching the time when it will need a fully renovated center section to move forward with the project. The center section is a large and complex structure. Fortunately, it has not sustained major damage after its stay on the fjord bed. Nevertheless, there is corrosion damage that must be repaired. There are also complicated joints where both steel and aluminum are riveted together. These must be opened both for cleaning and to prevent further corrosion.
The center section is the hub of the aircraft. All the aircraft's main parts are attached to this. Therefore, we must be sure that we do not have to dismantle this at a later stage to repair corrosion. We will now consider several solutions for who will, and where the work with the center section is to be, is performed. There are three main options here, either to do all the work, self, do the work yourself with the help of others, or outsourcing the work to an external commercial actor.
A lot of work has been done this winter to map out how the center section is built in detail. Furthermore, we have obtained a detailed overview of what needs to be done in terms of work on the section. The scope of work has been broken down into many different job packages with associated descriptions and photo documentation.
Before the museum's construction work starts, we have to cut out for access through the concrete walls in the hall where the center section is now stored. This is to be able to drive the center section out of the warehouse.
We have lately been working mostly on preparing to move the center section out of the concrete hall and into the workshop.. This is because we will start work on repairing local corrosion damage in the center section. These lesions are mainly localized to the areas within the wing, float and engine mounts. This will be a time consuming job. If we are lucky, we will not have to do other and more intrusive work on the center section. Ultrasound examinations, as IKM Inspection AS has done for, shows us that fortunately there is little corrosion on the most complicated parts of the support structure in the center section.
The center section will take up a lot of space inside the workshop. To free up this space, it has been a priority to work with the Caproni nose section. The latter has of course had some consequences for the progress of the work with He 115 cockpit and nose section. The first relocation of the center section inside the concrete hall has now been completed. The plan further now is to saw out a five meter wide opening in the west- the wall of the concrete hall. Through this we will then roll the center section. When the center section is out of the concrete hall, we must immediately close the opening in the brick wall. The process of sawing out the hole in the concrete, move out the center section and then close the hole in the concrete wall must happen in one and the same day. We plan to do this during the autumn.
When we raised the plane, we found in the Kanzel parts of a measuring instrument that we did not understand the use of. We understood that these were parts of a drift meter, but we were unsure how this had been mounted in the plane. The drift meter was then given a temporary preservation and then stored. On the starboard side at the front of the Kanzel there is a rectangular hatch. Behind this hatch we found the remains of a magnesium bracket and the remains of a cloth cuff. We did not understand what this hatch and bracket had been used for. In pictures by Heinkel 115 this hatch appears, with few exceptions, as closed.
Then we are lucky and are contacted by Marc Bressan who lives in Switzerland. Marc Bressan has a very solid knowledge of and experience with German aircraft instruments. He had restored and built up a complete drift meter himself. Marc offered us to share with us his extensive knowledge and documentation about He 115 Tribsgërete. He sent us a bunch of pictures that showed us what a complete system should look like and work.
The information we received from Marc showed us that we needed a lot to have a complete system for drift measurement.. Marc now offered to complete and donate to us parts he had left over from the restoration of his own Tribsgërete. With these parts we were now in possession of a complete system for drift measurement. The drift meter that we found in the plane in 2012 was only temporarily preserved and did not open up for interior cleaning and preservation. Marc opened this for us and did a thorough internal preservation of the meter for. This facility for measuring drift, will when these are mounted in the aircraft show these well again forward in the Kanzel. We owe Marc Bressan a very big thank you for the help the project has given.
This equipment, along with everything else we have found on board, shows that a very well-trained crew was needed for them to be able to operate and benefit from all the aircraft's systems.
The following pictures we have mainly received from Marc Bressan:
Since this summer, we have continued to work on preparing the Kanzel to be able to mount it again together with the cockpit section..
During this work, it has been necessary to open up a few records / rib joints. This is to clean these for ongoing corrosion. To secure the pipe structures against further internal corrosion, Owatrol has been injected here.
Much work has also been done to preserve and rebuild original instruments and other components such as switches and electrical components.. Many of these components are now back assembled in Kanzel.
During the time on the fjord bottom, the cable street for the pipe network was completely corroded away and a new similar cable street has therefore been made..
New three cassettes for storing light cartridges have also been made. Furthermore, a lot of work has been done to clean and rebuild MG 15 spectacle magazines.
We will soon be there where further work with the Kanzel will depend on this being installed together with the cockpit section. This is because there are several large systems that run through from the Kanzel and backwards through the cockpit.
In parallel with the work with Kanzel, work has been done to prepare the center section for NDT investigations of the supporting beams.. To provide access to be able to measure rear girders, the rear edge of the center section has been loosened from the main structure.
IKM Inspection AS gave us 11. October free of charge an ultrasound examination of the beams. Incredibly, these measurements showed insignificant variations in material thicknesses. This gives us good hope to be able to avoid making very large interventions in the center section. We are now working to prepare for during 2022 to lift the center section out of the concrete hall and into the workshop.
In this post, we will show some pictures of the parts that are now in place in the cockpit.
Behind everything that is now mounted in the cockpit is a lot of work that the pictures can not make visible. This applies to both work with electrical components, work with instruments, as well as work with photos and documentation.
In addition to the work on the cockpit and the Pulpit, we have also begun to prepare what we will have to do with the center section in the years to come..
It is a guiding principle that we should as far as possible utilize all the original parts that we found in the plane when it was raised in 2012. At the same time, we try as far as possible to make things work again.
We all wish you a good summer…
It has been since the summer 2020 been working on making a new instrument panel in the cockpit. Of the original panel, we only have a piece a few cm2 in size. This piece has nevertheless given us some information, among other things. what color the panel was when the plane crashed.
Luckily we found when the plane was lifted in 20212 all the original instruments that have been in the panel. It's in previous posts, on this page, accounted for the work of rebuilding these instruments. The condition of these was variable, but mainly there is still a very high degree of originality on the instruments that are now mounted in the pilot's instrument panel. The exceptions are radio bearing compass and fuel gauge that were not found in the aircraft in 2012.
