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The Spitfire

Hi Eric,
Next time the Lanc flies over our house, which is quite often during the season, I give her a wave on your behalf.
Regards Reg
 
If anyone's interested, one of the best books about the Spitfire is Spitfire - A Complete Fighting History by Alfred Price. This follows the development from beginning to end, and has a good deal of information about the workings and maintenance of the Spitfire.

Big Gee
 
Roverman, thanks, its hard to beleive it happened over 60 years ago, just shows both my age (nearly 82) and the age of the Lanc. It all seems so unreal now but i have an album of pics (albeit black and white) to know it all happened. Just realised i have gone of thread, this is about the Spitfire not the Lanc, my apologies. Eric
 
The Spit has been spoken of so much over the years but what about expanding the dialouge to other similar mks of the same era to compare perhaps. The P51 was a then state of the art fighter albeit only coming into service about half way through the war. This fighter plane could do what the spit and others could not ie., escort bombers to Germany and back in daylight...and punish the enemy fighters en-rout. The range of the Spit and more so the 109 maybe limited them to being possibly defensive weapons, or close support, wheras the P51 changed all of that. We never even consider the Russian Mks. and yet they had a fighter that was the equivalent more of the 109 by virtue of range...than the Spit. The Yak 3. A little faster than the Spit, had stunning manouverability below 15,000 feet. So good in fact that the German fliers were ordered not to combat Yak 3s below 15,000 feet. The 109 did not seem to advance much over time beyond the E. as far as I can see and the German engines seemed down on power compared to the allies equipment. It was not long into the war that the German fliers were operating outclassed aeroplanes and this was the case to the end of activities pretty much except for advances that came too late.
 
Peter is up on his planes more than myself but I am re posting this photo he too during the Severn Valley Railway forties week. Fingers crossed it goes on. Rupert Peter does a lot of reading up about these different planes and when one comes on tele he gives me the name right away and answers all the quiz questions on them. I remember once he said there is a little .......... and I thought he was swearing?. Jean.
 

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The gate at the Jaguar factory....
spit2.jpg

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What a great piece of history Froth in those gates. So good they've stayed in place all that time. The ones at Biggin Hill were removed, but a couple of years ago they put them back - don't know where they got the replacements from. But they'd have saved themselves a job if only they'd have left them alone! Viv.
 
At 9.10am this morning I knew that Spring had officially arrived when I heard the sound of a Merlin.not the Bird, but a Spitfire from nearby Conningsby. I was treated to a mini display for about 15 minutes whilst it was put through its paces over nearby fields at the rear of where I live.
Reg
 
There's something about that Merlin engine sound roverman, puts my hair on end. I'm looking forward to this year's "fix" when the vintage planes pass over us on the way to the Woodford Air Show.

I can honestly say I once sat in the cockpit of a Spitfire.
There was a display near the Hall of Memory and my Dad took me to have a look. I remember a V1 a Bofors Anti Aircraft gun (with its detachment operating it) and a Spitfire.
Somebody put me inside and I remember playing with a microphone that was hanging there and someone said "say "hello" !" When I did everyone laughed and I burst into tears.
If that was 1945, as I assume it was then I would've been four years old.
 
I never sat in a Spitfire (never had the opportunity) but I sat in the cockpit of a P51D Mustang at a flying display at Cleveland Lakeside Airport when we lived in the USA. Getting in was a doddle - to get out I had to have assistance! Being 6' 4" tall doesn't help. But it was a thrill which I'll always remember. I understand that the Spitfire is even more cramped than the Mustang - the pilots must've been contortionists.

Big Gee
 
I don't think that it is widely known,except for real aviation buffs, that Vickers were also developing another fighter, as a private venture, alongside the Spitfire, it was called the Venom, it had Eight machine guns and was powered by a radial 650 HP Bristol engine. It never went into service but was thought that it would have made a good aircraft carrier fighter. If anyone would like to know more "Google" Vickers Venom. Reg
 
There were quite a few single-seat fighters being developed pre-war, but most of them never really saw the light of day. By about 1938 the RAF was very concerned at the slow pace of development and manufacture, and actually started looking overseas for a possible front-line 'reserve' fighter alongside the Spitfire, Hurricane and Defiant. I believe they came quite close to ordering some Reggiano-Caproni Re2000 fighters from Italy, a very good-looking aircraft with a better performance than the Hurricane, not quite as good as the Spit. Apparently, like many Italian aircraft, it was a complex and complicated design and difficult to maintain, so it all fell through. Probably just as well. The Italians designed some great-looking high-performance fighters, but could never manufacture enough of them.

I wish I could be woken in the morning by the sound of a RR Merlin....you lucky wotsit you!

Big Gee
 
Just to let you know that at just after 2pm today I was treated to the sound of "SIX" Merlins together when the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight flew over our house and did a circuit.
Regards Reg
 
How fantastic Reg. That happened to us when we were at the caravan once. They were on their way to Shobden Airfield. Jean.
 
From what i heard they were not completed spitfires, but ones that had to be assembled in crates. Therefore it would seem likely that the parts might be in quite good condition
 
jennyann, its refresing that the local rbl are geting involved with trying to get a spit back to the castelbromwhich shadow factory. its a sham that one of these creates can be sent to brum and the spit rebuilt by the people of brum. kind reguards sidwho
 
re spitfire
good artical on midlands today, bbc1 looks like a group of people want to set up a spitfire museum in brum, could some one please contact the bbc and ask them to tell people sine the spitfire email post on this forum, kind reguards sidwho
 
I like this painting of Fitters Working on a Spitfire by Ray McGrath 1940. It's a very simplistic view of the job, but maybe it's hinting at how routine the work had become for these fitters. I notice everything about it seems to be stripped to the bare minimum. It's certainly doesn't portray the job as a particularly glamorous one. It seems to be more about a team of workers getting on with the important job they had to do, no fuss, no frills. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1351204102.514715.jpg
 
Last night I watched a TV program about Spitfires. My Dad worked at the Castle Bromwich Spitfire factory during WW2 so it was nice to see views of the factory and to listen to a few people still alive who worked there in the 1940's. I grabbed a couple of screenshots from the program.

Then from the 1940's.
then2.jpg


Now Jaguar's No4 Gate.
jagnow2.jpg
 
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