Aircraft General Discussion

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

This link is for an Australian builder of 90% size spitfires fitted with a Honda V6 or a GM V8

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9361764/A-new-generation-of-Spitfires-takes-to-the-air.html

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

"There is/was a full size replica of a Spitfire (Viking Spitfire) in England somewhere, powered by a Jaguar engine, modified to about 7Litres, it was a wooden framed aircraft, and around half the weight of the real thing, it seems to have quite a good performance".

Ian – that was at RAF Hullavington, in Wiltshire. I ran an RAF MAA gliding w/e there, back in the '80s, and it was still under construction. It most certainly looked the part and, with nothing close to scale it, easy to see it as full size – it was, however 2/3 scale (as I recall). There may have been another, as you describe, but I haven't any knowledge of same.

rgds

Bill

[Adrian GilesParticipant @adriangiles39248]

Ian & Bill,

Viking Spitfire was built in 1984 with Jag V12 up front, but was damaged in 97 in a landing accident at Keevil airfield in Wiltshire, and was withdrawn from use permanently in 2000. Built of wood, full size but of lighter weight therefore needing less power, was registered ‘G-BRDV’

Another more common machine around that time was the Isaacs Spitfire, a scale home built with a flat four up front, but I don’t think there are any of them still flying. Mr Isaacs started off with a scale Hawker Fury.

Cheers,

Adrian

[Anonymous]

Posted by Adrian Giles on 01/11/2017 19:57:30:

Another more common machine around that time was the Isaacs Spitfire, a scale home built with a flat four up front, but I don’t think there are any of them still flying. Mr Isaacs started off with a scale Hawker Fury.

Oddly enough there's an Issacs Spitfire for sale in this months LAA magazine. No price given nor does it say if the aircraft has flown. Engine is a Walter Minor (inverted inline 4), so a more realistic outline.

It's been a nice day here; there's been a Tiger Moth flying over and a Harvard doing somewhat untidy aerobatics.

Andrew

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

Ooh,er: the Airlander is having more problems. It broke free from its mooring this morning & ended up, deflated, in the adjacent field.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Ooops. Is that some sort of safety mechanism to prevent it disappearing? I wonder how much it costs to refill it with Helium each time…..

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

That looks expensive, especially if they have to buy helium a balloon at a time from the local post office…

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

I've just answered my own question. Seems I was right.

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

You would have thought they could afford enough rope to tie it down by now.

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

Easier to tie down in it's present state.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

"The company that owns the airlander said it was not flying at the time"

Is that a euphemism for "it was crashing into the ground"?

Neil

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Regarding the Fletchers that I an mentioned a few posts back, I recently picked up some airfoil shaped pieces of aluminium from the scrappyt in Hamilton. He is a helpful chap and will sell useful pieces of stock at good prices, much cheaper than new. Anyway these are 1 inch thick 6061, quite big pieces and not very many holes, so very useful. I passed some on to Dean who makes the model aeroplane engines, so some of it might take to the air yet. I think they have been jigs of some sort, they are too thick to be actual ribs.

John

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

It is not clear to me how the Airlander managed to break free from its mooring mast. It was nearly a dead-calm this morning when the crash (is that the correct word?) happened. I hope that it is insured against attempted escape. The last airship (the Gooyear blimp, I think) that escaped from RAF Cardington ended up in the nearby village of Cotton End. Imagine finding that in your garden. And the gardens of a few neighbours.

Dave

[Anonymous]

Posted by DrDave on 18/11/2017 16:56:09:

Ooh,er: the Airlander is having more problems. It broke free from its mooring this morning & ended up, deflated, in the adjacent field.

That's rather sad. The incident headlined on Look East this evening. It seems to be rather a mess – going to take a bit more than sticky tape to do the repairs. Given it was dead calm this morning I wonder if there was some finger trouble involved?

Edit: It's a moot point as to whether flight was involved, in a legal sense, and thus whether the AAIB will investigate.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 18/11/2017 22:49:24

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 18/11/2017 22:47:55:

That's rather sad. The incident headlined on Look East this evening. It seems to be rather a mess – going to take a bit more than sticky tape to do the repairs. Given it was dead calm this morning I wonder if there was some finger trouble involved?

Sad indeed. It could be the death knell for the project. I hope not.

Dave

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

What really annoys me is the anti press, according to the news on About Anglia it crashed, it didn't it wasn't flying and they even announced that the local roads in the area were closed for the day but my daughter got within 100 yds of it to get some pictures for me at around 14:00 as I wasn't at home, riding on the GCR railway for their "Last Hurrah"

It came over our village on Friday afternoon heading back to Cardington airfield, lowest I've ever seen it but then it hadn't got far to go.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 19/11/2017 09:43:14

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

They said the deflation was a safety feature which was set off by the escape of the blimp. I am assuming that the re-inflation will make everything OK again apart from what appears to be some damage to the rear engines.

They certainly do not want people ( Prospective customers) to lose confidence in the design.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 19/11/2017 10:00:39

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

John, the piece of aluminium you got could be a press tool for the ribs for the FU 24, I think manufacturing may be going to China. It would be used in a press with a rubber sheet under it and pressed into that, a method used ever since metal was first used in aircraft. I imagine its 20 mm or so thick. Pacific Aero Space has been a great thing for aviation in NZ, just think– we sold the Air Trainers to the RAAF, back to where the original Victa Air Tourer started.

Ian S C

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Here is a linky to some aviation down under. Norfolk island is a bitch of a strip btw but when the wind blows and there is nowhere left to land it works out ok – usually . * Danny M *

**LINK**

Edited By Danny M2Z on 19/11/2017 11:42:02

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi Danny, the link seems related to a poster on "Wings over New Zealand", I wonder whats happened to the Beach Kingair that ended up with one of it;s round and round bits falling off. VH-LNK started life with the RNZAF as NZ-1885, it would need to be disassembled and shipped to Australia, or back to NZ.

Ian S C

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 19/11/2017 09:59:41:

They said the deflation was a safety feature which was set off by the escape of the blimp. I am assuming that the re-inflation will make everything OK again apart from what appears to be some damage to the rear engines.

They certainly do not want people ( Prospective customers) to lose confidence in the design.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 19/11/2017 10:00:39

You would hope that the safety gas purge system is at least triple redundant, you wouldn't want that to go off accidentally if you were a passenger and it was at several thousand feet!

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Stoke on Trent’s Spitfire is to be restored!

The gallery where it is currently located will be closed while the plane is dismantled then taken to be restored elsewhere.

On its return to Stoke in 2019 there will be a new glass fronted extension to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery ready to display the Spitfire.

Read about it here:-

**LINK**

Edited By V8Eng on 15/01/2018 20:19:29

[Ian AbbottParticipant @ianabbott31222]

I take it that this isn't going to be a flying restoration. I've always thought that they look sad, stuffed and mounted, so to speak.

Mind you, the cost difference between flying and non-flying would probably be eye watering.

Ian

[vintagengineerParticipant @vintagengineer]

Well £6 million is more than enought get it flying again!

[Ian AbbottParticipant @ianabbott31222]

Did anyone see mention of flying in in any of the blurb ? We're bit out of the way here so information is scarce. Is six million what they have for the restoration, or that's what the expected cost will be?

Something that I noticed in various publications, with aircraft that have been gate guardians and the like, is the replacement with a 1:1 Airfix and the original taken away to be restored to flying. Particularly Hurricanes I thought.

Ian

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