THE SPITFIRE MEMORIAL TABLE IN SILVER

The Spitfire Table

The Design and Construction of my Spitfire Table: Huw Edwards-Jones in His Own Words

Just over two years ago I wrote a brief piece on Huw Edwards-Jones’ amazing Spitfire table. It’s one of the most incredible pieces of art/engineering/furniture I’ve ever seen. Since then the article has had the most hits of all the 650-odd posts I’ve written on this site since my entry into blogging more than 10 years ago.  It's also attracted a great deal of attention in the media including UK's Channel 4 production "Four Rooms". Given the level of interest in the table I thought a second, more detailed, article on its construction was warranted, so I interviewed Huw and here’s the story in his own words:

Conception to Completion

This is the story of my journey with the Spitfire table from its conception, to the excitement of putting the propeller blades into the hub and seeing the majesty and size of the assembled unit for the first time.The idea came to me about six years ago. I’ve always been interested in aviation (I’ve held a PPL since I was 18 years old) and WW2 military aircraft have held a particular fascination. I drafted up some technical drawings and used them to get some artist's impression sketches made by the renowned aviation artist, Geoff Nutkins (more about Geoff, below). Now, with the concept established, it was time to collect the necessary parts and start the build.

The Propeller Hub

I couldn't have built the table without having the ability to support the blades and glass accurately and parallel to the floor. 

I realised this could not be achieved unless I could get my hands on an original Spitfire propeller hub. Yet in all my time searching various potential sources for rare Spitfire parts for years, I never saw a hub for sale in any condition at all.  For awhile I thought this would be the undoing of the project, however fate was on my side.

While I was buying some other parts from an outfit up in the north of England, somebody at the firm said that there was a individual, Martin Phillips, restoring a Spitfire Mk IX down in sunny Devon and that he had a large collection of parts.

I duly contacted Martin and he was kind enough to let me come down to his farm-workshop to take measurements of the cowlings on his 90% restored Spitfire. While I was there I casually asked him if by any chance he had a spare prop hub and incredibly he said,  "Actually, I have a damaged one over there under that pile of parts".  Then, lo-and-behold, he dragged out a Mk IX hub off a Supermarine Seafire which he told me had crashed in 1943 while coming in on an approach in fog, to Fleet Air Arm station at Yeovil. The pilot had sadly lost his life in the accident.

I looked at this incredible piece of aviation history and realized it was exactly what I needed to make a start on the project. The hub had received a heavy front end impact: initially it appeared true and the engineered propeller port holes looked straight enough but eventually I had to take it to an engineering firm in Sussex to recut the unusual threads as they were a few thousandths of an inch out.

I will be forever grateful to Martin as in addition to the prop hub, he let me have a set of original exhaust stubs (two starboard and two port) -all for a very reasonable price. Luckily for me he liked the idea of the Spitfire table and was very generous with his help.

The Propeller Blades

Now I had the hub, the propeller blades were the next things to acquire. Like the hub, they were difficult to find and I spent a long time searching aviation websites without any success. Then suddenly I found and acquired  a blade on eBay. I got it for an great price although not having seen it 'in the flesh' I was quite anxious about its condition. When the package arrived I opened with trepidation and was delighted to find a fantastic blade with a lovely patina with no damage apart from some minor surface wear. The fellow who sold it to me told me his Grandfather had worked on Spitfires in WW2 and acquired it as a souvenir after the war. The blade had seen some operational service, so it had heritage. It had been in a shed in the garden for as many years as he could remember. I still consider this to be the finest of the four blades. 

I obtained the second blade from an eccentric engineer who had restored a Seafire and had it in his office. I think this is a rare Spitfire blade by the fact that it had "Experimental"  painted in a green circle near the base. It was in very good authentic condition and had many small dents on the leading edge deflector, so had been operational  -this was another fabulous and rare artifact.

I purchased the third blade from an antique shop in Portsmouth's Historic Docklands. I believe it had been a display item in a Royal Air Force Association club: it had a faded piece of flat oak crudely screwed into the base allowing it to stand  upright. This blade was in A1 condition but did not have the metal leading edge deflector plate so I suspect have been excess to requirements and had remained in stores at the end of WW2.

So now I had three blades and was looking for the last forth one.After leaving a want list at several Warbird restoration companies at Duxford,I got a phone call informing me that one of their clients had a couple of static blades that they might consider selling.

