Happy 90th birthday to the Spitfire

Flibster

Flibster

Flibster

Man of Honour
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One of the prettiest machines ever made.

90 years ago today, K5054 took it's first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome with Mutt Summers at the stick for a flight time of 8 minutes.

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Replica K5054 at Duxford


News segment from this morning.


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There was a chap in Hampshire when i was younger who put a spitfire merlin into a car chassis. Life was simpler then (apparently at least one still survives).

But i digress a brilliant airplane which went a long way to win the second world war.
 
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Will never forgive my grandfather (that's a complete lie before anybody gets offended :p) for not buying one after the war, they only wanted 150 quid for them apparently!

Beautiful aircraft, always happy to see them when the fly over.
 
Dano said:
Will never forgive my grandfather (that's a complete lie before anybody gets offended :p) for not buying one after the war, they only wanted 150 quid for them apparently!

Beautiful aircraft, always happy to see them when the fly over.
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My wifes stepfather was flying a spitfire as a trainee pilot when breaking through the cloud came upon a german fighter. Luckily or not neither had any ammunition. He subsequently flew Lancasters in bomber command throughout the war.
 
Hagar said:
My wifes stepfather was flying a spitfire as a trainee pilot when breaking through the cloud came upon a german fighter. Luckily or not neither had any ammunition. He subsequently flew Lancasters in bomber command throughout the war.
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My Grandfather was a flight engineer on Lancasters and Liberators.
 
I don't usually read magazines but as I was leafing through the 90th birthday issue of Aeroplane (my Grandfather has an article in it) I must say felt the same as OP. It really is one of the most delightfully beautiful things man has made. So utterly majestic, one could be forgiven for forgetting it's a war machine!
 
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Absolute beast of a machine and arguably one of the finest pieces of wartime engineering ever. That, the Lancaster and the Vulcan are my all time favourite aircraft. Pure mechanical machines, and all the more glorious for it :cool:
 
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I'm hard of hearing but apparently the Spitfire has a distinctive sound as it approaches. My late step-dad was RAF but was too young for WW2 so he served during the Cold War / Falklands. He loved his Spitfires as did I and we saw a few fly-overs from our village home, one of which happened exactly on his birthday. I had a few model warplanes as a kid including Spitfire and Lancaster Bomber and my step-dad would paint them for me then hung them up in my bedroom with fishing line.
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I'm hard of hearing but apparently the Spitfire has a distinctive sound as it approaches. My late step-dad was RAF but was too young for WW2 so he served during the Cold War / Falklands. He loved his Spitfires as did I and we saw a few fly-overs from our village home, one of which happened exactly on his birthday. I had a few model warplanes as a kid including Spitfire and Lancaster Bomber and my step-dad would paint them for me then hung them up in my bedroom with fishing line.
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27 Litre V12 with straight through exhaust stubs, a unique noise indeed.
 
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