I bought the drawings for Ian Bailey's Tempest in the early 90s and it's now finally time to start the project. The hardwares (cowl, canopy, wing fairings and static spinner) were bought when they still were made by Nexus, but today all of the items are made by Ian Bailey himself (Ian Bailey Scale Model Designs). I was lucky to inherit an aluminium and a static spinner and a canopy from Brian Borlands late Tempest. His model was almost in exact the same scale and was lost during the F4C World Championships in Switzerland in 2000.

I have been in contact with Ian Bailey and he gave me some good advice and tips to improve the model. My drawings were made 15 years ago..

When the model was designed the FAI weight limit was 5kg and IB used an OS 120FS in the prototype. His later models were fitted with Super Tigre 3000 (30ccm), weighed 7kg and flew much better!! The basic modification Ian made was to add full depth 3mm ply dihedral braces on the leading edge and main wing spar joints and also to the wing centre panel to spread the landing loads. These are not shown on my drawings but will be made. Ian actually test flew a Tempest built by a customer who had a Quadra 42 petrol fitted with an all up weight of 10kg. Ian said that it flew better than his at 7kg!!

The only complain about Ian Bailey's Tempest, when reading several Forums on the Internet, is the need for 2 lbs of lead in the nose. According to the drawings that is to say.

But Ian Bailey told me that on his models he has placed the RX, retract and on-board glow batteries on a metal plate above the engine and didn't have to add any nose weight to achieve the CG balance point. In fact, the planes were slightly nose heavy!! Ian said that the important issue is trying to keep the tail end light. On one model he actually used 1/32" (instead of 1/16") exclusively but didn't achieve any weight saving so most of the weight is not in the thickness of the balsa but in the covering and paint. My intention was to glass the Tempest, but possible I'll stick to the "old" tissue and dope. Time will tell!

I did some comparisons with Artur Bentley's 1/48-scale drawings and I think the models did OK. The faulty spinner diameter is noted on the drawings as Ian Bailey used a larger commercial spinner on the prototype. The fin with dorsal fin and rudder which is to long will probably get right as I'm thinking of using Brian Taylor's fin. Enlarged to the correct size of course! The lenght of the fuselage is probably harder to correct.

R-B (JN751)  

The model is going to be painted and marked as Roland Beamont's Tempest Mk. V, Series 1, R-B (JN751) with i/d strips, rank pennant and a yellow spinner. JN751 was one of the first Tempests in operational service. JN751 was built at Hawker's Langley factory and delivered to No. 20 MU at Aston Down 20th February 1944. Delivered to No.486 (NZ) Squadron initially, and subsequently received by No.3 Squadron on 16 March 1944, but was adopted by Wing Commander R. Beamont. Shortly before D-Day it was marked with invasion stripes (smarter than usual as they were factory applied.) Beamont made the first Tempest air claim while flying this aircraft over Rouen on D+2 and scored the majority of his 31 Diver claims in this aircraft. (JN751 was replaced by a new Series 2 Tempest in September 1944 as Beamont's personal aircraft.) On 1st September, following an engine failure on take-off, JN751 made a forced landing at Langley. Repaired 2nd September, Wing Commander Beamont collected the aircraft from Langley on 5th September and returned to Newchurch - this was his last flight in JN751.
Returned to No.20 MU on 3rd October 1944, it was delivered to No.287 Squadron at Hornchurch on anti aircraft co-operation duties. On 18th May 1945, whilst trying to avoid a fog bank JN751 crashed on the Isle of Sheppey, killing the pilot, Flight Sergeant P.C.A. Redstone.

Images & text:
Christer Landberg
Typhoon and Tempest Aces of World War 2 by Chris Thomas
Colour plate:
Graham Berry
This page was last updated 19 June 2011