The early build Spitfire Mk I’s have a hydraulic reservoir mounted on the right fuselage wall behind the pilots seat. This features in the recent restoration of P9374.
I haven’t been able to find much information on this, other than a photo in Andy Saunders wonderful book on the restoration of P9374.
Does anyone have good photos of this in P9374, or know of a good source where I can find detail of the mounting and plumbing for this reservoir?
TIA
Peter Roberts
By: Pete Roberts - 21st December 2017 at 19:07
Thank you everyone for your help and information. Very much appreciated, and very interesting.
Never ceases to amaze me the number of changes a plane went through within Mark. Then there are modifications and updates later in operational life!
PR
By: CeBro - 21st December 2017 at 08:08
And why re-inventing the wheel. The Halifax has Hampden parts (control column and full rudder pedal assembly) and the Westland Whirlwind fighter has Lysander rudder pedals.
Cheers
Cees
By: R6915 - 20th December 2017 at 12:49
I was able to talk to a number of the old Supermariner’s association about twenty five years ago and one of the topics that caused several of them some amusement was this one. It seems the design office was under a lot of pressure in late 1935 and only easy fix was to use as much of the system from the Walrus production line as they could. Just like adapting the rudder pedals as well some one added!
By: Bradburger - 19th December 2017 at 23:33
I meant to say, you’ll find some great detailed pictures of the Duxford based MK.Is from the forum’s resident DX photographers ‘Pen Pusher’, ‘DCW’ (David Whitworth), and ‘Duxman’, linked in the Duxford yearly threads.
Cheers
Paul
By: Bradburger - 19th December 2017 at 23:14
Pete,
No problem – glad they were of use!
As Rocketeer points out, the team restoring it got as much info as they could from various sources in this no expense spared project.
As you can see, the results were worth it!
(Btw, Roobarb who posts regularly on this forum might be able to steer you in the right direction, being an employee at ARC).
Oh, I just remembered, there was a thread on here a while back on the subject which might be of use: –
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?133624-Spitfire-MkI-unknown-device
Cheers
Paul
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By: Rocketeer - 19th December 2017 at 22:26
The team conducted a huge amount of research and info came from lots of places including aircraft archaeology
By: Pete Roberts - 19th December 2017 at 21:47
Brilliant photos Paul, thank you for sharing. Another piece in the puzzle. I hadn’t noticed that wire from the crash bar before – part of the harness system by the look of it (?)
Yes, unfortunately not much in the way of schematics around for this installation. I wonder what the team referred to with their restoration (?). I will try to contact them for any info.
How fortunate were you to get so close to this marvelous plane! Well done sir, I envy you.
Thanks again,
PR
By: Bradburger - 19th December 2017 at 21:20
Pete,
I took a few external close up pictures of the hydraulic tank on P9374 a couple of years ago at DX that might be of use: –
There are some schematic drawings for the hand pump hydraulic system in the MK.I A.P., but as I recall, no pictures of the actual tank/mounting/plumbing.
Maybe ARC/HFL could be of assistance in obtaining the information you need!
Cheers
Paul
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December 19, 2017 at 7:55 pm