PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Spitfire Mk 26 - real or not real?
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Old 16th Jan 2012, 05:54
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PPRuNe Pop
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I am surprised and disappointed that Carolyn Grace has seen fit to denigrate this project. I respect her and her husband Nick, who put together the Spitfire she flys. It is, of course, in many ways a replica itself although built from one that was real. If you make anything that has to be added is it then not a replica.

I have flown many replicas, including a Camel, Sopwith Pup, an Albatross, a DR1 (Fokker Triplane) and others, all built from scratch but with the SAME skills that Tommy Sopwith and the German designers employed in the first war. These aircraft were, therefore, like the originals and flew like them and some had a bite like them. It took some skill to fly them but I cannot say that my skills were any better, or worse, than those who flew them in wartime. What I do know is that they WERE just like the real thing - they were built like that and to be like that.

Carolyn has a point when she mentions flying a scale model Spitfire is different to a real Mk26, but that does not and should not be a reason to put it down. Indeed, it is that point where she lets herself down because it is not so different as to be worthy of her remark that these models should not be compared to the pilots who flew them and to the Spitfire itself. It is well known that some skills were short in flying her own Spitfire, but she can still claim and be proud that she carries on with Nick's dream.
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