Anyone fancy a Spitfire?

when younger i watched as rolls royce financed a dig in my area for spitfires and watch then dig one out :cool: was on news . what was odd it was in a very open busy place and only just under surface quite surprised it had been there for so many years
 
King Damager said:
I wonder if we could put a Merlin engine in a car... Imagine the noise :D

kd
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They had one on Top Gear last year. Although it was not a true Aircraft Merlin as it did not have a supercharger fitted, so technically it was a Meteor engine that was used on late war British tanks.
 
mejinks said:
Thats true. Some had Merlin engines.... :D

I saw a program on tv a few weeks ago that went into detail about it.
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Except the first few early production examples, that a had woeful American built Allison engine, they all had a Merlin in a way. A few of the early improved models had Rolls Royce built Merlins, and the rest had a Packard built licenced copy of the Merlin built in the US.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
I think it was Goering who said the Lanc was the best heavy night bomber there was. He was equally envious of the Mosquito too I think.
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Any German that got a confirmed Mosquito kill was actually awarded 2 kills on their record because the German high command saw them as a massive threat. They were a pretty amazing aircraft, given they were mostly wood.

Lets not forget the Hurricane either guys, there were more of those flying during BoB than Spitfires. Older design and ultimately not as fast, many pilots said they were a better gun platform as it was more sturdy. They were fabric covered rather than metal like the spitfire and could often take more hits because bullets/shells often passed straight through the airframe whereas they usually created more of a mess on a spit. Tangmere museum have a crashed frontal section of a Hurricane which is really interesting to look at:
http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ar0910-1.jpg


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The Lancaster originally started life as a medium bomber called the Manchester, it was twin engined, using another Rolls Royce engine called a Vulture. The Vulture engine was powerful but unreliable and the plane did not perform very well. Roy Chadwick took the basic design and added (IIRC) 16 feet to each wing and replaced the Vultures with four Merlin engines. The new aircraft became the Lancaster and met the spec for a heavy bomber that the government had requested. The Germans didn't have anything like it and even the yanks were amazed - the B17 could only carry 4500lbs of bombs on a long range mission, the Lancaster could carry as much as 14000lb. Upon seeing a Lancaster close up for the first time one US Airman commented "Its a god damm flying bomb bay".
There are only 2 flying Lancasters in the world - one is in Canada and the other is PA474, which is part of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight.
There is, however another Lancaster in running condition up in Lincolnshire. It is owned by two brothers who lost their third brother during the war. They own a genuine WW2 bomber base, kept as per 1940s spec as a memorial to their fallen brother. The Lancaster they have is named "Just Jane", not only can you visit it and step inside, but you can even go for a taxi run along the runway... There are long terms plans to have Just Jane flight worthy - but as you can imagine its very expensive! Their site is here: http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/

Apologies for more book links but this one is worth a read if you like the Lancasters. It centres around the worst job in a Lanc, that of the rear gunner or "Tail End Charlie". reading what these guys did and the conditions they did it in is almost unbelievable today. Tail End Charlies, John Nichol & Tony Rennell
 
As much as I like the Spitfire, for me it has to be the P51D Mustang which was designed and built to a British specification.
As mentioned above it used a Packard built Merlin engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys7QqNTASWk

The only thing IMO that sounds better than a Spitfire! Just listen to that supercharger!!
 
5 blade propeller means thats a Griffon engined spit IIRC.

ETA: doh, it even says so in the description if I had read it..
 
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