May 2018 FLYPAST 109Typhoon combat veteran on the
planet. The only other surviving
example is the RAF Museum’s Mk.Ib
MN235, which is currently on loan
to the Canada Aviation and Space
Museum, and did not see action.
Because RB396 will be owned and
operated by a charity, it can never
be sold into a private collection and
will be in the public eye as much
as possible, an aspect the HTPG is
keen to emphasise as it continues
to raise funds for the rebuild.
The two men behind the
group – Dave Robinson and Sam
Worthington-Leese – are also
planning to create a bespoke
Heritage Centre to house the
aircraft. They have already
established a successful
supporters’ club, and host frequent
open days at Uckfield which
anyone can attend (see page 111).
For 31-year-old Sam,
the project
has particular resonance. His
grandfather, Roy Worthington,
flew Typhoons with 184 Squadron.
Flying from Westhampnett (now
Goodwood, where Sam works as
an instructor for Ultimate High
and the Aero Club), Roy was shot
down over the Netherlands on May
21, 1944, and became a prisoner
of war. Researching his relative’s
career, Sam discovered that many
parts of Roy’s Typhoon – MN252 –
survived the war.
His work in collecting some of
these brought him into contact
with Dave, who had recently
acquired RB396’s fuselage
from the Dutch Aerial Warfare
Museum (Luchtoorlogmuseum)
at Fort Veldhuis. The notion that
a Typhoon might be rebuilt to fly
was sparked when thousands ofhard-to-find original drawings
were also obtained.
“I got talking to Dave in 2013
and we formed the charity in
May 2016,” recalls Sam. “The
time till then had been spent
raising money, starting up our
supporters’ club and producing
merchandise, and looking for
more parts. We got in touch with
Frank Johnson, having seen a
newspaper picture of him holding
a model of RB396. It turned out he
had flown a lot of missions in our
aircraft, and in fact this particular
fighter was regarded as being
‘his’. There were no pictures of the
aircraft, so Frank was very helpful
in describing some of the detail.
For example, he had the name of
his wife, Sheila, painted on the
nose, which we hadn’t known
about until that point. Frank sadly
died last year so he never
got to see the project,
but his help has been
invaluable.”
Sam
showed
FlyPast
someparts recovered from the cockpit of
his grandfather’s Typhoon. These
will be restored and incorporated
into the RB396 project. What
makes this particularly poignant
is that Sam is likely to be the first
man to fly the restored Hawker,
taking off from Goodwood using
some of the same controls once
handled by Roy.
“There’s a kind of long-term,
full circle plan here,” considers
Sam. “We’ll install these parts into
RB396, and I will then fly it from
Goodwood on the anniversary of
my grandfather’s last flight from
there.”
This plan will of course depend
on Sam ‘qualifying’ to fly the
Typhoon, something that nobody
has attempted to do for many
decades. He’s well aware of the
enormous responsibility this
entails, and that there are no
two-seat conversion trainers in
existence. However, as a former
RAF man with warbird experience,
and one of the key figures behind
the project, he is clearly the ideal
choice to make this historic first
flight.The project’s original Napier Sabre IIa engine.
HPTG