Spitfire Mk 26 - real or not real?
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Having followed this thread for some time I agree the Mk26 if a fake, as it was not designed by the original designer. The original prototype Spit was designed by Mitchel, who then died. All the production versions were modified aircraft done by a different designer. The only original Spit is the prototype; all the others are fakes designed by others.
Rod1
Rod1
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The mk25, mk26 and mk26b are aircraft in the image of original spitfires. They are not true replicas. I am guided by definitions of real & replica, as well as the curator of the Scottish Museum of Flight. They are never to be portrayed as "a genuine warbirds" at air shows or otherwise, but they have and will enthuse young & old alike, helping keep the memory alive.
As it says above, what colour is yours?!
Iain
I amused myself a couple of winters ago by creating a replica hurricane on paper. I set myself the target of 100% scale, modern technology and reliability, flyable on Hurricane pilots notes with only numbers changed.
If at some point I have 2 spare years and about £150k + money to live on, I might just do the detail design and build as well!
Until then, the Mk.26 is what's out there, and power to the collective elbows of the designers, builders and pilots.
G
If at some point I have 2 spare years and about £150k + money to live on, I might just do the detail design and build as well!
Until then, the Mk.26 is what's out there, and power to the collective elbows of the designers, builders and pilots.
G
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Blast from the Past ! (but Johnnie-Come-Lately has only just spotted this Thread - usual playground "Military Aviation">"Gaining an RAF Pilot's Brevet in WWII").
The B word (your #1),
Not on the real thing ! Did 75 hrs in summer '42 on Mks.I and II at OTU, sent to India (where there were no Spitfires then), went back in after war in '49, flew 300 hrs Mk.XVI (20 Sqn) and a few on XIVs and 22s.
The general rule was/is (on tail-draggers): wide track, good - narrow track, watch it !. The Harvard (which we'd nearly all come from) would do a graceful pirouette at the drop of a hat. But the Spit had beautiful manners (on ground and in air), never heard of anyone (inadvertently) ground-looping.
I think so. Her point is valid, maybe firmly expressed, but still good.
There have never been any full size Spitfire replicas AFAIK (what would you use to replace a Merlin ?), plenty of full sized plastic fakes as gate guardians, of course. And a variety of nice downsized flying models of Spits (wasn't there one a few years ago that used a Jaguar 5300 V-12 ?), but that's all they are, whether or no you can shoehorn a man into them (there wasn't much spare room in the real thing, come to think of it).
That leaves the Mk.IX(T). Apart from supplying the 20 (?) Mk.IXs for the conversion, the RAF (wisely) had nothing further to do with them. Any military pilot of wings standard could jump in a Spit and fly it away (as thousands of us did). ♫....Why was it born at all ?..♫
I think the buyers, Irish, Indian, Belgian (any more ?), who were rebuilding their Air Forces post war, saw them as a cheaper (sterling) altenative to the second-hand Harvards (needing dollars). They were buying bargain basement late model Spits anyway, these should be the ideal advanced trainer for them. The Grace Spitfire, is, of course, one of these hand-me-downs.
Except that it didn't work (note that the BBMF has chosen as a lead-in for their new boys, not one of these, but - a Harvard !)
Will have a good long read through this interesting Thread and put oar in from time to time, if I may, and if Moderator will have me.
Danny42C.
The B word (your #1),
...the narrow track undercarriage that was always a handful...
The general rule was/is (on tail-draggers): wide track, good - narrow track, watch it !. The Harvard (which we'd nearly all come from) would do a graceful pirouette at the drop of a hat. But the Spit had beautiful manners (on ground and in air), never heard of anyone (inadvertently) ground-looping.
...PS. yes, I know Mrs Grace lost her husband and she finished his Spitfire and now flies it in his memory. But does that excuse her opinion in the letter?...
There have never been any full size Spitfire replicas AFAIK (what would you use to replace a Merlin ?), plenty of full sized plastic fakes as gate guardians, of course. And a variety of nice downsized flying models of Spits (wasn't there one a few years ago that used a Jaguar 5300 V-12 ?), but that's all they are, whether or no you can shoehorn a man into them (there wasn't much spare room in the real thing, come to think of it).
