The spitfire made its maiden flight 70 yrs ago today

[dibbs]

Brilliant.. I love the sound of that engine makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time I hear one go past (thumbs) (thumbs) (thumbs)

[daytona-supersport]

The pilot for this was Ray Hanna. Used to be base at Booker Airfield near to High Wycombe. On one occasion I saw him and a Buddy flying another WW2 aircraft having a play dog fight and beating up the airfield. I think the other aircraft was a Bearcat.
A Harvard also used to come by once in a while.

An interesting Fact.
During the war experiments were carried out to produce a spitfire fuselage from composite materials to overcome the shortage of Bauxite ore, (aluminium). This work was carried out by Ciba Geigy, producers of epoxy resins. From memory I recall, the resin used was a Phenolic resin, (used as a basis for Bakelite), and the reinforcement was dried flax fibres. Years ago I sold the copy of the related documentation to a chap that was writing a book about the development of the Spitfire. The fuselage was successfully produced but I have no idea whether or not it was ever used for flight testing.

[Desmo]

Hi Moto Al

Now that is a work of art.

Desmo

[sprintster]

Guy Martin's Spitfire is repeated tonight on More4 at 8pm. (thumbs)

[threepot]

Probably the greatest Spit pilot ever? This guy 'barrel rolled' a Lancaster!!

[Pint Master]

Don't worry Al. It was a pile of shite anyway,and the German stuff was 'far' superior!! :whistle:

On paper but thankfully the Spitfire was blessed by a special magic apparent to anyone who sees or touch one.

[moto al]

Ok chaps ,I made a mistake re dates .big deal . My uncle TONY, flew spitfires ,also hurricanes . Tony was a pilot in the fleet airam ,Flying planes from an aircraft carrier .just invented . In my book Heroes. Al (thumbs)

[Hacknslash]

Hi

It was great sat on the sea wall today watching the Spitfire fly along the solent to celebrate the 80th anniversary.

Best Regards
Ian

[Mawnanian]

Don't worry Al. It was a pile of shite anyway,and the German stuff was 'far' superior!! :whistle:

On paper but thankfully the Spitfire was blessed by a special magic apparent to anyone who sees or touch one.

Indeed. "The German planes were faster with a better rate of climb, ours were more manoeuvrable and better armed"
Not my words, Winston Churchill in his memoirs of WW2 (thumbs)

[threepot]

Don't worry Al. It was a pile of shite anyway,and the German stuff was 'far' superior!! :whistle:

On paper but thankfully the Spitfire was blessed by a special magic apparent to anyone who sees or touch one.

Indeed. "The German planes were faster with a better rate of climb, ours were more manoeuvrable and better armed"
Not my words, Winston Churchill in his memoirs of WW2 (thumbs)

Where did you get that info from? Early Spits were outperformed by the ME109,but that changed with the Mk5. The FW190 was superior to both,until the Mk9 Spit. Then they put the Griffon engine in them...2300hp!! The Mk9 is regarded as the best fighter/interceptor during ww2(which it was originally designed as)And the German planes had superior fire power..cannons,as well as machine guns.

Read Leo McInstreys ..'Spitfire'. Brilliant read.

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