Happy 70th birthday........

[Rusty]

and still looking good.
Rusty

[Ferrari Spider]

Remarkably so.  A five ship flyby is happening this weekend up Southampton water to overfly the original Supermarine works at Wollaston, where RJ Mitchell and his team designed the aircraft and onward to Eastleigh, now Southampton International, where K5054, the prototype, made its first flight.

AND still more are being made airworthy, hardly seems possible!!  The latest will be a Seafire, the first to be renovated to airworthy condition.

[gibberish]

Superb 

Nice to see you back Peter.  How are you?

[Lawnmower Man]

Yep truely amazing aircraft.

[Fax]

Still the prettiest aircraft ever built, and it was as effective as it was lovely.  Good to see so many still flying, very much a symbol of British determination.
Remember Adolf Galland's famous quote when asked by Goering what he needed to win the Battle of Britain..."A staffel of Spitfires"
Fax

[Ferrari Spider]

Superb 

Nice to see you back Peter.  How are you?

I shall be posting a report and some photos, with and without hair!!!!  yes it has comeout already!!

[Ferrari Spider]

The Hurricane also needs to be remembered, they took the brunt of the fighting during the Battle of Britain, more aircraft, more kills etc.  Always overshadowed by the Spitfire.

Oh his death bed RJ Mitchell was told that the Air Ministry had selected his aircraft and would be going into production, when told of the name, he said, "they would choose a bloody silly name"

[mgmark]

AND still more are being made airworthy, hardly seems possible!!  The latest will be a Seafire, the first to be renovated to airworthy condition.

Comes from the lack of tooling for making the wing main spars (a tapered, seamless extruded tube) until a set was found lying around rusting at the back of a British Aerospace factory about 20 years ago.   That is what had limited the numbers being brought/kept airworthy for so long, as without new main spars, they all had very limited remaining fatigue lifespans (which was why a lot of the Spitfire displays until then were straight flybys, wide turns etc)   At that point, the RAF flogged off all the Spitfire gate guardians it still had at the time (because they became worth something to restorers!) other languishing in scrapyards were resurrected etc etc.   Since then, from the late 80's onwards when new main spars became available, the numbers in airworthy condition and capable of putting up, shall we say, a "spirited" display has soared.   There might be a bit of the "George Washington axe syndrome", but with the sight and sound of a Spitfire on full noise outweighs loss of originality.   Long may they continue.   Best I can recall was the nine-ship put up at Abingdon in 1984, that flew over with the middle one in the formation pulling up in a "missing man" tributr to Bader.

MG Mark

[Ferrari Spider]

AND still more are being made airworthy, hardly seems possible!!  The latest will be a Seafire, the first to be renovated to airworthy condition.

Comes from the lack of tooling for making the wing main spars (a tapered, seamless extruded tube) until a set was found lying around rusting at the back of a British Aerospace factory about 20 years ago.   That is what had limited the numbers being brought/kept airworthy for so long, as without new main spars, they all had very limited remaining fatigue lifespans (which was why a lot of the Spitfire displays until then were straight flybys, wide turns etc)   At that point, the RAF flogged off all the Spitfire gate guardians it still had at the time (because they became worth something to restorers!) other languishing in scrapyards were resurrected etc etc.   Since then, from the late 80's onwards when new main spars became available, the numbers in airworthy condition and capable of putting up, shall we say, a "spirited" display has soared.   There might be a bit of the "George Washington axe syndrome", but with the sight and sound of a Spitfire on full noise outweighs loss of originality.   Long may they continue.   Best I can recall was the nine-ship put up at Abingdon in 1984, that flew over with the middle one in the formation pulling up in a "missing man" tributr to Bader.

MG Mark

very true, spars and other parts, over the last twenty years many small businesses have begun re-making spares.  I remeber being part of a team rebuilding an airworthy  Mk XIV, very moving working on it.

[Snoring Rhino]

The sight and sound of a Spitfire on full chat has to be the embodyment of British Spirit, its just great that they keep them flying.

[Fax]

There was an interesting program on the Discovery Wings channel over here several years ago regarding the restoration of Spits and the work involved was pretty staggering. Re-jigging them, replacing all the wing spars and rivets with new aviation standard materials, replacing instrumentation, etc.  They pointed out that one of the problems with keeping them flying is the simple fact that as a combat aircraft, they only had a life expectancy of a couple of month's at the most and they weren't built with materials that would hold up well over long periods of time.
Fax

[Chris24]

Still the prettiest aircraft ever built,

True, but lets not forget the hunter in the beauty stakes.

[Ferrari Spider]

ASSUMING THAT THIS THREAD HAS NOW BE OFFICIALLY HIJACKED.  I'M STICKING MY NECK OUT HERE AND NOMINATING THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AIRCRAFT EVER.

[Fax]

I'm a Yank and biased toward our bomber crew's best friend.
Fax

[Ferrari Spider]

I'm a Yank and biased toward our bomber crew's best friend.
Fax

AGREED FAX, BUT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL?  FOR THE USA, HOW ABOUT THE P38 LIGHTNING? OR P61 BLACK WIDOW?