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-   -   Spitfire Mk 26 - real or not real? (https://www.pprune.org/private-flying/474386-spitfire-mk-26-real-not-real.html)

F1-69 3rd Nov 2012 23:21

I smell a Nobel peace prize in the works for ob1:O

Crash one 4th Nov 2012 10:01

I don't think the 90% copy flies the way the original ones did in as much as 300+ mph. Or am I wrong again?

Rod1 4th Nov 2012 17:20

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

SpitfirePerth 2nd Jul 2016 20:14


Originally Posted by Dark Star (Post 6967335)
90% Scale is the linear dimension which means the effect on volume and therefore weight will be 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 0.729 i.e. 72.9%

Similarly 80% gives 0.8 x 0.8 x 0.8 = 0.512 i.e. 51.2%

That's very good. My mk26 weighs 800kg approx. WWII mk1 was about 2000 - 3000 kg, mk24 was 7000kg!


Originally Posted by Say again s l o w l y (Post 7498257)
A thread's title bears no resemblence to what is actually contained within the thread. As anyone who's ever used a web forum will be able to explain.

Everyone knows that the Mk 26 isn't a "real" spitfire. No-one is pretending that it is.

Real or not, great question. If you think not, come with me through the hangar, close your eyes as we walk towards the mk26 spitfire. If you walk into something & it hurts, we'll call it Scotch Mist.....

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

Brad2523 7th Jul 2016 17:14

Well after all that I still prefer the hurricane.

Genghis the Engineer 10th Jul 2016 06:51

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

abgd 10th Jul 2016 11:14

Personally I'd actually prefer a mini Sea-Fury. And a subscale Vampire.

Danny42C 10th Jul 2016 14:28

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),

...the narrow track undercarriage that was always a handful...
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.

...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?...
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.

Silvaire1 10th Jul 2016 16:19


There have never been any full size Spitfire replicas AFAIK (what would you use to replace a Merlin ?)
An Allison...

https://www.eaa.org/~/media/images/n...tspit2-960.jpg

https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/ea...ear-in-oshkosh

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=1940K

India Four Two 11th Jul 2016 14:50


And a subscale Vampire.
That might be a tight squeeze!

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! ;)

Genghis the Engineer 11th Jul 2016 15:04

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

treadigraph 12th Jul 2016 07:31

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!

Danny42C 12th Jul 2016 17:14

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.

Silvaire1 13th Jul 2016 04:17

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.

India Four Two 13th Jul 2016 04:45


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.
The Goblin is 50" in diameter, so 7/8 would be 44". Surely there must be a small turbo jet that would fit?

With regards to Spitfire replicas, I saw this beautiful 7/10 scale Mk I at the Springbank airshow last year:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps2gnxcwvq.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps2fcdxpcl.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps6clbkls9.jpg

Apart from the tailwheel and the prop, if there was nothing nearby, you would be hard pressed to tell it from the real thing.


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