Spitfire Circumnavigation
 

A trip of a life time. Wonder if TCT is providing advice and guidance?

https://www.silverspitfire.com/

At least the chosen aircraft is a single seater, "for the avoidance of doubt".

Around the world, well, around the Northern Hemisphere anyway.

CC

A trip of a life time. Wonder if TCT is providing advice and guidance? :ok:

The accepted rules for "around the world" say that you must cross the equator.

No need to cross the equator, the FAI rules - Aviation records take account of the wind circulation patterns of the world; in particular the jet streams, which circulate in the northern and southern hemispheres without crossing the equator. There is therefore no requirement to cross the equator, or to pass through two antipodal points, in the course of setting a round-the-world aviation record. For powered aviation, the course of a round-the-world record must start and finish at the same point and cross all meridians; the course must be at least 36,770 kilometres (22,850 mi) long (which is approximately the length of the Tropic of Cancer). The course must include set control points at latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic circles.

Why risk the loss of a rare and valuable antique for a publicity stunt.Yes I know the aeroplane doesn't know it's over the ocean or Greenland.....but Merlin's can self destruct.

Hmm - I assumed the same rules as for the yotties.

What an adventure! That's going to be expensive...

Chris Hadfield has also just been "checked out" on the Vintage Wings Spitfire.

Look forward to following this adventure and the best of luck to the team.

It's the hourly cost of a Spitfire plus the very large amounts of expensive AvGas it'll need that I was thinking of, as well as support aircraft and team. Well over half a million I'm guessing. That might be cheap to some but, to someone like me who pays for my own flying, that's pretty expensive!

Hardly a unique artifact. How much of the airframe will be original? Risk a reproduction Spitfire, why not?

It's actually a fairly original Spitfire having gone to the Dutch AF after WWII, then used as a decoy, a museum at Delfzijl, and after restoration from a somewhat derelict state it joined the Aviodome museum. It's been in storage at Duxford for about 10 years after being acquired by Historic Flying.

treadi...............

See what you have written. I was unaware of its history. So not exactly a "data plate" creation.
However the world is not short of airworthy Spitfires. If the owners want to risk it, let them.
As it is worth circa £ 2.50 million, suspect they take care of their "toy"...!!!

Not a dataplate restoration at all, almost entirely original I'd think. I totally agree, I think it's a fantastic undertaking.

European warbirds cross the Channel regularly and as Tay Cough points out, Berlin Express crossed the Atlantic safely last year, as did Miss Velma a few years earlier and Stephen Grey's P-51D back in 1980. In 1977 Tony Ostermeyer and a friend flew a P-51D both ways for a European holiday.

Both flights were/are regarded as a "challenge". Why do folk climb mountains?? Because they are there....!!