That leaves the Mk.IX(T). Apart from supplying the 20 (?) Mk.IXs for the conversion, the RAF (wisely) had nothing further to do with them. Any military pilot of wings standard could jump in a Spit and fly it away (as thousands of us did). ♫....Why was it born at all ?..♫
I think the buyers, Irish, Indian, Belgian (any more ?), who were rebuilding their Air Forces post war, saw them as a cheaper (sterling) altenative to the second-hand Harvards (needing dollars). They were buying bargain basement late model Spits anyway, these should be the ideal advanced trainer for them. The Grace Spitfire, is, of course, one of these hand-me-downs.
Except that it didn't work (note that the BBMF has chosen as a lead-in for their new boys, not one of these, but - a Harvard !)
Will have a good long read through this interesting Thread and put oar in from time to time, if I may, and if Moderator will have me.
Danny42C.
There have never been any full size Spitfire replicas AFAIK (what would you use to replace a Merlin ?)
https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/ea...ear-in-oshkosh
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=1940K
And a subscale Vampire.
I had a flight in a T11 in 1968 at Shawbury when I was 21. Two years ago I had a few more flights while in NZ. Great fun - "Fly it like a 250kt motorglider!"
I wrote to a friend that the cockpit seemed more cramped than I remembered from my halcyon days.
He charitably suggested that perhaps I was flying a 7/8 scale Vampire!
Now designing a replica vampire would be a lot of fun, although I have no idea what engine you'd want to put in it.
There was the Sadler Vampire in the 1980s, but that can probably be improved upon!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadler_Vampire
G
There was the Sadler Vampire in the 1980s, but that can probably be improved upon!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadler_Vampire
G
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I think the Allison-powered Spitfire in Silvaire's post is the Jurca designed full scale replica. Looks great! Clive Du Cros' prototype Spitfire replica was also full scale.
A scale A-10 might be fun!
A scale A-10 might be fun!
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Silvaire1 (#148),
I'm glad to be proved wrong ! Looks fabulous; no reason it shouldn't handle like the real thing (which is just about the nicest aircraft which I ever flew). Never had a IX, but, as you know, the XVI which I knew best is just a IX powered by the General Motors' "Packard Merlin". Impossible to tell the difference unless you took the engine panels off.
Wish I'd had a uniform as smart as that when I was a Sgt-Pilot (and I had a pair of Morland "Glastonburies" just like that).
Danny.
I'm glad to be proved wrong ! Looks fabulous; no reason it shouldn't handle like the real thing (which is just about the nicest aircraft which I ever flew). Never had a IX, but, as you know, the XVI which I knew best is just a IX powered by the General Motors' "Packard Merlin". Impossible to tell the difference unless you took the engine panels off.
Wish I'd had a uniform as smart as that when I was a Sgt-Pilot (and I had a pair of Morland "Glastonburies" just like that).
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 12th Jul 2016 at 17:27. Reason: Addn.
Danny, glad you enjoyed the photo. I checked out the replica one evening before dusk on the flight line at a fly-in, and it's quite an accomplishment. You'd like it! The builder flies it all over the place and I think that's remarkable too.
My father was a Supermarine designer until 1957 and is still with us, sometimes telling his quite interesting stories of that time. Tonight it was about running across the runway at Eastleigh to get lunch at the canteen, at age 17 or something, and almost being run over by a plane on short final. Good stuff.
My father was a Supermarine designer until 1957 and is still with us, sometimes telling his quite interesting stories of that time. Tonight it was about running across the runway at Eastleigh to get lunch at the canteen, at age 17 or something, and almost being run over by a plane on short final. Good stuff.
Now designing a replica vampire would be a lot of fun, although I have no idea what engine you'd want to put in it.
With regards to Spitfire replicas, I saw this beautiful 7/10 scale Mk I at the Springbank airshow last year:
Apart from the tailwheel and the prop, if there was nothing nearby, you would be hard pressed to tell it from the real thing.