After some negotiations,I brought the prop blades, for what I considered a highish price, only to find that they were in both poor condition.I only utilised one of the blades for the Spitfire table ,restoring it to a good condition, the other as a spare.

I was also lucky to purchase ,namely The Diaphram,[a steel pressed panel that the front cowls lock onto, just behind the spinner cone],this from the same Guy so all in all everything worked out well.

So now I had all the blades, the Hub & Diaphragm.I should mention that the project would never have been completed without the kindness & Generosity of certain individuals, one Gentleman in particular who donated the very rare 12 castellated nuts for the Hub.

He wishes to remain anonymous & I absolutely indebted to this individual & a big thank you.[you know who you are Sir].

THE COWLINGS. PANEL MAKING & CONSTRUCTION OF THE NOSE

The next item to tackle was the nose cowlings.Obviously these parts for the entire nose section of the Spitfire were never going to be available & it was going to be necessary to fabricate these panels from scratch.

It was at this point that I decided to have the Spitfire memorial table, in Polished Silver,with the highly polished cowls protected with a special polishing compound, to stop any oxidisation to the Silver Aluminium.

There are only a few skilled wheelers capable of performing this task, but I was extremely lucky to have had them made for me on the English wheel by the best in the business, namely Simone Cunningham.

She & her Husband Bob, work on many of the Spitfire & other Warbird restoration projects ,including the Historic flight.

For cost-containment reasons, I did a lot of the rivet work myself, fitting the Fairy-catches & some Panel works. I also took it upon myself to do all the final fitting of the cowlings.

This was no mean feat as I had to make the rail structures for the panels.I had to heat and hand bend, tap& screw these rails together to match up to the internal curvature of the wheeled cowlings,I made these from 1 inch aluminium extrusion square rods, a real struggle with a month of blow torching & pipe bending, to fashion them to the exact internal profile needed all by eye.

I now had to acquire 4 exhaust stubs ,two starboard & two port.Martin Philips was kind enough to let me purchase these which were in A1 condition and original & correct for the MK 1X Spitfire.

THE FAIREY COWLING CATCHES

Fitting the cowls together had to be authentic.On Spitfires was facilitated by special locking catches, known as “Fairey catches”.I was able to buy 8 original ones from my contact Martin Philips,they all had their original numbers stamped into them and although they had a little wear,They were fitted to the cowls.However There was a short fall of 26 catches to complete the project.

I couldn’t find any more so I had the rest engineered from an engineering company in Shoreham,Sussex.

They made a beautiful job and the casings were turned from solid Aluminium billets,with a spring loaded plunger and tee catch.When they were finished they were identical to the originals.

The original catches were dome riveted & fitted into a compressed rebated circle on the Cowlings.In order to do this I had a special piece of circular tooling made to compress the rebate into the Cowlings, using a compression jig.

ROTATION OF THE TABLE TOP.

Now I had to make the decision as to keep the glass table top/ propeller,fixed ,or allow it to rotate.The work necessary to allow the whole top & propeller assembly to spin was complicated and time consuming, as well as being very expensive to do.In the end I decided I had gone this far and was not prepared to compromise,so I went ahead & started to design the series of bearings and machine parts as well as large bearings and machined plates that would enable the Glass,propeller blades and spinner cone to rotate & spin, with the addition of a locking bolt, that could be accessed via the Glycol inspection portal hatch on the front end of the upper nose cowl, so to lock the whole assembly when in use as a conference table.

These were large and over engineered parts as the combined weight of the low iron Plate glasses, the propeller blades and spinner & hub were considerable, all this also would have to come apart like a giant Meccano set and be maintenance free.

I then started searching for a large thrust bearing, which would support the whole assembly.I was incredibly lucky,while searching the internet,I found an advert offering a set of old bearing cages ,unused, in phosphor bronze[the rolls Royce of bearings].I phoned the Guy and asked if by any chance he had the cylindrical rollers with the cages, he said he would have a look,& low & behold he got back to me saying’ yes’, there seemed to be a large bag of them and he would through them in with the price.I couldn’t believe my luck, these were original Hoffman phosphor-bronze bearings of WW2 vintage and probably would have been fitted to a German fighter, they were still in their original grease proof paper when I received them and this bearing,enabled the whole propeller /Glass assembly when finished to rotate silently and without slowing down. Perfect!

