Contra Rotating Spit
 

When I used to go to Lavenam(Excuse the spelling) to see the Lanc NX 611 there used to be a Spitfire Mk 46?? there. What became of it.:ooh:

Seafire 47, VP441 - went to the USA and eventually restored to fly and currently based in Crystal Lake in Montana - no idea how often it flies. There is video of it on YouTube.

On a visit to Abingdon as a cadet, many years ago, there was a contra rotating Spit parked in one of the hangers. Any one know what it was or what became of it?

As far as I know, the only production contra-rotating Spitfires were the Seafire 46s and 47s. There are three survivors, VP441 as above and LA546 and 564, fuselage parts of which were rescued from a scrapyard by Peter Arnold and are both under long term restoration to fly. Can't see any association with Abingdon but VP441 was stored at RAF Hullavington in 1970.

Steve Hinton restored Spitfire XIX PS890 with a contra prop and Griffon 58 out of Shackleton which first flew in 2002 - this was sold in France a few years ago and while being non-standard, looked and sounded fantastic. Alas, owner Christophe Jacquard has returned her to a more authentic Griffon 65 and 5 blade prop now and she has just flown again following repairs after an unfortunate take off accident in France a couple of years ago.

VP441:

As lovely as that is, I have to say I prefer the sound of the standard Spitfire, nothing quite as glorious a sound as a Merlin at full chat.

When the contra rotating Spit was coming low from the direction it took off in, I noticed a similarity (acoustically) with the AN-22/TU-95, which I suppose is the trademark of contra-rotating props :-)

I'm afraid that much as I love the sound of a Merlin, the Griffon is better! ;)