Volunteers at Jet Age Museum are restoring the only original car door type Hawker Typhoon 1b cockpit in the World.

The Typhoon had only a short career with the RAF.   As such, it was fortunate that Martin, along with Peter Watts and Ron Murphy discovered the remains of the Typhoon among those of its successor, the Hawker Tempest, in Flowers scrapyard in Chippenham, Wiltshire, in the early 1990s.

Turning a mass of perforated tubing into a recognisable replica cockpit began in earnest in 1996 and continued at Staverton, Innsworth (with the Cotswold Aircraft Restoration Group) and Brockworth before arriving back at the current Jet Age Museum Conservation and Restoration Workshop in 2019.

Having been stripped down to the last nuts and bolts, the build on the current yellow wheeled jig began on 31 October 2014 and should hopefully be complete by 2030.  In 2022 however, the internal cockpit is complete with attention now turning to the crash pylon behind the pilot’s seat and the forward monocoque fuselage.  Other components to be added are the oil tank and cover, cockpit decking with windscreen, starboard entry door and top canopy section.  Parts of a Napier Sabre engine have also been dredged from the sea.