I find it quite ironic that my Spitfire table now rotates on a Hoffman Thrust bearing that may have been fitted to an enemy aircraft, definitely a strange twist of fate.

CORE CONSTRUCTION : ASSEMBLING & DISASSEMBLING

Now I had to devise a way in which the table could be assembled & disassembled by one person and for all the components to be able to be carried through a standard doorway.I decided that inner core of the nose would be constructed from palet layers of 1 inch birch marine plywood stacked together & then sculpted to fit the inner space & with 6 long long steel rods running vertically, from base plate, through the ply core to bolt the bearing assembly onto at the top.Construction could then be pin pointed and built up from the base plate taking around 21/2 hours to finish.

I thought it might be a good idea to show how I decided to support the Plate Glass,on adjustable stainless steel & Aluminium outriggers all designed by me and bespoke made.These outriggers were sleeved in brass hollow cylinders, filed flush with the blades. surface, this allowing a small degree of movement for ease of fitting the Glass.

COMPLETION

It was a real thrill, when all the blades were fitted for the first time, into the original Propeller Hub, that had been re -machined with all the authentic castle nuts holding in the fake pitch bearings, which had been machined to the exact dimensions of the original bearings.

The Aluminium Cowls were highly polished in SILVER and micro finished with Mother’s polishing compound, this is a superb product and enabled me to remove all the micro scratches on the Aluminium,leaving a fantastic gunmetal SILVER finish as well as providing a protection against oxidation.The overall Patina is a Pewter/Gunmetal,SILVER and its really lovely.

It was at this point that I realised the awesome size and dignity of the completed Masterpiece.Each blade having arrived from an unknown place in past history, giving the whole piece a mysterious aura & all set in ones imagination.Could I be touching a blade that may have been engaged in mortal combat with a Focke wolf 190 over the D Day landing beaches in June 1944.

I was delighted with the Spitfire table and received a Certificate of Design for it from the Intellectual property office.

DISPLAYS & TV APPEARANCES

On completion The Spitfire table firstly featured on Channel 4’s Four Rooms.The four independent dealers were blown away, and all loved it, Describing it as a Masterpiece ,a piece of Genius and a dream come true for any Aviation nut.

It then was highlighted and displayed at the 150th Anniversary to Henry Royce,at the Dorchester hotel in Mayfair ,London.Guest speaker at the event,’ Quentin Willson’,described it as the most sensational piece of design work he had seen since the original launch of the E-Type Jaguar in 1961,Praise indeed,The event also featured a superb journal to which the Spitfire table had a double two page feature.

Other accolades were a front cover feature in the Spitfire society magazine and an amazing appraisal from its Chairman.

THE SPITFIRE TABLE, ITS PROVIDENCE FROM CONCEPTION TO ITS COMPLETION AND BEYOND

From the initial idea of the design, I realised that I had to get the concept down as an Artist immpression.

I discovered the Artist ‘Jeff Nutkins’ by chance, a brilliant Aviation Artist, who after me describing my idea of building the Spitfire table, agreed to do an initial artist impression for me in Pentals. He also had a WW2 museum in his back garden in Shoreham, a quaint little village in Kent. The museum was full of amazing WW2 aviation artefacts & memorabilia from personal digs and donations.He also with his contacts had special book signing days from latest biographies from The last of the FEW and even Luftwaffe aces.

TWO AMAZING CONTACTS.

It was at this time that I was given the contact address of Dr Gordon Mitchell, [R.J Mitchell’s only son].

I sent Gordon Mitchell a copy of my artist impression ,along with my drafted plans & summary of my intentions, to his home address to which he replied with two letters, I was honoured by his enthusiasm for my project and will always treasure his correspondence.I had no idea at the time that Gordon was at the late stages of Parkinson’s decease and after he went to the effort of travelling into his nearest village to post back a signed copy of his book ‘Schooldays to Spitfire’, he told me of his condition & of course I apologised profusely and that was the last time we made contact before his sad passing away a year later.

MEETING UP WITH A LEGEND. WING COMMANDER BOB DOE DFC,DSO & bar.

