Here is the first report on the rebuild of AK295 the Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk. We are very excited to be involved in the restoration of this historic aircraft and look forward to a successful test flight early to mid 2007.

Work this month has obviously centered on the unpacking, storing and assessment of the project. We have established a storage area in one of our containers where we have laid out the smaller parts on shelves so as to make it possible for us to better determine what is missing.

We have done a full inspection of the fuselage structure and identified all of the incomplete and unsatisfactory areas and a copy of this report is attached. We are progressively working thru this list and rectifying or completing the jobs as required.

We have carried out finishing work on a number of cast/machined components that were supplied in a raw unfinished state mostly for the cowling and engine mounts.

We have stripped down the original engine mount remains to liberate all the useable fitting and forgings. We have match drilled the main engine bearer beams by transferring the dimensions across from some original beams and have trial assembled the mount frame. We have attached the mount to the engine and fitted the complete assembly to the fuselage to enable us to complete drilling the main beams. There are a few attachment brackets that need to be fabricated and welded to the mount assembly and work is underway on those brackets.

We have begun the assembly of the horizontal and have fabricated the leading edge skins. We will begin to drill off the ribs next. We need to acquire a couple of machined components for the horizontal from Murray. There is also a section of extrusion we require to finish this job and we are expecting that to arrive from the US soon.

We separated all the wing, undercarriage and control system components contained in the wing and have boxed them up and shipped them to Murray. Before the parts left we fabricated a false wing center section/cockpit floor to enable us to work on fitting out the fuselage whilst waiting for the wing to be built.

This month we will complete a number of the unfinished jobs of the fuselage. Complete the engine bearer assembly and finalize our list of wants in time to give this to Simon when he visits in week 4.