Two Seat Spitfire off airport Landing

That’s 1 less for the massive balbo from Goodwood on the 15th. Though if 818 hasn’t flown then that’s 2 off the list

I must be looking at the landing from a different angle to others. The port leading edge shows signs that it ran along the field fairly evenly. The landing appears to have been carried out with the engine still producing power. I would hypothesize that a high alpha touch down just above stalling speed was achieved. Had the port wing been slightly low then the port rear spar attachment would have received a significant loading. The subsequent run out with port wing low could have flexed the wing upwards introducing a shear force. The forward movement with the port leading edge causing drag would have introduced a reward shear force. The combined forces could have been sufficient to cause the wing to shear initially from the front spar attachment buckling the rearward wing skins as they compressed against the fuselage until rear spar attachment let go. A turning moment would have been generated by the port leading edge and radiator being in contact with the ground whilst the stbd wing would have been clear of the ground thus a rotation to port would have occurred resulting in what can be seen as an approx. 90 degree rotation to the direction of travel.

It’ll be interesting to see if a go-pro video emerges.

Has ‘818 flown yet? Can’t be too far away now.

EDIT – Beaten to it as well!

Has MT818 flown yet?

Edit – you beat me to it Mark!

MT818…not quite, but imminent I gather.

Mark

A shame, but all in all, a good outcome.

For a brief period last weekend we had, what, 7 airworthy 2 seaters in the UK

PT462
ML407
MJ627
PV202
SM520

MT818
MJ772

No, it looks more as though the trailing edge dug in and the rear spar attach failed. The wing certainly appears to have failed from this direction, as the rear fillet is still in place on the fuselage.

I’m sure we’d see more damage if it failed from the front. Those Spitfire leading edges are very fragile and easily damaged, even by a set of cricket stumps! 😉

Maybe an inherent weakness from previous wheels-ups; I doubt the radiator would have pulled the wing off, there isn’t very much holding them in, in first place.

It does rather look as though it was ripped off from the rear, possibly as the aircraft was spun around on the ground and slid backwards?

I think it slewed round Starbord wing first and maybe the radiator dug in and ripped the wing off, looks like a witness mark in the soil

[ATTACH=CONFIG]240362[/ATTACH]

From the initial images, of the starboard side, this looked like a couple of months work if the facility and the parts were available.

I was surprised by the later images from the port side. History tells us that this looks more like two years work.

I am intrigued as to what took the port wing off so cleanly, with the leading edge looking clear of impact damage and remaining close to the fuselage at the resting point.

The port wing tip is intact but the spar booms appear to have sheared. Hard to image that the rad boat dug in, assuming the u/c was up.

Short of an airfield, a cut crop field (or a cricket pitch), I would have thought offered the best chance of minimal damage. We will see.

Mark

Its more than likely that a spell in the jig will find more wrong than is expected. From recall this aircraft has never had a full rebuild .

Thanks Bruce.
Its much more substantial damage than the previous time ‘772 bit the dust. Even then the damage looked relatively superficial until closer inspection. I don’t recall how long the repairs took but it was circa 9-12months. That’s said Max Alpha were very busy with consecutive projects.

Lets hope a relatively speedy rebuild is possible.

Tim,

In truth, not many of course. Historic Flying, and BHHH with the help of Airframe Assemblies. PPS likewise. Edit, I missed Richard Grace’s team at Bentwaters. Ian Warren could handle the wing.

Oddly, there are more jigs around than there are companies to use them. I haven’t seen the ripped off wing either, but you are right to point out that the trainer wing is subtly different to a standard wing.

The fuselage should go in a jig, owing to the likely damage to Frame 5. I would make a reasonable assumption that F5 will need removal and full rebuild. Probably a belly skin as well.

The wing might need a relatively simple repair, or a complete tear down. I stand by my assertion that it could be done inside eight months with the right team, the right funding, and the will to do it. It won’t be – no doubt of that..

Bruce

I didn’t say it would happen – I said it was possible.

It could be done even quicker, if, say, Airframe Assemblies had a recently built Frame 5 to hand, and a wing could be diverted from another project. The ‘will’ to do it is everything. An engine and prop within that timescale shouldn’t be an issue.

Pulsar – why would you get the Meier guys to (re)build a Spitfire wing? Far more cost effective to get it done on the Isle of Wight..

Bruce – how many companies in Europe are capable of doing the rebuild and who are they? Who’s most likely to have a spare jig or spare frame 5 or even a Mk IXT wing? Genuine question

Looking at the photos of ‘772 would the fuselage need to go into a jig to check it’s still in alignment. I’ve not seen any photos showing the port wing but I guess 12 months in a jig for strip down and fit replacement skins and spar as required.

“I’d also add LF363 to keefy’s list, that had an incident a few weeks back where it divested itself of most of its oil and the situation was brought swiftly under control and LF is back on duty again.”

I believe this was a fatigue crack in a constant speed oil pipe, which apparently grounded the Merlin engined fleet, until new pipes (together with the correct brackets, were fitted) unfortunate timing with the Lanc out, and also the Dak and the mk19 but that did leave them with one chipmunk, so not a complete disaster…..

I didn’t say it would happen – I said it was possible.

It could be done even quicker, if, say, Airframe Assemblies had a recently built Frame 5 to hand, and a wing could be diverted from another project. The ‘will’ to do it is everything. An engine and prop within that timescale shouldn’t be an issue.

Pulsar – why would you get the Meier guys to (re)build a Spitfire wing? Far more cost effective to get it done on the Isle of Wight..

As you can see there was a Smily at the end of my post. Every plane which is, or was owned by Mr. Schülke, went through their hands.(At least once!)

I guess it depends on what the insurance people say and whether ownership changes hands or not .

I didn’t say it would happen – I said it was possible.

It could be done even quicker, if, say, Airframe Assemblies had a recently built Frame 5 to hand, and a wing could be diverted from another project. The ‘will’ to do it is everything. An engine and prop within that timescale shouldn’t be an issue.

Pulsar – why would you get the Meier guys to (re)build a Spitfire wing? Far more cost effective to get it done on the Isle of Wight..