Stinson HW-75.
Thanks Guys,
I knew you were good but I forgot how fast!! Here is the rest of the story!!
G-BCUM was imported, from France, by a guy at Shoreham and sold to the ??Famous Bend'em O'Brien who put it on its back in the scottish islands. He lived in Purley hence the appearance of it outside his house.
He obtained the second one from the same scource in Paris and after -BCUM was repaired I obtained the rest of the parts and registered it with an unused period registration that was to be used by a BOAC Liberator, but not taken up, G-AFYO.
I also did the test flight, on -BCUM, after the repairs, with Peter Elliott, since deceased. On the flight we were required to go to VNE, which I believe is 126?? Anyway the dive started fine with the usual slow increase in speed and just as we reached the magic number there was a monumental BANG!! Two very shaky aviators arrived back on Cobby's ramp at Biggin to be met by the local lad, Gary, asking what was wrong with these two not very brave aviators?
We explained about the bang and he just looked up and said you did a wonderful job on that fuel tank! The tank had been converted from one side to the other to give two tanks and in the welding process the top had dished in and our heros had pulled it out when the center of pressure moved aft and lifted it out!! The Stinson has no cover over the tank as it makes up part of the top of the wing.
Anyway thanks to all and I will now see where the serials match up with the newly discovered one in Canada.
Speedbird 48.