Bob Doe [that is to say WW2 ace fighter pilot,Wing Commander Bob Doe DFC,DSO & bar]. One day Jeff Nutkins phoned me to say that Bob would like to meet me about the Spitfire table. Bob called me & I was invited over to Bob’s house in Crowborough.

We spent the whole day chatting about his incredible experiences.He loved the idea of the table and wrote a note in a copy of his autobiography inside the front cover and gave it to me.On a second visit to see Bob at his home,Bob was adamant in any help he could give me with regard to the table, although he did add that he wasn’t sure if It was possible to build such a thing, saying to me, ’was I aware of the complexity of the construction’, I think Bob was also unaware of the rarity of the parts as I intended to build it as authentically as It was possible to do.

I intend to ask the person or organisation who eventually buy the Spitfire table if I can carve Bob’s full title and medals onto one of the blades,I suggested this to bob at the time and he was thrilled by the idea and gave me his written permission which I still have.

Sadely Bob passed on before I could show him the piece.To add that Bob was the third highest scoring Aces in the Battle of Britain with 15 & 3 shared. A great man & my honour to have shared my passion with him.

THE SPITFIRE TABLE FEATURES IN AUSPICIOUS PLACES

It was at this point that The Spitfire table featured at the celebration of craftsmanship at the long Gallery in Cheltenham,a yearly venue and showcase for the worlds top craftsman.

On 18th September 2015,The Spitfire table was set up in the VIP Marquee on the’ all important’ 75th anniversary of ‘THE HARDEST DAY’ at Biggin Hill.

This was a massive fly in ,of just about every airworthy Spitfire & Hurricane gathered together for the first time in such numbers,[an amazing specticle] ,and the largest flypast of Spitfires & Hurricanes since the end of WW2. This was the last time that the last of the’ FEW’ were gathered together to remember the life & death struggle on the 18th September 1940.

The Spitfire table took centre stage in the Marquee and a special celebratory cake was made where Squadron leader Tony Pickering & the last of the Few cut the cake on the Spitfire table. A true honour.

Also After this Auspicious event I was asked to display the Spitfire table at the Boultbee Brooks flight academy at Goodwood aerodrome, where they operate several two seater Mk1X Spitfires for flights .This Special event also featured Royal patronage with Prince Harry and many airworthy additional Spitfires that depended at Goodwood on the day,a fantastic day & spectacle, back in 2015.

I was very fortunate in meeting the late, Mary Ellis, an ATA pilot from WW2, having in her time flown just about every type of aircraft coming of the factory lines.

She was 98 years old at the time and was as’ sharp as a blade’ ,we had a cup of tea on the Spitfire table and a long chat.She was a lovely woman of immense integrity and I felt I was very fortunate to have met her.Sadly Mary Ellis passed away at the incredible age of 101 not before taking a flight in a Spitfire with Matt Jones, who runs the Boultbee Brooks Academy.I asked him about this and he told me she flew it like a pro at the age of 100, truly amazing.

FINAL INCLUSIONS

On Recommendation from Dame Mary Richardson on behalf of the Spitfire heritage trust, The Spitfire table was pitched to the Speaker of the House of commons as to be featured as an exhibit in the House of commons.

Unfortunately although they in theory they would have loved to have had it it was just too big .

A letter back fromSir Paul Beresford ,Administration for possible display at the House of commons from the Parliament/uk committee

BOOK & MAGAZINE FEATURES

The 150th Anniversary to Henry Royce. Journal/ Rolls Royce collectors

The Antique collector.

House & Garden

The Rolls Royce magazine. ‘AZURE’

Sussex life.

EXHIBITIONS.

Olympia, London, Fine Art & Antiques Exhibition

The Hardest Day [VIP Marquee]. 18th September 2015 Biggin Hill. THE HARDEST DAY 18th September 1940

Friday Night is Music Night, BBC live broadcast @ the Rizon Jet Hanger Biggin Hill [75th anniversary]

The Boultbeeflightacademy , 75 th anniversary of the Battle of Britain ,Goodwood.2015

Exhibition of Excellence, The Long Gallery Cheltenham

TV APPEARANCE

Heirlooms, hosted by John Bly from the BBC, Antiques Roadshow, top antique furniture expert

Channel 4 FOUR ROOMS

PLEASE CONTACT HUGH FOR PRICE

hejdesignermaker@btinternet.com