Inside the Spitfire factory

[Eric Mc]

BBC South Today had a feature on the Typhoon project last night. It should be available on the iPlayer for a while.

[LotusOmega375D]

Are there any Tempests flying? I remember seeing this Tempest II at the Indian Air Force museum. These had Bristol Centaurus radials.

[Dr Jekyll]

LotusOmega375D said:

Are there any Tempests flying? I remember seeing this Tempest II at the Indian Air Force museum. These had Bristol Centaurus radials.

None flying, even with the Centaurus.

[Yertis]

LotusOmega375D said:

Are there any Tempests flying? I remember seeing this Tempest II at the Indian Air Force museum. These had Bristol Centaurus radials.

Dear Indian Air Force,

Put some air in the tyres, or jack it, please?

[LotusOmega375D]

Haha. I think they must also have found a job lot of silver paint. Seems like most of the aircraft on display have been brush painted with it. They had even painted over the cockpit of the Liberator, although that was parked outside so maybe trying to keep the sunlight out.

[aeropilot]

Dr Jekyll said:

LotusOmega375D said:

Are there any Tempests flying? I remember seeing this Tempest II at the Indian Air Force museum. These had Bristol Centaurus radials.

None flying, even with the Centaurus.

Shouldn't be long though before there will be a Tempest II flying.

Tempest II MW763, being restored by Air Leasing at Sywell, was due to fly this year, but Covid has put the brakes on it a little, but should fly next year. It will have a Centaurus.

Also Tempest II MW376 being restored in Canada is also very close to flying either this year or most likely now for same reason, early next year. This one will like many Sea Fury's will have a R2800 engine conversion.

[dr_gn]

aeropilot said:

Dr Jekyll said:

LotusOmega375D said:

Are there any Tempests flying? I remember seeing this Tempest II at the Indian Air Force museum. These had Bristol Centaurus radials.

None flying, even with the Centaurus.

Tempest II MW763, being restored by Air Leasing at Sywell, was due to fly this year, but Covid has put the brakes on it a little, but should fly next year. It will have a Centaurus.

Does that mean that the often cited issue with obtaining the correct lubricants for sleeve-valve engines is now sorted? If so, it at least removes one future issue for the Typhoon engine.

[aeropilot]

dr_gn said:

Does that mean that the often cited issue with obtaining the correct lubricants for sleeve-valve engines is now sorted?

I don't know, I suspect not though, and TBH intervals are just being considerably reduced, but that's just a guess, given the ever reducing numbers of Centarus in operation.

[V41LEY]

Re last night - you have to applaud the enthusiasm of the owner who looking at a motley collection of Mk.1 rusty scrap nailed to the wall said he hoped to get it back in the air in 3 years. Fair play !

[dr_gn]

V41LEY said:

Re last night - you have to applaud the enthusiasm of the owner who looking at a motley collection of Mk.1 rusty scrap nailed to the wall said he hoped to get it back in the air in 3 years. Fair play !

How much of the scrap will actually end up in the air?

[LotusOmega375D]

Probably just that little gun sight thingy. Can’t see the tail wheel inner tube being serviceable though, despite his hopes.

[dr_gn]

LotusOmega375D said:

Probably just that little gun sight thingy. Can’t see the tail wheel inner tube being serviceable though, despite his hopes.

All a bit of a joke really.

[aeropilot]

V41LEY said:

Re last night - you have to applaud the enthusiasm of the owner who looking at a motley collection of Mk.1 rusty scrap nailed to the wall said he hoped to get it back in the air in 3 years. Fair play !

All doable now with the batch of recent Mk.1's that have been rebuilt/recreated in the past decade. I think they were all done in a 3-4 year timeframe.
I assume he's already done a deal for one of the special batch of Rotol props newly made for the Mk.1's rebuilt in recent years, and has access to a rebuildable Merlin III for it.

I would prefer to see more Hurricane Mk.1's in the sky though than even more ruddy Spitfires.

I can understand the attraction of having a Biggin based BofB Spit though in the circumstances.

[Yertis]

aeropilot said:

I would prefer to see more Hurricane Mk.1's in the sky though than even more ruddy Spitfires.

I agree although I'm grateful for anything. Beaufighter and Typhoon would be nice, of course. And the Centaurus Tempest is 1,000,000% better than no Tempest. Quite excited about that actually.

[aeropilot]

Yertis said:

aeropilot said:

I would prefer to see more Hurricane Mk.1's in the sky though than even more ruddy Spitfires.

I agree although I'm grateful for anything.

True.
Especially given the current circumstances and possible permanent groundings of some aircraft. Some aircraft in the USA are heading for permanent groundings, including a well known P-47 that has been sold by its current well known flying organisation, to a museum for permanent future static display. Thats not even touching on the situation with the FHC built up by Paul Allen that has a very uncertain future.

[and31]

Very sad that the 100 year old Battle of Britain veteran died on his birthday-shame he was too ill to get his flight in the spitfire.nice to see the Battle of Britain nemerial flight hurricane at his funeral/memorial though.
Lovely to see the other old boy in the two seater spitfire though.

[williamp]

aeropilot said:

True.
Especially given the current circumstances and possible permanent groundings of some aircraft. Some aircraft in the USA are heading for permanent groundings, including a well known P-47 that has been sold by its current well known flying organisation, to a museum for permanent future static display. Thats not even touching on the situation with the FHC built up by Paul Allen that has a very uncertain future.

Genuine question: why would they be permenantly grounded? If they can be rebuilt once, why not again??

[aeropilot]

williamp said:

aeropilot said:

True.
Especially given the current circumstances and possible permanent groundings of some aircraft. Some aircraft in the USA are heading for permanent groundings, including a well known P-47 that has been sold by its current well known flying organisation, to a museum for permanent future static display. Thats not even touching on the situation with the FHC built up by Paul Allen that has a very uncertain future.

Genuine question: why would they be permenantly grounded? If they can be rebuilt once, why not again??

Nothing to do with being rebuilt, they are being bought by new owners, who have no intention of flying them, and want them as pure static museum exhibits.

[NMNeil]

Not the Spitfire itself, but the next best thing, the Merlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fo7SmNuUU4

[outnumbered]

The thing that surprised me most about the last episode was the way that the wings are attached. Somehow I thought they would be more integral with the main structure, rather than just being bolted on in a couple of places.