Guy Martin helps restore a Spitfire -ch4 12Oct

[Mr_B]

Enjoyable show, but kinda wish it had been about what it takes to effectively make a complete Spitfire from scratch. Shame they didn't have him helping rebuild the engine and skipping to a complete fuselage having already arrived in the workshop. Still, I'm glad they still make interesting shows and not the usual Big Brother type stuff C4 sometimes goes for.

[PurpleTurtle]

Eric Mc said:

It's a single seater.

Doh, of course .. Monday morning blinkers on!

[FWDRacer]

I love Guy Martin's wide eyed enthusiasm. Bottle it and feed the kids that show any form of practical apptitude.

Enjoyed the programme. Someone mention OCD at Duxford? Never...

[aeropilot]

CAPP0 said:

Simpo Two said:

A nice programme. But I have three questions.



3) Who paid for the work?

I'm sure they mentioned VERY briefly that the owner wished to remain anonymous?

See my post above, it's hardly a secret who the owners are within vintage avaition circles, and specialist press such as Flypast, Aeroplane Monthy etc.etc.

But, that's a different situation to being plastered all over national TV, so was probably a request for TV purposes only.

[xuy]

Fascinating program

What staggered me was two figures mentioned:-

Fuel for an hour

and, 14 seconds worth of ammunition

[wolfracesonic]

As stated earlier it seems Spitfires were and could be fitted with .50 Brownings, but just to get your heads scratching, did they have a higher rate of fire than ground based versions, the rush of cold air preventing the barrels overheating? Seem to have read/watched some where that the defensive .50's in the American bombers did just this.

[Simpo Two]

xuy said:

Fuel for an hour

He said one gallon a minute, which is impressive. But not sure if that was peak or overall consumption. A battle climb would use more than cruise for example.

[ecsrobin]

Simpo Two said:

ecsrobin said:

There's another nice example of a mk1 that they have created on the underside half is painted black half is painted white. Up close you can tell the difference between a genuine example and a recreation as it is just so perfect.

That was also the colour scheme of last night's example, seen as it banked away at the end.

aeropilot said:

answers

Thanks very much.

I also wondered about the tolerances. Machining a bolt to a ten-thousandth of an inch is very impressive but were production aeroplanes made that well? I seem to recall Alex Henshaw alluding to the fact they were all slightly different ex-factory and some had to go back for refettling - so no doubt the pressure of war blunted perfection a little.

Wow how did I miss that, it's a cracking colour scheme.

[ecs]

Simpo Two said:

xuy said:

Fuel for an hour

He said one gallon a minute, which is impressive. But not sure if that was peak or overall consumption. A battle climb would use more than cruise for example.

Think I read a while back they did 70 gallons an hour in the cruise!

[Eric Mc]

Early in the war they were worried that anti-aircraft guns might fire on our own aircraft - so it was decided to paint the undersides in this black/white arrangement. By the time of the Battle of Britain (June 1940 onwards), the undersides were being painted a pale blue (known officially as "Sky").

Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 13th October 13:58

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

By the time of the Battle of Britain (June 1940 onwards), the undersides were being painted a pale blue (known officially as "Sky").

Sky Type S isn't pale blue at all.

[Eric Mc]

True.

It's been called all sorts of things - "Duck Egg Blue", "Duck Egg Green", "Sky" or "Sky Type S".

When the first Mustang Is were delivered to the RAF they were painted in the standard RAF colours of the day - but in the American equivalents. Because they didn't have a colour like "Sky" in California, North American Aviation painted the undersides a Pale Blue - because they were told "Sky" was a light blue colour.

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

True.

It's been called all sorts of things - "Duck Egg Blue", "Duck Egg Green", "Sky" or "Sky Type S".

When the first Mustang Is were delivered to the RAF they were painted in the standard RAF colours of the day - but in the American equivalents. Because they didn't have a colour like "Sky" in California, North American Aviation painted the undersides a Pale Blue - because they were told "Sky" was a light blue colour.

Sky and Duck Egg Blue are different AM colours.

There is also a Sky Blue which is again a different colour shade.

Septics don't speak English and are easily confused about such things

They call a handbag a purse, and a fanny has an entirely different meaning to ours altogether

Edited by aeropilot on Monday 13th October 15:45

[jamieduff1981]

aeropilot said:

Eric Mc said:

True.

It's been called all sorts of things - "Duck Egg Blue", "Duck Egg Green", "Sky" or "Sky Type S".

When the first Mustang Is were delivered to the RAF they were painted in the standard RAF colours of the day - but in the American equivalents. Because they didn't have a colour like "Sky" in California, North American Aviation painted the undersides a Pale Blue - because they were told "Sky" was a light blue colour.

Sky and Duck Egg Blue are different AM colours.

There is also a Sky Blue which is again a different colour shade.

Septics don't speak Emglish and are easily confused about such things

They call a handbag a purse, and a fanny has an entirely different meaning to ours altogether

I horrified a young lady by asking her if I could stick something in her bucket...

[Eric Mc]

The Americans referred to these colours as the DuPont Shades as they were manufactures of the paints they used.
Colour photos of these early British Mustangs are fairly rare and it's not always possible to see what the colours actually are. Reports at the time definitely say that they weren't the same as the actual British shades.

[dr_gn]

Simpo Two said:

Machining a bolt to a ten-thousandth of an inch is very impressive...

Not really. It's about 0,25mm which is absolutely huge in machining terms, plus it was ground, not machined, and you can get tolerances in millionths of an inch for that process.

[dr_gn]

ecsrobin said:

Simpo Two said:

ecsrobin said:

There's another nice example of a mk1 that they have created on the underside half is painted black half is painted white. Up close you can tell the difference between a genuine example and a recreation as it is just so perfect.

That was also the colour scheme of last night's example, seen as it banked away at the end.

aeropilot said:

answers

Thanks very much.

I also wondered about the tolerances. Machining a bolt to a ten-thousandth of an inch is very impressive but were production aeroplanes made that well? I seem to recall Alex Henshaw alluding to the fact they were all slightly different ex-factory and some had to go back for refettling - so no doubt the pressure of war blunted perfection a little.

Wow how did I miss that, it's a cracking colour scheme.

It's actually black, white and silver. There were several iterations of the high contrast undersides on early Spitfires and Hurricanes, said to have arisen from confusion in instructions given to the manufacturers by the Air Ministry.

[Eric Mc]

It was used on some other aircraft too - like the Whirlwind and Blenheim fighters.

[grumpy52]

I have watched lots of Guy Martin's programmes and thats the first one I have seen with him with watery eyes and a catch in his voice ,
That hour and a half went oh so quickly, he also mentioned he owns a merlin engine which is being mounted up to go in his house .

[Simpo Two]

dr_gn said:

Not really. It's about 0,25mm which is absolutely huge in machining terms, plus it was ground, not machined, and you can get tolerances in millionths of an inch for that process.

Are you sure that 0.0001" is 0.25mm? If his micrometer was in inches then the fourth decimal place was used. It was one ten-thousandths of an inch, not one thousandths of an inch.